Still Chasing!

[rifle02]

This morning around 9:30 I was headed out to the hardware store and going very slow through an area where I consistently see deer run across the road. I've already had a car repair bill this winter from my wife clobbering a doe . Fortunately she was going slow and the damage wasn't that bad. So I'm cautious when going through there. Sure enough I saw two deer Scamper across in front of an oncoming truck. I didn't speed up but slowed down because I am wary of their sneaky trick. You think they're all across and then the last one bringing up the rear tries to catch up at the last second. So I looked to my left in the woods to make sure there wasn't a tardy one and lo and behold I saw an ugly buck with a lopsided rack. Still holding both his antlers and he was focused on those doors and doing the lip curl deal. Anyone else know of chasing going on in southeast Tennessee on February 22nd? Seems outrageous to me.

 

[swampbadger]

Nope. It's very uncommon, but there are still scrapes and rubs being made.

I've seen a decent 6 point buck still holding both sides and moving with does on march 16th, 4 years ago.

One guy on here had a few trail cam photos of bucks still holding both sides and fighting two weeks ago. It could have been a spar over food or bedding but maybe it was over a fawn/doe coming into season extremely late.

 

[knightrider]

Not uncommon at all, there will be dry doe coming in as late as april, may. Bucks will still try to breed them as they should.

 

[TnKen]

I found some fresh rubs last week.

 

[BSK]

Years ago, I watched a buck dogging a definitely estrus doe Easter morning. Just remember that a small percentage of does cannot conceive (for whatever biological reason). Those does will cycle back into estrus every 28-30 days for 5 or 6 cycles before the window closes.