Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

NEIA Rut lack luster??? Whats everyone else seeing?

Trapshooter1

Well-Known Member
Through the first week of November I've seen 2 mature bucks on their feet. But as far as chasing and bucks dogging does. It' been pretty quite. Basically just small bucks looking. Thats it. What's everyone seeing??? Have talked to a couple hunting buddies and they'e been seeing the same thing as me. What gives???
 
Saw two bucks had a doe pinned down in middle of section at 400 tonight in Buchanan co area.lots of corn still in areas.
 
Lots of pairs out in the middle of nowhere the last two days going to and from work . Glassed the ones I could and most were good bucks. This morning at 630ish I stopped to look at a mature 8 pointer and what I thought was a doe next to the highway. They were just passed the ditch and both ended up being bucks. Then the doe stood up out of the road ditch and the chase was back on.
 
I'm in NE iowa also. Been real slow. Couple bursts of activity. Mid day has been especially slow. Evenings have been better than mornings and that is strange also. Very little cruising. No snort wheezing, very few grunts. It's like it's 65-70 degrees or something, maybe the moon?
 
Same here for me, very slow an occasional buck lightly chasing a doe and only small bucks cruising here and there. Nothing mature whatsoever so far! Clayton county
 
Winneshiek County. Took the week off and have sat dark to dark Last two days. In stand now. Good action mid morning yesterday till noon. Shot and missed on 150” deer. In stand now and has been slow today. 5 does and a 2.5 year old buck this morning. One doe took a leak, buck checked it and ran off with nose down.
 
Yesterday morning in Clayton County, I had one doe with a group of interested fellows come by right at legal shooting light. After running the smaller bucks off 2 different times, the big one finally came within range. 140" nine pointer, my biggest archery buck to date. Other than that one (successful) encounter, it has been pretty quiet in my neck of the woods.
 
"EVERYONE" I've talked to that's "a serious mature buck hunter" sounds like a "Debby Downer" in last few days. A few exceptions. The usual "I'm not seeing much. SLOW. Dinkers! 2-3 year olds. Etc, etc, etc" is 75% of what I'm hearing. It's a grind like any year. My grind happened to end around 9am this last AM here so I can't complain ;) Just like any year though..... It's tough, big bucks are hard to hunt and places there's "lots of big bucks" don't really have that many big bucks and they sure as heck aren't easy to get on. For ME- it's usually why I drag things out into mid to late November a lot of years. Rarely happens early and almost never the 1st part of Nov. That's just my experience though. SLOW as usual BUT remember, can be SLOW and 10 seconds later - the whole story takes a 180 degree turn!!!! ;)
 
Have heard both sides! Here in SE Iowa! One guy says he see's lots of chasing by small bucks! Another say's he saw doe's Yearlings and bucks all feeding in a pasture together with no rutting action!!? These Guy's are hunting maybe 30 miles from each other! Go figure!!
 
I also dropped one off on Wednesday at Edgewood, they had a trailer sitting I'm front of the drop off doors with a pile of deer on it, two of which were big boys. Lots of deer movement during the day on Monday and Tuesday.
 
But as far as chasing and bucks dogging does. It' been pretty quite. Basically just small bucks looking.
Same here, even though I'm in PA we're on the same latitude and deer should be on similar schedules. I thought yesterday would be wild with an 18 degree temp at day break, only saw a button buck all day. Strange year for me.....
 
Top Bottom