Here in South Arkansas our rut is " supposed " to take place in early November. But the other day I got a call to pull a buddy on my lease out of a mud hole ( he was collecting his feeders and such due to recent thefts of some of our gear the last week of the season ), and while we were there, he wanted to Scout a couple of areas. Well we saw a lot of old sign, but we also found a couple of fresh scrapes, and a couple of small rubs. We also found a big rub that was as fresh as possibly that morning. The tree was rubbed white, and still had moisture seeping from the rub. Can anyone enlighten me on the making of scrapes and rubs this late in the season?

Also, as a side note, I found and picked up a decent 6 point rack and skull along a creek not far from one of my stands, that none of the 3 of us on this lease shot. The full skeleton was laying there and the skull still had some hair around the antler bases but therest of the skeleton was picked clean. The condition of the teeth leads me to believe it was about a1 1/2 to 2 year old deer. I would love to know how long it had been there.

God bless

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We got a picture of a decent buck hitting a scrape on Dec 29 here in Ohio. I am guessing that it isn't a rutting activity anymore, but just like a dog lifting his leg on everything. These bucks just like every other deer to know who's around.

The whitetail can still breed (rut) well into ealry February (here in the midwest) provided their is a doe that comes into heat. It will not be a full out crazy run at does like it is in November.. but it does happen in January. Mostly just isolated occurences on some yearling does.

well where i have been hunting there was no rutting our scrapes our nothing until the other day. We have check these woods from front to back and not found one until we went to take our stands downa and that is all we saw. i think it is weird but i dont know. I mean now hunting season is over and i can not hunt them,now that they are rutting. it really sucks.

The rut here in the deep south runs from mid Janruary to late February. The deer here in North West Florida are just now really starting the pre rut with their rubs and scrapes.

On a side note, the temp dropped to about 40 degrees here today as a high and I have to be here working. I want to be in the woods.

Yep! Fawns usually come into heat in January. More so in Ill. than Northern Wi. due to the milder conditions.

The farther South you go, the later you will see it!