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Rut report

I'm not in TN but in the Piedmont of NC the rut is WIDE OPEN. I've hunted daylight to dark the last two days. I saw 14 deer yesterday all but one doe had a buck with her. The one that didn't had a six pointer and a four pointer spar over her at 3:30 in the afternoon. Today I saw nine. Four bucks tending four does and a doe by herself right at dark. Rifle season has started here. I'm hoping the 140 ten pointer I couldn't get a shot at during bow season cruises back through.
 
Lots of young bucks chasing does in Benton County. Couple of older ones seen cruising. We traditionally kill our big ones from this week through Thanksgiving weekend. I'm headed west tomorrow after work and staying through lunch Sunday.
 
Clay county. sat dawn to dusk today. Had 2 does and a yearling feed through at 7:30, then came trotting back through 10 minutes later obviously concerned with something they encountered. 2 hours later had a nice 6 pt with nose down trailing their original track. Not in a hurry, just cold trailing. He never turned and came back though, like they did. Then at dark had a doe ease through. And as I was getting down had an unknown spot me and blew. camera still picking up lone does and bucks. Seems the chasing I saw 2 weeks ago has abated. Probably in lockdown. No one killing anything in this area.
 
LenS said:
How narrowly defined is the breeding window? By that I mean what approximate percentage of does are receptive at the same time and how narrowly focused is that peak breeding window? Is it 3 days, a week?
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Even in a perfectly balanced sex ratio herd with an appropriate buck age structure, it takes 5 weeks for 95% of conceptions to occur. However, those are not spread equally across the 5 weeks. Actually breeding explodes quickly, and there will be a 10 day window towards the front end of the process where 50% of all conceptions occur. Then breeding tails off for a couple of weeks before it's over. And even then, the occasional late breeding or female fawn breeding occurs into winter (I usually see a spike in fawn breeding around mid-January for areas with a mid-November peak conceptions).
 
It's amazing how physically demanding the rut has to be for bucks. I hunt western Montgomery County and, while not the highest hills, there is a lot of steep terrain.

Our peak breeding seems to be occurring now as deer sightings have come to a screeching halt!
 
LenS said:
It's amazing how physically demanding the rut has to be for bucks. I hunt western Montgomery County and, while not the highest hills, there is a lot of steep terrain.
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And I don't think hunters/managers understand what a toll that takes on mature bucks. Working with very large properties in the ridge-and-holler hardwoods, one thing you DON'T see often is VERY old bucks. Why? Because their dead. Not from hunters bullets/arrows or poachers, but from rut stress.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
Holy Mass!!!
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he really doesn't have much mass. Incredible tine length (10.5in g2's and 9in g3s), prob 4.5in bases, but loses mass quick. I'm guessing H2's are only 3.75 and h3's only 3. 16inside. I have him at 128in, which is why my friend elected to pass him up (because of our 1 buck limit). He's NICE, but not THAT nice.
 
Got a call yesterday that there were 2 deer laying in my pasture. They would have had to jump 3-5 fences to get to this particular spot. When I arrived (an hour later) they were still there, in the wide open. It was a young 4 pt and a doe. Every time the doe would try to move, the buck would cut her off (he had her cornered in the fence row) finally she made it past him but was running as hard as I've ever seen a deer run. Almost felt bad for her
 
Bullet40 said:
I am seeing no scraps a few rubs and no buck movement at this time last year at this time was a totally different story I don't know what's going on this year compared to last but it is definitely slow I am in Humphrey county down Bakersfield road just before the big open Ag fields
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Just found out Bullet40 is almost my next-door neighbor. What a small world TNdeer can be!
 

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