mobow

Another problem this year was the bumper acorn crop. I have never in my life seen acorns on the ground like I have this year. The deer haven't been concentrated at all. In fact, they don't even have to go far at all for a meal. Set up in a bottle neck and wait it out.

It's Dec. 4, and for the first time this season I saw a buck chasing a doe this evening.

saltflat

I am sorry to hear your seasons have not gone well. The rut in northern missouri was good while it lasted. The good part of it only lasted a few days. We got some snow up here last week and i went to check on some trails, jackpot I love the snow. I found a real nice trail so i walked in on it, I wasn't there for an hour and had a doe walk in on it but she saw me at the same time i saw her. Had another deer come in on it not 40 mins later. I had a dry spell mid day so i began to walk towards a field of corn and winter wheat jumped 4 does bedded 20 yards in the timber. All i can say is alot of the acorns are gon here either by deer or turkeys. These cold days the deer are bedding down and are close to easy food sources.

hoyt3

looking forward to it here where I live in va. I know that the does were not all bred. I see rut activity really late here. I had a really nice eight playing with two does just last wednesday.

recurver67

It's on now.I saw a few scrapes in the snow yesterday and they looked nice.They,re about 20 yds from my stand and I can't wait to get in it this afternoon.

jayuu

the rutting activity near me has been un noticable as well. im hoping the second rut pays off.

badshotbob

I wonder why so many are experiencing a lame rut this year.... I was quite surprised in my area that the rut was very low key this year. Usually I have several scrapes and rub lines in my stand area. This year I had two scrapes and only one stayed active up to peak rut. I have been seeing way less deer this year as well. The land adjacent to where I hunt is always corn but this year no corn was planted. I thought for sure this would have a positive effect on deer sighting, but that theory went out the window quick. Not sure what it is. Another week or so the deer should be calmed down a bit and hitting peak late rut. We'll see.

What are any of you using for scent/rattling? I don't rattle much in late season based on the theory that bucks are feeding more than fighting/breeding simply because the second estrus cycle isn't as intense as the first. Could be wrong though. I use the grunt call as well, but again, not as intense as in the first rut.

pjhunts

I hope the second rut is rockin this year. Don't know about my area, there are very few doe fawns to come into heat(about 90 % of the fawns I've seen this year are button bucks). The first rut here seemed to be limited to about 3 days

Bow4Buc

Did I miss the rut? HEHEHEHEHE things been slow here in S.E Wisconsin too. Although the nine day gun season is over here and reports say buck harvests were up this year i have seen little rut activity. The area I am hunting is open till
Jan. 3rd because of CWD. i'm hoping a warmer then avarage November makes December better......

Deerslayer_37

i've heard that from a lot of guys, both in wisconsin and iowa. where i was at in wisconsin, we have our population down really well and our buck to doe ratio is 1:1, so we got a ton of competition, the deer really come to the horns well, andi saw a ton of chasing and some breeding activity going on starting in late october. i myself was really surprised. i did think the rut wasnt as intense as previous years though.i know in iowa saturday morning, i had two or three does come in alone getting dogged by little bucks. i noticed that all last week in my scouting: the does were constantly with little bucks and they were being dogged by little bucks in the fields(1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year olds). i thought the 3 1/2 year olds and up were laying low in that post rut phase, but the more and more i hear of a barely discernable rut, the more and more i can't find a reason for not seeing the 3 1/2+ deer. I've never been a big believer in that second rut, i just don't think it's that big of deal, as it's usually after most state's rifle seasons and the bucks are laying low. Right now, im trying to get on a pig of a buck, but i think im gonna hold off on using scents or rattling until i see what the deer are doing. hanging cam's on the neighbor's where he's been spotted the last few mornings, and i have secured permission to go in and hunt him, so we'll see what i get on camera when i check it saturday. good luck to all you guys hunting late bow season!

Deerslayer_37

scraping and rubbing activity was nowhere near what i was last year around here, even on our farm in iowa, thats for darn sure. I would assume a few guys missed out on some good hunting when they were concentrating on fields when the deer were pounding acorns. around here, we had awesome acorns, i know it was like that all the way up and down the northern mississippi valley and throughout southern wisconsin. the deer really hit those acorns right away, and if you werent on acorns, you were seeing much. a deer will take acorns more readily than any other food.