When was your rut??


ccwhitey

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I was talking with several of my fellow hunters here at Western in Macomb IL, and we were trying to decide when the peak of the rut was. I know that traditional dates range from the first of Nov to the first gun season or later. We really couldn't say when it was cause none of us saw chasing at all like we normally do. So when do you guys and gals think the rut was for Il or any other state??

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I couldn't tell you. Since I tagged my buck on Oct. 12th, I didn't hunt nearly as much as I usually do.

Saw some chasing and tending of does in the first week of November. Hardly saw any road kill, or any deer from the road on my commute this year which is extremely unusual. Have to echo what Flint said, wild weather extremes played a part I think.

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same for me as I killed my buck on Nov 2nd and was basically done, but I still hunted a little during shotgun and I didn't see a single buck running a doe this season...Same for deer from the roads. I spend a great deal of time driving during the day and saw nothing this year....

I thought I was just crazy until I read this post and see other guys seeing the same thing I did....You never know this second rut might be the place this season.......

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Not sure this year? Never saw chasing this year at all. I saw young bucks running around kinda crazy during the second week of November. I had several smaller bucks come in to my grunting from mid-October and the last response to grunting I had was on Nov. 21st (made that one count:D). If I had to pick a day for the "peak" I'd say Nov. 14th for the Western bottom 1/3 of Illinois.

(About a week later than normal)

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I think it was the first couple weeks of November which is normal for around here... didn't see much action as it was warm out during that time. Right now, the deer seem to be in there late season (January) patterns already. Although, the little yearling does should be coming into heat soon as I seen some small buck dogging does last weekend during gun law.

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We usually get hit with warm weather and it screws the rut up every year. But this year we had a pretty cold Oct./Nov. and the bucks were chasing hard the last week of October into the first couple weeks of November. I've always heard that the best rut activity is around Halloween and this year I finally got to experience it. Shot a decent 8 point a day before Halloween. He was nose to the ground after a hot doe.

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