Thats strange. I actually talked to an animal control officer who had to put down a nice 8 pt after it got stuck in a farm fence. It broke its leg, and once they tranquilized it they couldnt let it free because of it being in season. The supervisor, who is a biologist said the buck had yet to go into rut, but 2 weeks earlier I slayed a nice buck that stunk so bad I could smell it in the back of truck driving it home. I have had quite a few buddies harvest bucks towards the beginning of November that were well in rut, and at least in Hanover, it was full on from the last few days of October (bow season) until the 2nd week in November.