We are about to start heating up here. It doesn't heat up into a full on rut rampage like most of you probably experience but we will start to see some chasing. The area I am in has 4 distinct rut periods that after a few years of hunting the area I am starting to pick up on. They pipe off from mid december all the way to the end of January. If I am lucky I will be able to stay where the deer are moving. I am already starting to see a little movement out of small bucks harassing does. I know this competition is simply for fun but I do apologize for handicapping myself with this stick bow. If I kill even one deer with it this year it will be a huge success for me. I may make it out to some National Forest land for a gun hunt or two in the next couple weeks if I am lucky. I didn't make it out to hunt where my dad shot those two bucks last thanksgiving, I really wanted to but its so far away. I am not sure if they would still be rutting or not.
Where I am hunting this year is a lot of low lying area that the USFWS floods in the winter for migratory birds. We just got pounded with 4 inches this week so I am not sure how everything is looking now, or will look after the other 2 inches we suppose to get this week. A good portion of this land floods making the spots I have found scouting possible inaccessible or no longer worth the time. I found a white oak tree that was getting absolutely hammered last week but the leaves are falling and it may be done. I had other engagements and wasn't able to hunt it right then and there, despite really wanting to. It is close to several red oaks that are still dropping well too, so hopefully they will switch over and stay in the area. I will likely hunt this white oak tomorrow morning despite the rain. I wont be able to hunt any more this weekend, so I am hoping to make it happen. We still have two months of decent hunting but time is flying and i've only been able to hunt a handful of times, I have not come close to scratching this itch this year.
I hope everyone is doing well. If you still have season left I hope you get a couple deer for the freezer and the scoreboard! Go TEAM! haha