I think it depends on the area. One placeI hunt has a nice size heard, plenty of deer, and the rut is basically a bunch of your typical 12" wide 8 pts' running around harrassing does from the first chilly day in october tillend of the season. An occasional 17-18" 100inch buck will show himself here and there, but it's mostly "teenagers" on the prowl. Another spot I hunt, which is about 30 miles from that place, is a differnet ball game. Again, a decent number of deer, but the buck herd is a little different. Better genetics, some older bucks too, and the rut seems to operate differently there.Everything just seems to be calm, the boom, one day you climb a tree, and some good bucks are on the move, fighting, scraping,trailing does and running the show likeitshould be.
Some places are still out of wack as far as the ratio goes, other places are ghost towns, and some seem to be sporting a good balance. We'll never get balance statewide, but it is better in some places, but not so good in others.
ORIGINAL: Pops423
Just throwing something out here. There's been a lot of talk across this and other forums about early rut activity. I believe it is just boys being boys and like Rob said the bucks would be doing it in July if they could. But with that said, obviously, many are seeing different activities than they have normally seen in all of their years hutings.
So do you think this could be a result of a better buck/doe ratio in many areas? I know that was a big goal and it was way out of balance before all of the recent herd changes. Not trying to start a battle on what you think of AR/HR, just curious what everyone thinks a more balance B/D ratio does? and could it affect what a lot are seeing?