Nautitroller

First few doe are in estrus big boys locked down for 48hrs. Next round all heck will break loose. Chasing will peak Friday thru mid next week depending on weather. On average a mature buck will only breed 3-5 doe max and most doe have fawns with different fathers. The big boys take the girls to their secret hole away from the rest of the herd.

ALERT! Reports are coming in that now is the best time to be out in the woods... The liberal deer are committing suicide, you can tell which ones they are by their dropped jaw and gaping mouth, go get em guys!!

Great buck L spurs!! Congratulations!

Nite,nite nice buck!

Congratulations! He is a hog for sure!

Spot on with your assessment. If you have mature bucks on your property they like to corral the doe and keep small bucks out, the doe like it because they get harassed a lot less, when sparks fly between two big boys thats when it gets fun. Hunting the transition zones now and down wind of a good bedding area can produce big. Each buck is an individual but catching him making a mistake is key to killing him. Start mid day hunting your transition spots it will pay off. A doe is in estrus for 48 hours, the big boys get the early ones, when a big boy is looking for his next hot doe he may not have to travel too far, bad for us, this rain today and the shortening of the daylight (weather related) will put a few more into heat. These mini peaks in the rut we observe are due to the reduction of available light, (photoperiodism ) so think out of the box, pinch points, down wind sides of bedding areas or that little spot that the old buck likes to hole up with a doe. Also my opinion on calls, use only as a last ditch effort. No blind calling ! Move if you don't have action.

That's a beauty! That's close to our hunting area, tons of character, love that dagger on right main beam

Another photo frost n sunrise in the alfalfa

Thanks guys!

Lucky enough to be in the right spot this morning.

That's fantastic! Great shooting! Awesome that you can make memories with your daughter like that!

Two calls for tracking bucks today, had to refer them to another tracker, my 14 yr old girl can't do it any more. Also hearing about more car/ deer accidents , officially out of October lull??

Basically taught her as a pup to " find it" she started out with shed antlers then the first blood trail she was hooked and could care less about some stupid bone. I have a few friends that would have an easy track and we would go on that. One main indicator for her to know we were tracking was her collar. Dragging hides, leaving fake trails ect have their usefulness but either your dog will figure it out quickly or not. She loved small game especially squirrels, once a squirrel came across the track right in front of her she totally ignored it, she had her collar on she was after a deer. She also got a treat of a piece of the heart for reward. Truly we worked as a team finding the deer, recognizing what she was smelling, how she pulled and the small details of the woods like the exact size of the deer track, freshness of blood, crows, hawks, direction of wind, air checking vs. ground checking, confirming blood, arrow placement and finding it post hit. I've got many stories of tracking, mainly we try to assess the situation and decide how long to wait or to track at all. One thing she did that amazed guys was she marked "peed" if coyotes were on the track in front of us.

I have had my tracking license for years now, my dog is turning 15 next month( now outta service) we tracked on average 25 times a year for the last ten years. What you do is great for the sport and very needed. I haven't the heart to get a puppy yet but I'm leaning towards a Walker/ red bone that wants to chase deer instead of coons.

The week before stuff really starts happening...Its officially the " October Lull"

Those didn't come out of Cayuga, it was Cayuta I've tried lots of different small spoons for these eyes and they prefer the small sticks (2"-3") bottom bouncer should work, speed was key last night they wanted it at 2.5 and that was as slow as I could go with the wind. The water was very murky.