The rut is starting to kick off here. Time for some serious hunting. I'm torn for this weekend. I have some great funnels that I can sit all day in, or sit down wind of some doe bedding. I've seen some great action of bucks checking doe bedding around the 11/7-11/9. I know there's a good one in the area. However it might be little early for that. I'm leaning towards sitting in a funnel all day or an observation tree close to the bedding but still on a good entrance trail. What do you guys think. Keep in mind that peak rut is a little later here.
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What Your strategy this week end?
- Thread starter 1simplemann
- Start date
just fwiw from indiana.
saw 5 bucks and 5 does on public yesterday. the 2 8ptrs were eating and alone. the 4ptr was chasing a doe. the spike was eating and the button buck was wondering around lost as they often are.
there was 2 pairs of does and they were still content to eat and stay away from the bucks.
i think we are still a few days (maybe a week) away from full on big boy buck chasing.
hope that helps.
saw 5 bucks and 5 does on public yesterday. the 2 8ptrs were eating and alone. the 4ptr was chasing a doe. the spike was eating and the button buck was wondering around lost as they often are.
there was 2 pairs of does and they were still content to eat and stay away from the bucks.
i think we are still a few days (maybe a week) away from full on big boy buck chasing.
hope that helps.
Left work at 3 yesterday afternoon and saw a mature 10 standing on the side of the highway with a doe acted like he was gonna follow into hades if that's what it took. saw a big bodied buck hitting a field edge scrape the morning of the 31st too. Central MO area. wind and temp forecast is less than ideal for Saturday, but going to go sit on an outside fence line corner in a historically good spot with my daughter and the crossbow and see what happens
I'm still on the fence on this one. I think I'm going to try a funnel at a new spot up river. Also I have reason to believe that my main area may have been hit with EHD. It's unconfirmed though. For sure something is going on. It went from 75 head in the field every night 2 weeks ago to now 40. It's unconfirmed but a lot of other deer in the area are missing as well. 2 people I know found unexplained dead deer in their yard. If they moved there are only 2 places they can go and they are not there either. They are very visible and live right in the houses so for sure you would see them.
The full moon has got the deer staying out all night, then sleeping until 10ish, so I don't see them in the morning hunts. 
To make things worse, they don't show up in the evening, until it's well after legal hours, again, because of the full moon. They know they can wait and have the security of darkness and the light of the full moon.
I've seen more deer during the mid-day hunts or while driving down the road and seeing them standing out in the middle of a field and/or along a woods. I may switch my hunting hours to mid-day, and sleep in.
To make things worse, they don't show up in the evening, until it's well after legal hours, again, because of the full moon. They know they can wait and have the security of darkness and the light of the full moon. I've seen more deer during the mid-day hunts or while driving down the road and seeing them standing out in the middle of a field and/or along a woods. I may switch my hunting hours to mid-day, and sleep in.
I've been seeing the few we have crossing roads, etc mid-day and have been mostly drawing blanks on mornings and evening too.The full moon has got the deer staying out all night, then sleeping until 10ish, so I don't see them in the morning hunts.
I've seen more deer during the mid-day hunts or while driving down the road and seeing them standing out in the middle of a field and/or along a woods. I may switch my hunting hours to mid-day, and sleep in.
Let’s not overly complicate this. Bucks are gonna be where the does are so why hunt anything else
My strategy..... Be in the woods! I don't care if they are chasing a doe, bumped by a coyote, bumped by another hunter, or a big doe that wants to die. Heck he wants to get up and stretch his/her legs, don't over think it. I can't kill them not being in the woods.
My cameras have not stopped pinging since the cold front hit, all hours of the day.
My cameras have not stopped pinging since the cold front hit, all hours of the day.
I shot a doe last Friday and I have another management tag but I’m not sure I want my hunting in this county to end too quickly, plus the horns are starting to frequent camera sites so and I have about 8 days left to tag a bearded turkey. I’m heading up in the tree with the crossbow today for the first time, not sure how I feel about it. I’ve hunted on the ground with it twice, but I dunno how I will feel leaving Ol’ Bessie on the garage hook. I’d like to shoot a buck with my compound but I haven’t harvested anything with the crossbow yet and I’m more comfortable shooting AT a turkey with big nasty expandables and a red dot so that’s what my wife said to take. Wifey always knows best in these moments. Anyway, I’m hoping to at least see some rutting activity. Turkeys were moving as of mid-morning, so that’s my main goal.
Exactly what my cameras are showing. I see a handful of deer every morning going back to their bedding areas. Then all my cams show me deer moving around from 10-2The full moon has got the deer staying out all night, then sleeping until 10ish, so I don't see them in the morning hunts.
I've seen more deer during the mid-day hunts or while driving down the road and seeing them standing out in the middle of a field and/or along a woods. I may switch my hunting hours to mid-day, and sleep in.
Not totally true. For the most part the does are not in heat yet. Therefore the bucks are on their feet looking for does in heat. Not does in general. Scrapes and funnels are still a VERY valid strategy. That's gonna change very soon. I'll give an example. I set up on doe bedding Saturday AM mostly because I wanted to "test" a new tree to see how it hunted and fine tune it. (More on that later. )Anyway, I saw one adult doe and 3 bucks including what I think was one almost shooter. Also saw a nice buck fight from 2 single bucks that ran into each other. Both were 8 pts but one had a 1/2 rack. he was the winner! They fought for a few minutes but eventually the 1/2 rack flipped the other buck over and gored him. You would think the 1/2 rack would lose but I've actually seen this before w/ 2 big bucks. The 1/2 rack won that one too. Anyway, For the PM hunt, I set up in classic funnel plus there was added bonus of a very active scrape. I saw 6 bucks. No does. Every buck walked within 1 yard to that scrape. Only the 2 bigger bucks actually worked it. That last one was a really nice 135" 10 pt that almost got an arrow. I drew back but changed my mind. I have bigger on the wall. I have a rule that if a buck doesn't stop my heart when I 1st see him then I don't shoot. This guy was nice but not nice enough. Anyway it was all buck activity. Not a doe in sight and no chasing. Sunday was more of the same. 4 smaller bucks and 2 or 3 little ones. No does. No chasing. Just bucks on their feet looking. By this weekend they will be still looking and chasing. I will be near some sort of doe bedding for sure. All day. Both days. Nov 11 I've killed some biggn's. Nov. 13th I've killed 2 of my best. Mornings and evenings.