Ohio Rut


Tominator

Recommended Posts

Let's get a discussion going on what you all are seeing with respect to rutting activity.

Personally, road kill is picking up. I've seen 3 or 4 new dead deer on the road in the last 3 days. A week ago I watched 2 bucks fight. Does didn't seem interested at all as the fight ensued.

I saw a decent 8 point last night, nose to the ground, looking for love.

I have yet to see any rubs or scrapes on the properties I hunt.

What are you seeing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scraping started in NE Missouri around the end of Sept. It's picked up pace a lot since then. We started moving cams to scrapes when the activity cranked up...9 of our 10 cams are on scrapes now. Been seeing lots of rubs but rubbing action started around 2 weeks ago. Maybe it's me but it seems like we're seeing less rubs this year compared to the past 3 years.

As I said in our team thread, this past Saturday afternoon's action was the best so far this year. 1st real sign of older bucks getting into the action. Saw 1 mature shooter 8 point and a 3.5 year old 10 point after does. Also, a lot of younger bucks were pushing does around me too. In all I saw 11 different bucks that afternoon. That last hour of shooting light was non-stop action. One coming from this way...then another...& another...great fun!!! The weather conditions seemed to help spur on the action. It was a cool afternoon & overcast. The following afternoon it was warm & sunny...action was very slow compared to the prior afternoon. My personal opinion about daylight rutting movement & the weather is...the rut is going to happen during daylight or dark about the same time each year for a given area. The cooler or colder it is (within the deer's preferred temp range for that area), the better the chances are for daylight action.

Drove home yesterday...saw 4 or 5 dead deer off the side of the road in NE Missouri. Another sign it's getting close. Heading back to MO Thursday morning for what I hope is ~10 days of rutting action.

During the past 3 years we've hunted in NE Missouri (depending on the weather) rutting action starts to crank up around 10/25 but really gets hot around 10/31 and stays hot for about 10 days. At some point lockdown occurs (bucks breeding does) and that seems to shut down older deer movement for ~3 days. Then it gets hot again for another week or so.

BTW...even though I live in Mississippi, I can't say what's going on here yet...I've only sat a stand in MS 2 afternoons. My bad!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

they're predicting because of the fairly early full moon (tonight) that the rut might peak a week or so earlier than it has in previous years, that being said i haven't heard of or seen an increase in road kill and i too have noticed almost not rubs or scrapes to this point in Massachusetts. With 3 young girls i'm hoping to get in the woods for a midday hunt Saturday but get out mid to late afternoon for Halloween festivities with them (daddy duty).. I also took Friday Nov. 6th and the 13th off so i'm hoping one of those will be the days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely more action right now than usual. I hunted last night seeing 6 bucks and 10 does. My neighbor shot a decent 10 nosing a doe and his son had a mature 8 tailing a doe all night. Road kills have spiked since this weekend. My scrape activity has actually dropped off. It was very hot for the last two weeks though. Seen a couple fights too along with mature deer messing with does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know it's a long lasting joke on here about Ohio deer but has anyone seen some of the recent bucks killed in Ohio this year, whether by hunter or by car? Just some monsters, I heard of one yesterday that went 303" and netted 286" or something?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Know someone from Ohio who moved here. He killed some booners in Ohio, said 130 class bucks where he hunted were skippers and were pretty common. But yeah "no big bucks in Ohio" Chris killed the last one a few years back. ;) lol

More and more scrapes popping up around here. They should be cruising. Saw a single either doe or could have been a real big button last deer i saw, deer running alone possibly kicked out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seeing some cruising. A decent 8 pt last week, a skipper 7 Saturday. Only road kill I've been seeing have been does so far, but only 2 or 3 in the last week. I agree with Rhino in that the warmer temps will keep the daytime activity low for rutting activity. Saturday my buddy got 5 pictures of cruising bucks in a 2 hour span on one of his cameras. I set up in that woods the next evening and got skunked. Saturday temps in the low 50's and lots of movement. Sunday temps in the low 70's and zero movement. I have yet to see a scrape and I've only seen 2 or 3 rubs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still not seen any rubs here, but man oh man are the scrapes popping up. Probably a lot of them are from younger bucks, but with them cruising hopefully some of the big boys will get on their feet and move around this weekend. Got an area that is tore up, 3 scrapes in less than 5 yards all in eyeshot of the stand I hope to hunt this weekend for the muzzleloader opener. Also agree with what Al said about warm weather stalling out daytime movement even during the rut. Supposed to be a cold front come in this weekend, timing could be real good. That said, heard minimal shots here this weekend for our youth hunt, was a little on the warm side. Little 5 pt we watched tried to rake his antlers on an oak limb but could not reach.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trail cam on scrape line I helped along with some active scrape saw 6 different bucks in 45 minutes on the night of the 28th/29th(full moon), with 4 of them passing by working scrapes on that line within about 2 minutes of each other. Getting pics of a few busted or half racks. Did see a new rub behind the stand I plan to hunt this weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been trying to hunt this heat wave in MO. Weather was nice Thursday afternoon (when I arrived) & Friday. Friday afternoon was one of the most entertaining hunts I've ever had not to get a big one close enough. Got on stand 5 hours before dark hunting a stand ~50 yards inside the timber from a cut bean field. Saw the 1st deer 10 minutes after getting on stand and never had more than ~20 minutes pass without seeing deer. Saw 8 bucks chasing does...including a shooter class 9 point with a big mule deer kicker...never inside 75 yards though. About 20 minutes before dark the 9 point followed a doe into the cut beans behind me to my left. Then a big 10 point walked the edge of the field heading toward them...ears laid back...hair all bristled up. Thought I was going to see a fight. The big 10 backed off from the bigger body, heavy mass 9 point and left. Monday morning I moved that stand ~50 yards to get it in better position where most of the action was going on.

Weather warmed up Saturday with lows in the 50's and highs in the low 70's. Since then rutting activity has been spotty and deer movement has dropped off a lot. Saw a glimpse of what appeared to be a mature buck yesterday afternoon. He was grunting & growling chasing a doe ~100 yards from me back in the timber. They went the wrong way. Other than that, seeing a few young bucks, does & fawns. Weather turns for the better Friday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got home from MO last night. 6 days of warm to hot weather during what I believe was the peak rutting period sure slowed down daylight movement. While it was warm, movement was early & late in the day. The last 2 days in MO (Friday & Saturday) it cooled off. I spent a lot of time in the stand the last 2 days but mainly saw a few young bucks, a few does, and lots of fawns. I believe the bucks in NE Missouri went into the breeding phase (lockdown) shortly before the weather cooled down. Should be good hunting again real soon if the weather cooperates. I plan to be back in a stand in MO Friday afternoon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.