Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting wow,rut wide open in va.

windy as hell all day in my area for opening day of ml season.

saw nothing while on morning stand,did catch a broken up buck beddid in a field on the way out. for the evening hunt i setup on the ground over looking a big flat stand of white oaks. 10min later a buddy texted me that he had just had a spike under his stand. 10min later i hear him shoot about 400yds away. he texted again'spike came back with doe,8pt shows up kicks spikes ass ,just killed the 8pt'. 10min later i see a doe coming fast from his direction. the spike runs the doe within 20ft of me. 5min later a small doe comes by,then a big doe,then a screwedup 3 pt runs them around and around.

now i'm thinking a big buck has to show up with all those hot does being chased.well right before dark a doe steps out behind me and the a big bodied buck that looked real wide ,they were in a thicket and i never could get a clear shot . very fun evening . this week should be the week to hunt so maybe i'll get a better look at that buck.

is this early for your rut or is it always the first week of November??

Rut seems to be on in central Va also. My stand is over looking a swanp with some islands. At 12:35 with the wind howling a doe comes out from the other side with a nice buck with his nose to the ground behind her 100 yds or so. Looks like they were coming towards me then change directions and swim across the creek about 20 yds at that point. Between the tree branches I can see him at 86yds but do not shoot as it wasn't a good shot. Can't see where he came out due to the brush along the bank. Don't see them again and that was it for the day. Wish he had come closer as I think he would have been a nice one. Will try again tomorrow.

I didn't hunt yesterday, but talked with my hunting buddy. He saw two four pointers, one right behind a doe, the other about 15 minutes later, hot on her trail.

This was in Amelia county.

I don't call that the rut, more pre-rut.

Deer in western Ohio are going nuts. Rut is on. Saw bucks chasing does the past four days. Took one of my does this morning as all 9 of them were too much for the little buck chasing them.

Bucks don't chase doe during the rut, the are too busy [bleep] them.

yeah i think its just getting going. bucks are ready to rock and does aren't going to be long.

When the big bucks are chasing and grunting after a doe and he gets her hot with her tounge hanging he's fixin to get some.

The little bucks will sniff and follow and wish and try to mount for a month before the rut starts.

Yeah, but the rut is coming on fast and hard. Might be a pun there.

Talked to a good friend that hunts the Eastern Shore. He saw a number of spikes but nothing chasing does.

Here in PA its on...a lot of chasing early in Oct this year. Oct 10th I saw a buck breeding a doe. From the 22nd on I either saw a doe being bred, or buck fighting over a doe on my way to work. The last 2 days squat, not sure whats happening, but they did cut the corn in 3 fields nearby. Ive said for weeks the ruts gonna be long and drawn out, might even see rutting activity after christmas. Ive only seen 3 other years since I started hunting in '82 thats been like this.

Still just little fellers doing all the chasing from what I saw in SWVA over the weekend.

I killed a nice 10 point that was following a doe 8:30 AM Saturday. The doe was headed somewhere, not feeding on the abundant acorns, and the Buck was following along closely monitoring her.

Location was Franklin County VA.

I would not call it the rut, but the bucks know something is comming soon.

I saw multiple smallish bucks chasing all day saturday. Actually saw the same buck[broke rear rt leg] chasing from the 3 different stands I hunted over the course of the day. Horny devil looked whooped saturday evening.
I am in southern Montgomery co.
My son, his gf and her father shot mature bucks in Craig co and none were chasing.

Pretty quiet where I'm at but I saw three doe splattered on a 1.5 mile stretch of road this morning on my way to hunt.

this morning i saw 4 does,coldest morning we've had at 25deg. 2 2ft round scrapes near my stand are now 4ft plus,i'd say its fixin to crazy. going back to the stand the evening to see what happens.

Heading out shortly myself.
Good luck!

nothin but does all day

Spent 13 hours on the stand today. Watched 5 bucks work over 22 does all morning and afternoon. He who had the most horns got the most ladies, but all the bucks were succeeding in separating out a doe. Some were working the whole going from doe to doe and mounting them, a couple others would single one out for a couple hours, bed down, then breed, then go find another one. It was certainly NOT pre-rut - lots of little deer are getting started right now! I'm in west-central Minnesota.