Peak breeding is usually earliest in northcentral Middle TN (Springfield and surrounding area) starting around Nov. 8. It hits in central Davidson County around the 10th. It then works west, east and south from there. Get out west to the TN River (KY Lake) and you're looking at somewhere around the 15th to 20th.
However, this year has been different for those who experienced severe drought this late summer and fall and/or an acorn crop failure. Everything seems delayed, and that's not unprecedented for drought/acorn-failure years. In the last two big ones in my area, peak breeding was delayed about 10 days from normal. In addition, in those drought/acorn-failure years sign-making - scrapes and rubs (especially rubs) - were extremely muted. Although I'm not seeing that as bad this year as the last two drought/acorn-failure years, rubbing is much less than normal and scraping down maybe 50% from normal.
On camera, I saw the peak of scraping around the 5th to 8th (which is late - it usually occurs the last days of October and first few days of November). In the 5th to 8th timeframe, big traditional scrapes were getting hit by bucks (almost exclusively at night) 10 to 15 times per day. The mature buck I ended up killing Saturday hit the same traditional scrape 7 times the night of the 6th into the 7th. Probably the most interesting camera observation was how older bucks were hanging out in food plots all night - feeding - until a doe would slip in to feed. Then the bucks were after her. But once the doe proved unresponsive, the bucks would go back to feeding. Lots and lots of pester chasing in the food plots all night, but no true estrus chasing. In addition, one of the best indicators of actual breeding is seeing "abandoned" fawns without their mothers, wandering around looking lost. I have seen none of that on camera or in person (although I haven't checked cameras since the 12th).
Now it is definitely "on" in Nashville proper. Seeing dead deer on the roads, wife has seen several full-blown chases through traffic on her daily drive from Bellevue to Brentwood, and I saw two chases at Percy Warner Park this morning. That's a little late (maybe 5-7 days), but not terribly late.
