Get this; I was talking to a buddy of mine who lives next to a bunch of woods (that I have taken many deer out of) and he is asking me about grunts deer make. I told him that they grunt when they are pursuing the opposite sex among other reasons.

He has been getting home very late recently and when he is on the front porch taking off his boots, he hears them grunting and kicking up all kind of stuff. He started grunting back at them and they in response grunted back to him! He told me they almost came in the front yard but he didn’t stick around to see. He is not a hunter. So that tells me that due to temps they are pre rutting at night big time!!

Break out the infrared!!

Yup that is not unusual when the weather is warm. Deer are obvious very active after dark anyway and would normally be breeding at night. When the weather is cold, it will keep them moving after daylight but when the weather is warm, it's hard on deer hunters.

Several seasons ago I witnessed the same thing. After not seeing deer like I normally would I had a stand over a cut corn field. As the darkness was coming I decided to stay in the stand well after dark just to listen. Sure enough I heard deer running, bucks grunting and even a sparing match.....[]

infared doesnt help much, you still cant hunt after 30 past dark.

and Rob, i witnessed the same thing a few years back. crazy isnt it... and it was hard on me thats for sure.

Think about it. If you couldn't get laid but a few weeks out of the year, wouldn't you be trying to do it 24X7?

hay guys, good to hear that you are having some rutting active im in central WV and i see none . i have a apple tree rite in front oy my house and i throw corn out every night i have 3 different buck come in every night and 6 does ,they stay out there forever eatiing all the bucks do is run the does off its like the are not into it yet . its been about 70 every day ,i dont know maybe if it cools off some then the might kick in .

I went hunting yesterday which was friday. Its was 78degrees!!!!!!![:@][:@] I was hunting with no shirt on!( can u picture that??[]) I had one doe come in very caustiosly like she was avoiding a buck, but i still havent see that much activity a few small rubs and one really small scrape. I hope it cools down fast.

Turkeyfan--no shirt!?!? LOL that had to be a sight

Around here, I've heard some grunting at night too, but the daytime activity is pretty dead. Having a 1/2 week MZ season timed to coincide with the early rut was detrimental to bow hunters. Hopefully, the weather will cool down a lot and things will pick up.