its starting here in ohio but its not in full swing yet. I worked at the checkstation today for the salt fork wildlife area early muzzleloader hunt and checked insome pretty nice bucks, most of them had a lot of moss and bark at the bases of thier antler which indicates some rubbing activity, however a few of the bucks were really starting to smell like bucks. I believe that some of them are starting to rut. I mean i see deer as being like people, all being different. Some bucks come into rut earlier and some later......

I think it's close here in Southern Missouri. Over the past week, I'm noticing more rubs and scrapes nearly every day. Yesterday morningI was lucky enough to arrow a decent 2.5 year old 9 point. Which was the 4th buck I saw moving through a saddle between some feeding and bedding areas frequented by does. One of my good hunting buddies actually rattled in 6 different bucks between thursday and sunday this past week, before finally connecting on a nice 6 point. My brother in law's nephew killed a 2.5 year old 8 point saturday that was full blown rutted up. His neck was fully swelled and he hadseveral fresh holes in his neck and a tear in his ear from fighting. I think possibly in the next week, some of the older mature does will start coming in. That's what it looks like here anyway.


GH

It is never too early to use estrus scents, or rattling, as long as the bucks are in hard anlter.

Read the "Rattling Bucks" thread I put up.

Pre Rut means just that. Here in Mich. I've seen some activity, scrapes, young bucks bothering Does, etc. This week end should be good. Get Out and Hunt..Good Luck to all.