Is anybody else seeing any signs of the rut? I'm not seeing scrapes or anything yet. I thought the bucks would be in full chase mode by now but we are not seeing any deer moving at all.

I'm not from Minnessota, but our timing should be similar. I witnessed a buck fight in an open field next to the highway at 0930 on Friday, and I've seen some scrapes popping up. If dead deer at the side of the road means anything, they are moving because the corpse count is rising.

Found one scrape over the last couple weeks. Spoke to a couple guys who tagged bucks, all traveling or on food. Didn't see any chasing does and we saw a lot of does.

Tons of scrapes and rubs, where the bucks are/were. . our group has 4 tagged, 3 of which were following does, one panting/foaming. . the rut is on!

Now that I'm back at work until Friday, I'm sure the rut has kicked in full force. That is how my luck goes!

It looked to just be starting where we hunted when the weather turned Sunday night-Monday morning. Saw a few bucks walking fast with their noses down not paying attention to anything Monday.

That is what I am hearing as well, the bucks have just started running around noses to the ground.

The one I got last night had a huge swollen neck.

He was lip curling and smelling the air as he walked out in front of me.

Activity seemed to slow here too after Sunday nite. Not seeing as much roaming as over the weekend. Could be due to a lack of hunter pressure though. .

I hunt river bottom land that is bordered by pasture and crops.

The section across the road was all corn and is a deer paradise. Usually when that corn comes off we get them moving through the river bottoms. They took the whole section of corn off this past weekend and we didn't get any deer moving through. Talked to the farmer and they said they didn't see one deer while combining that field. Only coyotes

I am hunting on a hill overlooking a alfalfa field, bordered on two sides by woods the south side one is about 100 yards to a lake, the north goes over a mile with other small fields interspersed in it. The east side runs up along a small crick / river. The west side runs into a neighbors pasture.

The deer come out and feed on that field then move back into the woods on either side. And we catch them crossing or coming back out to feed.

Seeing lots of does, the one buck last night, and that is it.

I wouldn't mind seeing a point restriction in Minnesota for a few years to get the buck numbers up. At least then we'd have better numbers and quality deer.

I dont think the rut is fully on because we were seeing smaller bucks together, no does being chased, and very few scrapes. I'm hoping it cranks up this week.

As for lack of deer... I think it has something to do with the timber wolf that walked past my brothers stand and mine... dang those dogs are big...
And they are walking down the streets in Grand Marais....

Not sure where you are, but the rut has been going strong the past week in MN - I've hunted both SE and central MN and seen the big boys with does and heard some crazy fights. Scrapes were all abandoned 2 weeks ago.

Saw a few scrapes, but the branches weren't chewed much if at all. Saw 4 bucks chasing on Sunday. All spikes or basket racks. Shot one of them. The does weren't having any of it.

Had a big 8 point chasing a doe nose to tail right down the middle of the road on one of our busiest streets last night.

He didn't care about the cars or people and put on quite the show for a couple minutes.

I tried to get a video but hit the wrong button on my phone.

I'm headed back up tomorrow...we'll giver another shot.

Like I said to Gopher, let me know if you want a cozy place to process it here in the cities. I have the shop pretty much set up for deer right now.



You could back a full-sized pickup into the garage with a deer in the bed and hoist it up through those big doors. Works pretty slick.

This is my buddy and his daughter. She insisted on doing part of everything.

Well I hope I can take you up on that! Awesome to see she wanted to do that!

Very cool!

I have tomorrow off to hunt but instead it turned into driving 2 1/2 hours to St. Cloud for the MN state semi-final football game my oldest boy is playing in. His team went into the playoffs as the 5 seed and they just keep winning. Win or lose tomorrow, they will play at TCF bank next friday!

IMO, that is better than hunting.

It is!

Well our "Cinderella" team lost but on the bright side they played their hearts out and ended the season farther than they have ever gotten before in the history of the 3 school districts that make up the team. (The state section finals)

The cool part for us is, they put our son in at QB after half time and he sparked a comeback from a 20 - 0 deficit and led the team to a chance to tie at the end of the game but it didn't work out for them.

I was misinformed that win/lose they play at TCF for 3rd and 4th place in state. They are done now and it was a hellova season for "our little team that could!" So proud of those boys!!

Sounds like a great game to watch as a parent!