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[Warmouth]

Who is seeing rut activity? I've been hunting my nuts off at the park, and not seeing much rut activity at all. Been seeing a chit ton of deer, does and small bucks, but no chasing or real searching going on by deer of any caliber.

Anyone else noticing that? If you're seeing it, at least tell a decent story for forks sake.

The only thing I have seen that was out of the ordianry was a 2.5yr old buck that had 18-19" main beams, 16" spread, and a brow on one side, and what would be a g-2 on the other side, a dam 2.5 yr 4pt. If I would have been hunting my place I would have shot him just for looking stupid.

[Rafe Hollister]

Saw some chasing Sunday AM. Lots of rubs & scrapes. The doe I shot was being followed by something but I didn't give it a chance to step out before skewering her.

[Rafe Hollister]

I also rattled in a small 6 pt. Friday morning. I was sitting on a stump on a hillside & he came in behind me looking for the fight. He was within 8 yards of me at his closest. I could've counted his eyelashes.

[TobyfromMO]

Me personally...I have not. I watched a few doe groups on Saturday morning without any bucks in tow. The adult females still had their little ones following. One of the guys from our group called said he watched 5 doe on Saturday evening without a buck sighting and watched a single buck on Sunday evening without a doe sighting.



Craig on the other hand is an entirely different story...he will be out all this week hunting his Airport location. I'll let him tell the specifics but he is seeing nothing but bucks chasing does. Over the weekend he watched several bucks chasing, two incredible bucks. As a matter of fact he just called me from the stand this morning. He?s already watched two shooters chasing this morning...he?s repositioning his stand at mid-day to hopefully get on one.

[JimDog]

This deer was chasing a doe...

[JimDog]

I hunted friday afternoon and sunday afternoon. Saw does both days - none being chased by bucks. Several nice fresh scrapes, and lots of rubs, but no chasing. This is here in Boone county.

Weekend before last - on the yute hunt - saw several bucks chasing does. In fact - I took off that friday and pulled the kid out of school for the day so we could go do a little bit of scouting and get our blind situated. It was a gray drizzly day. We were hunting up around Mark Twain Lake.

When we first arrived - around noon - I pulled into our parking spot and the kid and I got out and walked about 100 yards up to the arm of the lake we were going to be hunting on. I wanted to see if the lake was low enought to cross there. If the water is high - you can't cross it. We walked up , and as it turns out, the water was too high to cross there. We were standing there - out in the wide open, looking across the creek arm at a wood line when I spotted a doe on the other side - maybe 150 yards away. She was trotting along. I pointed it out to my son, and he immediately said - "look behind it" Maybe 30 yards behind the doe was a beautiful buck - nose to the ground, following that doe.

We had not been there 5 minutes and saw that. Both of us were pumped. We drove around to the other side of the creek arm since we couldn't cross it on foot, and scouted over there for a couple of hours. We saw two other bucks chasing does. Then when we were hunting - we saw more. The deer were MUCH more active up there then they have been down here - and that was a week earlier. And we found a couple of spots up there where the rubs were more plentiful then I have ever seen in my life. There was some kind of shrub up there that had about 6 - 10 shoots coming out of the ground about an inch thick. There was a stretch of a couple hundred hards along one abandoned road where every one of those shrubs was rubbed raw from the ground up.

[Warmouth]

A week ago I saw a fork horn harrassing a doe in a bean field and a six pt ran him away, and then went back to feeding. That's been the extent of the chasing.

There are rubs and scrapes everywhere, and I set out some buck tarsals and had a doe come in and pee on her tarsals right next to it. I thought I was in for something then, but nothing happened.

Does are still in family groups doing their normal thing, which usually isn't happening when the bucks are chasing hard in the pre-rut.

Just seeing 1.5-2.5 yr old bucks cruising around between 8-10. They're not even hitting scrapes.

Weird.

Oh, and good luck Craig, you're due.

[hunting170]

Lots of the harrassment type chasing (as opposed to the serious, cutting a doe out of the group chasing) going on here Dave. Watched a shooter scent-check several does about 10 days ago. Rattled-in a 100" 8 pt this morning, and a shooter sized 8 (which I proceeded to shoot over the top of). Found an awesome scrape line today, but scrapes are about to be abandoned. It`s heating up fast. I think I feel a little flu bug coming on next Tuesday.

[Robin@AimLow]

Just got back from hunting sat-wed near Kirksville. We were lucky to see 6 deer per day. We saw fawns wandering alone. Any adult does were tip toeing around nervous as could be. Did see one big one chasing a doe, more like keeping her penned down in some thick stuff. All things we saw (including after dark sightings) pointed to bucks being locked down with does already. I shot a decent 8 pt that came running in to a grunt call. Eric was cameraman, so we switched, and he shot a nice would've been 8 pt (broken main beam on one side) that was tending a doe. Did get to hear the bigger one make the buck "roar" a couple times. Also, the buck Eric shot let out a couple drawn out grunts that lasted about 10-12 seconds each. Kinda cool.

We shot two bucks, but hunting was overall pretty tough and boring. For Eric's buck, we moved out of the timber into a little tree line that I have been eyeballing for about 4 years but never have tried. Worked out on the second sit.

Got a call today at lunch and the NW MO guys finally saw it break loose this morning. Been tough on them lately, but they saw 6 or 7 bucks this morning.

Good luck everybody.

[hunting170]

Robin@AimLow said:the buck Eric shot let out a couple drawn out grunts that lasted about 10-12 seconds each.

I`ve seen/heard that once before. Saw a buck do it as he was tending a doe in a cut bean field. Two smaller bucks were approaching, and he lowered his head, and let out one of those drawn-out grunts. Be sure to use that when you are trying to call in a buck. I`ve seen it work like a charm a few times.

[PoisonSnake]

In my 6 days of hunting, I saw either 17 or 18 different bucks. Then another 5 or so that I wasn't sure about. But, definitely 17 or 18 different ones, cannot remember the number. However, only 7 or 8 of those deer were 2.5 year olds or better and only 3 of those were 3.5s. My thoughts are that it hasn't even started yet and when it does, with this warm weather, it will occur mostly at night.

[PoisonSnake]

Oh, and Robin... Don't be posting up talk about killing sammiches and half-racks without pictures.

[Robin@AimLow]

Leaving in an hour for another 4-5 days hunting. Don't have the pix posted anywhere yet to link them up to here. We'll get them all up soon.

One of the NW boys put a nice nine pt down this morning and saw 3 other shooter bucks.

[PoisonSnake]

I have to give an exam on Tuesday. Other than that, I'm off all of next week.

[JimDog]

I'm leaving in about 23 minutes...

I usually go rifle hunting every year - but mainly for deer camp - not for the hunting. I just have a hard time getting pumped up to wack a deer with a gun. But for the first time in a while, I am actually pretty excited. I am hunting where I hunted with my son, and saw several dandies that were 200 - 300 yards out. I am gunna do some long range sniping. I am setting up in a blind on a rock outcropping which affords me a panoramic view in all directions. If something comes in close, I am going to throw a rock at it to get it move outside of 200 yards. I will not shoot at anything less then 200 yards out.