Peter our rut will hit around the second week of December (and will run into the third week). If you go to the MDWFP website they have a breeding simulation map and its fairly accurate.

The average 3.5 just guessing will score in the 120's to 130's. We had one killed this year that netted 147. Your hunting in an excellent place and nearly all the camps around that area are on some type of management program. Most are on a 20" beam program. The area has good soil that produces the some of the largest body weight deer in MS. Early in the season most mature bucks will probablly weigh in the 220 pounds and up. I killed an 8 point that was 3.5 years old around christmas last year that weighed 235. I believe our largest weight deer last year was 276. Thats rare but we usually kill a one or two around 250 pounds.

As far as weather I would like to see it around 30 at night and lower 50's in day. If you catch a cold front and have heavy frost stay in the stand longer,more than likely the deer will start to move around 9:00 and they will hit food plots hard in the afternoon.