Saw the first rub in yellowwood just the other day. The tree was pretty torn up. It was right in the middle of a large clearing the DNR had cleared a few months back.
Scouted an area I hunt yesterday.
Little trail traffic, did see some fresh droppings.
Saw no rubs or scrapes.
Saw two does 100yars from the woods. They walked into a corn field.
A week ago in the evening, in a waterway that is down from the woods I hunt, saw 2 does , a spike and a 4 point.
Daughters boyfriend sat in a tree stand yesterday evening, didn't see a thing.
i saw 4 diffrent bucks hunting does yesterday but they were all young bucks so the full rut is still a couple weeks away.
i dont know where you hunt but harvest is so late around my hunting area that the standing corn is really sticking it to me and from what i hear most of the state. a late harvest might be somthing to keep in mind when planning vacation.
As 42769vette said, there is standing corn around the place I hunt and I know for a fact that it won't be harvested until the first or second week of November, which is making it hard for me to see deer (since most of the property is fields), and get into my stand quietly while still having shooting lanes past 20 yards. But I haven't seen any pre-rut activity, just a few does. I'm hoping I'll see something this weekend though.
Yesterday, in the rain, I found two brand new rubs and two little scrapes.In the woods not those field edge One of which is 10 yards from a stand I hung two years ago and never hunted.
They got the corn outta my field last week.It is awful wet still though.
In my opinion the first phase of the rut is in. I found found pleanty of rubs 2.5wks ago, and my first scrapes about a week ago. Also found a place or two where there had been fighting. Progress seems to have come to a screeching halt due to warmer temperatures. I didn't see any new activity last weekend. If the temps would drop and some of the corn shelled things would get awsome in a hurry.
My son and I went back to the woods last Sunday and we found 5 scrapes (one 40’ from a blind) and a few light rubs and one rub that looked like it will kill the tree. Our place was all wheat, beans and alfalfa this year but the neighbor has 80 acres of corn and he just started on beans this week.
I haven’t seen any bucks chasing does around although, I do have a cockerel that is discovering his roosterhood and he’s driving the hens crazy. Maybe that’s thy egg production is down.
Man... I cant really say!! Ive only been about 3 times this year!! Last year I hunting 26 days in October!! Pretty crappy really!! Good Luck to you All!!