OutdoorMissouri.com

I saw better rutting activity in cedar county over the weekend than I did the entire rifle season.

That is because of the cooler weather and daytime movement of deer. The rut was kicking, it was just happening at night for the most part.

There was sufficient movement Saturday, but the only "rutting activity" I witnessed was a grunting buck. The only shot I had (bow) was at a spike 15 yards away.

is it the first or second rut?? did see some lock down with doe's during gun season.

Rafe, I'm referring to the rut as kicking at the normal time of conception of deer in MO north to south. That happens about the 16th or 17 of November. This year, most activity, I believe, happened at night. But, I did see a buck harassing does last night at the sanctuary. I know of another dandy (160 class) that was whacked yesterday in Oregon County that came 300 yards to a grunt call.

Activity was stone cold dead where I was this weekend.

PS, I think you're exactly right. I haven't hunted gun season since '04 and didn't again this year. However, the reports at the Tick Farm led me to the same conclusion--rutting was occurring at night due to the warm weather. That spared some deer their lives up there this year as nobody killed a deer with a rifle.

I think there's still plenty of breeding going on right now. The buck I heard grunting was only about 70 yards away, across a creek that is filled with paw paw trees and thick, wooly vines. He & I grunted back & forth a few times but after about 20 minutes he went up the hill in the opposite direction. The first week of Nov. I rattled in a little 6 pt. to within 10 yards. That & the grunter on Saturday were the only call responses I had all season. I may very well try again this weekend. Or maybe I'll be sick one day this week.

Craig: Tell me something. Is that airport hunt an HFA. If so, I want to get in on it.

That hunt ain't worth my time then. If they ain't penned up, I'm not going to waste my time on them.

I don't know why, but I saw more rutting early at the city place where there was no guns allowed either. I saw bucks running does as early as Oct 20 some years, and my neighbor there swore most of the rut happened before Nov 1 every year.

Why wait so long? It shouldn't take more than a couple weeks for it to sink in.