Whitetail rut

When do they usually start the rut there.

Here in southern AZ coues and mulies start in mid December and end in mid January

 

It's just alittle pre rut and perfectly normal. Every year people up north here say they're rutting early lol. It's just the nature of pre rut. You should be seeing scrapes and rubs now.

 

I had a buck feeding in some beans with some does behind the house two days ago and he paid them no attention.

 

I’ve noticed the same thing this past Monday in Southwest Louisiana

 

I wish it started here this early when the season opens

 

In PA, I have been seeing fresh scrapes and rubs in the last week, but i also saw a smaller 6pt. Travelling with a medium sized 8pt. 2 days ago. I dont think that would be happening if the rut was really starting to heat up.

 

Guys starting harvest here in the upper Midwest saw a real young buck trying to run fawns off the doe. Rut will happen the usual Nov.5-20 timeframe like most years.

 

Early muzzle loader started today so we’ll see if anything pops out of the woods this evening. The wind is pretty bad so I don’t think they will move much.

 

I cant tell what normal buck behavior is based on the small sample size in my yard, but the small bucks follow does around all year (like 10th graders following a hot 12th grader lol) and the big bucks just do their own thing.

In Georgia, you start seeing deer activity amp up at the end of october and then the rut is in full swing in mid november. I am starting to see the little basket rack bucks do scrapes in my yard, but I believe its because the big boys havent stopped by yet.

 

I grew up in western PA, and hunted deer there for about a decade before leaving the area to pursue career goals. The first week of November was usually when we started to see rutting behavior. The younger bucks seem to get riled up first, and the bruisers start getting in gear a few days later. If I could pick the best dates for a deer hunt there, I'd have to go with Nov. 5-15. I believe there's an archery season open there in early November, and possible an early muzzle-loader season in some areas. Don't know what you guys have for seasons & such in WV, but I'll bet those dates would be good if you can find a way to hunt them.

I have also hunted whitetails in northwestern Minnesota for around 25 years, and they had a slug-gun season during that timeframe. I always took vacation during the first two weeks of November for that, and as often as not the timing was perfect to catch rutting activity. The phase of the moon and the weather ( of course ) were contributing factors to the activity level. In the northern region, we more often had the kind of weather where we'd see heavy deer traffic all day long, but a few years it was bluebird weather and there was noticeably less daytime activity. In really cold years it was like magic, but -20 degrees in a tree stand is tough hunting.

 

Lots of scrape activity and rubs in west central WI. Saw a nice 3 1/2 8 ptr. rubbing along a scrape line last night. Also several small forks and 6 pts. The 1 1/2 bucks are chasing does (with no results), while the big guys are just biding their time. The premo pre-rut action is going to start in about 10 days.