ORIGINAL: solocamcan
This years "Rut" has been a total dissapointment. This is the first year ever that I have not seen at least one chase. either on stand or while driving to or from hunting. I've only seen 4 bucks even acting like they wanted to "rut", and of those 4, 3 were with the same Doe.Myself, brother and Dad have done all day sits for 3 days in a row now, and have seen a total of 9 deer between the 3 of us with 1 being a buck...That is WACK for Illinois this time of year, I really am starting to believe that here in East Central IL, the bucks are already locked up with Doe's in some far away secluded area???????
I too think it is going to be a bust year as far as the rut goes. However, over the last few days I have finally started seeing some bucks consistently that are out cruising or by themselves. I checked 2 trail cameras today, and alot of the does tarsals were turning black and there were several pics of smaller bucks.
It doesn't seem nearly as intense as it has been in years past thought for some reason.