At my usual spot this morning a 5 am. heard deer when it was dark yet. some does bleating and a buck grunting. By 9 am I seen nothing.the rut is on in Pa. but is so hot.I was wondering where are all the deer I seen last night in the fields surrounding the place I hunt. I seen 87 last night with the spot light. Anyway right after 9 am I see a movement a buck,I big buck! He is not coming my way. He was walking slow ,he acted like his legs were 50 lbs,His mouth was open and breathing hard His head was hung low and just shuffling along. He even stumbled once. I used the can,that usually gets some reaction in rut. Well he stopped looked up and just hung his head and stumbled off. He looked terrible. He was sweating,all roughed up with a cut on his neck. quess he had a bad night. He looked like <you got to be kidding Momma when I gave him the doe in heat bleat. A rut hangover,I dont think he had that hawian disease either

Did you fix the crossbow???

What was wrong with it?

I feel like your deer today. Is it possible that your buck had just got whooped by an even bigger buck?

RackAttack, It was the scope.that beast of a x-bow beat the recticle to death.Put a new simmons on it. shooting good .10 shots ten in the center ring of the 3 d target at 20 yards.I,m ready,but the deer are not

My guess is he got a whopping from a bigger buck. I am still seeing pre-rut behavior here more responsive to buck grunts from the feedback I am getting. My buddy got an 8 point on sat he said he grunted buck rushed in and peed in his scrape. then he grunted again and he came to 15 feet. And then it was over but my observations from this tell me they are starting to get territorial, neck was not swollen and tarsal glands not that dark. Heavy chase but the game doesn' t appear to be in full swing in my area.