im from southwest va. and im starting to find some scrapes,does anyone know if they are rutting yet or not?ive not been in the woods for 2 weeks ,ill be back out the 18th when our smokepole gets goin again.

In SWVA the deer have gone through the first primary rut and will be starting the secondary rut soon. Good luck finding one during this late season!!

I agree with the previous post. You are probably about 3 weeks past the primary rut.

did it mostly take place at night due to the warmer weather or what bc i never did really see any bucks at all,but several does and i just starting finding some scrapes about 2 weeks ago?

Yes. From what I understand from talking to other guys out there, the primary rut happend at night and everything became totally nocturnal, due to the high temps! [:-]

Butch A.

IMO a lot of the rut in my area did in fact take place at night. It also seems that the kill is down in this area compared to last year.

thats what i was thinking but boys its cold now and maybe a few deer dropping come this saturday when ML opens back upwhen should the 2nd estrous be starting her in SW Va.?maybe next week?

More deer will be moving around during the day now that it's colder trying to find food to keep their calorie/energy level high. So hopefully we will see an increase in daytime activity now and possibly more bucks.