2nd rut

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megalomaniac said:
Do your doe fawns normally breed their first year? Very, very few of mine do.... I can't recall ever killing a wet 1.5y/o doe (but we intentionally target does without fawns, so there is selection bias).
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In my area, 25% of yearling does will be lactating, showing they successfully bred as fawns.
 
Outdoor Enthusiast said:
I wonder if the fawn doe that normally cycle in will do so later in December like usual.
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Good question. I suspect those that would have already have, and some that otherwise wouldn't have, will. I completely expect to see a bumper crop of fawns come summer. But we'll have to wait and see.
 
megalomaniac said:
Do your doe fawns normally breed their first year? Very, very few of mine do.... I can't recall ever killing a wet 1.5y/o doe (but we intentionally target does without fawns, so there is selection bias).
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I think 15-20 % of ours here will get big enough to cycle on good acorn years, about 10% otherwise.
 
BSK said:
Our scrapes were really active in October (normal for a good acorn year) but went dead after the first week of November. However, bucks are back to working them with a vengeance first week of December.

Haven't analyzed the data but have looked at the videos I just picked up. Looks like a 2nd rut starting about Dec 3 or 4 and still going on now. Caught a couple chases on cam in just the last two days.
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Same on our lease in Hickman. The bucks that went stealth after the first week in November were on camera on the prowl again the last few days of November and the first week of December. I saw a mature buck trailing about 15 minutes behind a doe on Sunday.
 
BSK said:
Agree. Normal second rut is around the 15-16 of December on my place.
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The odd timing for us is Nov 26, 27, 28 & 29 we saw daytime mature buck activity.
With one buck working scrape. One buck with a doe and wouldnt leave her side. Other two bucks were in a steady walk cruising. The two bucks killed on the farm were Nov 28 and 29....so if this was our 2nd rut, using the 28 day rule that puts our 1st rut last week Oct into 1st week of November....I remember clearly first Sunday in November wife and I driving to church and saw a doe with a nice mature big body buck. They were in a green field....drove back by 2½ hours later, they are still there! shes bedded down and hes standing over her like a statue. Remember thinking oh wow...its Nov 2...muzzloader doesnt open for another week....hope we dont miss the action. Well...muzzloader was dead in our area. I saw one 6pt chase or pester a doe...but then late Nov...26th to 29th it finally all came together....this is no doubt different for our area.
 
DoubleRidge said:
The odd timing for us is Nov 26, 27, 28 & 29 we saw daytime mature buck activity.
With one buck working scrape. One buck with a doe and wouldnt leave her side. Other two bucks were in a steady walk cruising. The two bucks killed on the farm were Nov 28 and 29....so if this was our 2nd rut, using the 28 day rule that puts our 1st rut last week Oct into 1st week of November....I remember clearly first Sunday in November wife and I driving to church and saw a doe with a nice mature big body buck. They were in a green field....drove back by 2½ hours later, they are still there! shes bedded down and hes standing over her like a statue. Remember thinking oh wow...its Nov 2...muzzloader doesnt open for another week....hope we dont miss the action. Well...muzzloader was dead in our area. I saw one 6pt chase or pester a doe...but then late Nov...26th to 29th it finally all came together....this is no doubt different for our area.
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Because I run a season-long photo census, I can look at the number of unique bucks on camera for the entire season, month by month, or even half-month periods. Tracking unique buck numbers on half-month periods from August through December (1st to 15th, and 16th to 30th/31st), the normal pattern is for the unique buck numbers to climb all early season and peak the first half of November, then the numbers fall through the rest of the season. However, this year produced a very unusual pattern. The numbers climbed to a peak in the last half of October, then declined the first half of November, only to climb again to a second peak the last half of November. And that second peak in late November is being driven by the surge in buck activity during the period you mentioned, more specifically Nov 27-30.
 
BSK said:
Because I run a season-long photo census, I can look at the number of unique bucks on camera for the entire season, month by month, or even half-month periods. Tracking unique buck numbers on half-month periods from August through December (1st to 15th, and 16th to 30th/31st), the normal pattern is for the unique buck numbers to climb all early season and peak the first half of November, then the numbers fall through the rest of the season. However, this year produced a very unusual pattern. The numbers climbed to a peak in the last half of October, then declined the first half of November, only to climb again to a second peak the last half of November. And that second peak in late November is being driven by the surge in buck activity during the period you mentioned, more specifically Nov 27-30.
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Over the years I've seen or experienced odd things from time to time...but when nobody else reports a similar experience I just write it off...but thats not the case this year. Its fascinating how many people in this part of the state have experienced and documented the same observations and timing...very interesting stuff.
 
DoubleRidge said:
Over the years I've seen or experienced odd things from time to time...but when nobody else reports a similar experience I just write it off...but thats not the case this year. Its fascinating how many people in this part of the state have experienced and documented the same observations and timing...very interesting stuff.
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Same here. I see something a little odd just about every year. They're deer. They do what they do whether we see it or not and I'm never not surprised to see something I completely wouldn't expect. But this year everyone I know is seeing the exact same macro pattern, and I mean all across the whitetail range. Time will tell yet what happens in south TX and gulf coast. I wish I knew someone in south FL who could report. I find this stuff interesting.
 
Ski said:
Same here. I see something a little odd just about every year. They're deer. They do what they do whether we see it or not and I'm never not surprised to see something I completely wouldn't expect. But this year everyone I know is seeing the exact same macro pattern, and I mean all across the whitetail range. Time will tell yet what happens in south TX and gulf coast. I wish I knew someone in south FL who could report. I find this stuff interesting.
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I keep looking at the weird data from this year and trying to come up with local conditions that may have caused it. But then I have to keep telling myself, this isn't local. It's regionwide. Honestly, I have no answers, yet. I'll be thinkin' on it...
 
BSK said:
But then I have to keep telling myself, this isn't local. It's regionwide.
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It isn't even regional. It's national. And I can't blame acorns because I noticed the shift in activity in mid August, long before acorns started falling.

It's not lost on me that the ring of fire is becoming more active than normal with earthquakes and volcanic activity, 3I Atlas is floating through, and there has been an ongoing rash of severe solar storms going back to last year and still going. I've not looked into other species, especially migratory birds to see if there is a similar deviance in activity but it wouldn't surprise me. Yes I understand I probably sound tin foil hat on this one. I think it's nuts too but something bigger is going on than a heavy acorn drop.
 
Ski said:
It isn't even regional. It's national. And I can't blame acorns because I noticed the shift in activity in mid August, long before acorns started falling.

It's not lost on me that the ring of fire is becoming more active than normal with earthquakes and volcanic activity, 3I Atlas is floating through, and there has been an ongoing rash of severe solar storms going back to last year and still going. I've not looked into other species, especially migratory birds to see if there is a similar deviance in activity but it wouldn't surprise me. Yes I understand I probably sound tin foil hat on this one. I think it's nuts too but something bigger is going on than a heavy acorn drop.
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I have a major breakpoint in the trail-camera data for my property. Pre-big-timber-harvest and post-big-timber-harvest. And I break the post-big-timber-harvest into two groups: adequate to great acorn crop years versus acorn failure years. The "good" and "failure" acorn years show very distinct and unique patterns, and these patterns hold up year after year with the same acorn crop. However, this year is NOT matching the typical bumper acorn year pattern. It is a pattern I have never seen before. As soon as I get the data entered up to Dec 9 (last day I have data for), I will post it. Very strange year.
 
Two different properties about a mile apart I've had a few pictures the last couple nights of young bachelor groups back together. We did kill two good bucks this year, but as far as the season as a whole and deer sightings this is the worst we've had in a long time. Northern Sumner County
 
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74MOPAR said:
Two different properties about a mile apart I've had a few pictures the last couple nights of young bachelor groups back together. We did kill two good bucks this year, but as far as the season as a whole and deer sightings this is the worst we've had in a long time. Northern Sumner County
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Awesome!!!

My farms are usually a week behind Sumner and Williamson counties... hopefully they are back in bachelor groups 10d from now when I come back to hunt.... my properties draw the bachelor groups, and they usually feed in daylight once they bunch back up after the 2nd rut.
 
Had a group of 4 bucks out in a field for over 2 hours late morning today. Usually our 2nd rut is rocking right now.

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ZachMarkus said:
Same here. I saw younger bucks chasing/ pestering does thanksgiving week. Usually first week of December it's wide open here but I've been hunting almost every day for the past week and I haven't seen hardly any rut activity at all. Southern Middle TN
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It's on for us! Killed five 4+ year olds the past 5 days. Saw one 3yr old cruising & two mature bucks trailing this morning. Would have killed one of them but just couldn't get an opening. Wayne Co.
 
tellico4x4 said:
It's on for us! Killed five 4+ year olds the past 5 days. Saw one 3yr old cruising & two mature bucks trailing this morning. Would have killed one of them but just couldn't get an opening. Wayne Co.
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Is that your 1st rut or your 2nd rut? If 2nd rut, what is your normal timing for 2nd rut?
 
Ive seen very little signs of a 2nd rut. A little peak in scrape activity a few days ago. Not fully working them just on licking branches. Ive seen a couple bucks together. Not seen much activity in food plots in a month. Seeing some activity in corn fields but not a ton. I assume they are still munching on acorns and browse still.
 
deerhunter10 said:
Ive seen very little signs of a 2nd rut. A little peak in scrape activity a few days ago. Not fully working them just on licking branches. Ive seen a couple bucks together. Not seen much activity in food plots in a month. Seeing some activity in corn fields but not a ton. I assume they are still munching on acorns and browse still.
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We've definitely saw a surge of scraping around the 5th to the 9th. When I was checking cams, I found a lot of the scrapes that had gone dead were wide open and freshly worked.

However, I completely agree about the food plots. I'm still trying to figure out what happened. Late October into early November, with the woods full of acorns, every deer on the property was living in the food plots. Why? Now, can't buy an older buck sighting or picture in a food plot. They're all back in the woods.
 
wobblegobble said:
first rut is getting under way in southern fc
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Yep. I've started getting more daylight buck pics the last few days. Had a new buck show up just this morning. I'm jealous of the guys just up the road that have a Thanksgiving rut.
 

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