Smaller bucks have been chasing and pushing hot does for nearly two weeks now in western Steuben County. The majority of the does will be coming in this week...and even more next week. The cooler temps at the end of this week may help get some more deer moving during daylight hours.

I can't wait until tomorrow. I am not going hunting tomorrow but I am going out to my parents place to set up my ground blind and to do some scouting. I am going tolook around and see where they are really traveling and setit up and brush it in the best I can.

According to my father, who went scouting this weekend, the deer are starting to make scrapes like crazy. He said they were all over the place. I wish everyone the best of luck in the next few weeks, but I can't wait to get out there for shotgun opener.

wrestling season started today, im excited but its gonna suck because 1. im a freshman and 2. less huntin time with practice 5 days a week (especially right now when the rut's kickin' in) but oh well, i still have this weekend but i also need to work at breaking the calves this weeekend

Went out today and set up my ground blind over a food plot with milo. My dad and I walked away from it and could not believe how well we brushed it in. We set it up against a big cedar tree with the sun going down behind it. We put cedar branches all around it and it vanishes against that tree. I just hope the deer can't see it anymore than we can.

If the deer aren't rutting they soon will be. I saw more scrapes today than I have ever seen before in my life. I just hope whatever was making them sticks around until the 15th. One thing was clear to me today, we need rain! The leaves were way too dry. You wouldn't be able to sneak up on anything with those on the ground. Hope everyone survives election day. LOL

I'm heading out in the morning tomorrow...hopefully get a nice doe. If not, I'm going to take some pics for the fun of it.

Didn't see anything but leaves falling and squirrels chirping. I took some great pics of the sun coming up...but forgot I had the camera on it's black and white setting..so they're terrible..lol.

My buddy kicked up a deer walking to his stand, and saw some deer snorting at the farmer as he walked to his tractor. As we were leaving a combine was just getting started on our corn field we hunt over....and it looked like the the farmer who owns the corn field on the back side of our woods was getting his wagons ready to get that corn field out. I would be sitting in a stand at this very second if I didn't have father duties this afternoon. At least the wife gave me the "ok" to go out tomorrow.

Corn coming off the week before gun season...right during prime time! Wooot!!!




OH...forgot to mention. There are 3 newlarge rubs...all on large tree's....with 3 new scrapes surrounding them...right by one of my favorite spots. Thehoof prints in the scrapes areas wide as my fist. I'm done buck hunting...but I hope to get some pics of the deer that did that!

I'm going out on Saturday right after this weather changes. Thought about heading out this morning but with it being warm and the front coming through tomorrow evening i decided to leave it alone and hit it hard this weekend. I think the real good rutting activity this year is going to happen right during the opening week of gun season based on how the moon is. Last year the first 2 weeks of November were good, but the full mon was around the 28th of October last year compared to the 13th of November this year.

I have been doing some shining almost on a nightly basis the last few weeks. Finally seen 2 bucks on Monday, one dink and one real nice one that ran right in front of me. I think the weather change and approaching full moon will set them off though.

Not going to be able to go out this weekend, got family responsibilities but leaving next thurs (13th) nite and hunting the next three days. Was out last weekend and saw the same spike twice, 3 8's (two of them got to within 2 yds of my tree) and 9 does. Supposed to get rain tomorrow and the temps are supposed to drop too, thats going to get things rolling now. And before you ask why I didnt shoot at the 8's close to my tree, there's a 13pt and a 15 pt roaming the area, so Im holding out.

Well the gun season opener will be upon us soon.....took my rifle out and sighted in with some new ammo for this season. Going to try out some Federal .44 mag 240 grain FMJ hollow points. Have it sighted dead nuts at 50yds and was getting about 2-3" drop at 100 yds. Did not have enough room to try any 150 yd shots however I doubt I would take a shot at that distance anyway.

Last Friday I went up and freshened up about 6-7 scrapes with some buck pee, just to stir those boys up a bit.....however this year I have not been able to spy which big boys are using our property, so it will be fun to see who comes my way in the next few weeks. Good luck to all of you in the last week with your bows before gun season.

Scott

Seen a guy hit a decent 7 pointer tonight with his truck. Not sure how he did not see it. I seen it step out of an unpicked corn field and manage to slow and stop, as the deer got in the other lane the truck hit it almost full speed. I'm just lucky it did not fly back over at me and that he hit it straight on and did not swerve in my lane. Me and my brother were on our way home from shining the fields at our property so we used our light and found the buck dead in the field. We helped the guy load it so he could get a road kill tag from the sherrifs dept. He would have been a nice buck in another year or 2. Hated to see that.