The Rut is Almost Here!

Okay, so I have slacked off a bit in keeping up on my blog but I have a great excuse. I have been hunting for the last 3 weeks. I would be lying if I said it has been a great season for me so far. It has actually been frustrating. However, three individuals that I hunt with have tagged out here in Kansas. I think this has been the longest pre-rut that I can remember. I just haven't seen a lot of peak rut activity. The little bucks are chasing does around when they can find them. The fawns are by themselves or grouped together. The big boys are moving only at night and the alpha does are almost non-existent. Any does that I have seen don't show any signs of being bred. The rut guides (provided by various private companies) all advise that the peak of the rut is really late this year and is scheduled to break free on this coming week. I hope it comes tomorrow! If you have not tagged out yet, don't worry. My my two biggest bucks were both shot in late December, well after the rut. I am not convinced the rut has officially arrived yet.

I will not tell you how many hours I have put in the tree stand already this year, on grounds that it may incriminate me with my understanding wife :), but it has been a lot. I have the next few days to hunt a cold front that is moving in but after that, I will be hunting the frigid days of December.

Aaron gives a bull buck the judo chop!

My brother-in-law, Aaron, shot an old dominant mainframe 8 point with 11 scoreable points. This buck looks like a bull with a neck that measured over 29" without his hide. Wow! I am guessing the deer is at least 7 1/2 years old. We had a picture of him last year but he has gone down hill a little since then. What a true trophy. He gross scored in the upper 130's and was a great kill with Aaron running out of time to hunt. Congrats Red Fox!
(Details on the story to follow)

Steve Knocks Down Crab Claw!

Here is a picture of Crab Claw before he was shot:




The second picture is of Crab Claw after being harvested by my cousin Steve. He ended up gross scoring in the upper 150's. This buck was on our top four hit list this year. Great job Steve!
(story of the hunt to follow)

Jeff gives the first buck in our group a dirt nap.

My brother Jeff shot a mainframe 8 point this morning. He called him all the way across a large CRP field with his coaxing grunt tube. Jeff is getting pretty good at calling and rattling deer. Good job, bro!

Brian starts off the season with a monster!

Brian is a co-worker of mine that has been hunting hard for big mature bucks over the last three or four years. He has been studying whitetail deer and is making quick progress. At the beginning of November, Brian knocked down a really nice Kansas deer (his biggest to date). I asked Brian to describe the hunt in his own words. Congratulations Brian!!

Ah...what a great day! I crept into my stand at about 5:30 this morning (early, I know) in Wabaunsee County. I got all settled in with a southeast wind at the side of my face. I started in with a rattle/grunt sequence. About thirty minutes went by. Just when I reached for the antlers again, I noticed movement from about 150 yards away. This big Kansas bruised gingerly walks in and renews a scrape at about 45 yards from my stand. My heart is pounding at this point and I was worried that he would catch my scent. He walked to the right, turned his nose up and didn't seem to like what he was smelling. So...off to the left he went. He was starting to have a diagonal approach while walking closer to me. He got into about 30 yards...had to wait for him to look away before I could draw. He finally looked back where he came from. It gave me just enough time to settle in and let an arrow fly! The arrow hit him hard. I got a double lung shot up higher than normal. He ran about 60 yards before he crashed. WHOOT!! I took him to Cabela's to have him scored by a B&C guy. He is unofficially 168 3/8". They even took a 5" deduction while tallying up the score. This is my second ever buck. I'm feeling really blessed right now.

Rebecah's 320" Bull Elk

This is a giant bull elk that was harvested in Colorado by Steamboat Springs. It was taken by the wife of one of my friends. What a beutiful animal. Great job Gary and Rebecah!

October Lull

If you are like me, you were really excited to get out in the woods opening week to bow hunt. I had 3 specific deer that I was after. I have numerous trail camera pictures of them and felt like I had them somewhat patterned. I had set aside 5 days to hunt bucks and 2 more days to doe hunt. This almost seemed easy to me as I planned everything out based on my information obtained last year. I thought by October 3rd I would have a couple of does and a big buck on the ground. We even had a cool down in temperatures and the right wind for 3 consecutive days. Everything was set for success.

From the first day of hunting, things have been frustrating and unpredictable. The first night out I hunted with my Dad on a food plot where we saw 3 shooters last year (at this time), plus 20 additional deer. Unfortunately we saw only 2 consisting of a small buck and a curious doe who touched my ground blind window with her nose. Where were all of the deer? The food plot had burned up in our current drought and wasn't pulling the deer in like last year. I blamed the food plot but didn't think much more of it. Time to move to another farm with better fields and food plots.

I spent the next 3 days hunting my favorite stands without seeing a single buck and sometimes not even seeing a deer. I also had to give up a hunt one evening to chase off some (would be) trespassers trying to hunt our fence line. What was happening to my plan and where did all of the deer go. My stand locations were dead, they weren't coming to the food plots and soybean fields. I didn't even get a single big buck picture on our 7 trail cameras either. Frustrated, I began to experience the thoughts about all of the other things I could have been doing with my time off. Like spending more time with the family, getting work done around the house, taking the wife out on a date, school work, etc., etc. What had happened to all of the deer? I blamed the October Lull! I blamed the weather and the farm. I should have blamed myself.

So, I have been thinking a lot about this the last couple of days. How could hunting be so good last year during the early season but so poor this season. I did recognize that our weather pattern was different but other hunters that I have talked to have also experienced the same problem. Their big bucks have vanished. Where could they have gone? Is the October Lull for real. Do bucks bed down and lay around for a couple of weeks before the rut kicks in? I started to believe this was true but I still knew I needed to take ownership for my lack of success. What was I doing wrong?

Kansas has been extremely dry for the last three months. Our creeks are dry, ponds are only half full, most have harvested their failed corn crops, the soybean fields have only produced half of their potential, etc., etc. I knew this was different from last year but it was still able to pattern bucks in August and the first 2 weeks of September. Then something changed and I missed it. Due to the hot dry weather, the bean fields have dried up significantly and have turned yellow. Deer will stop hitting them hard until late season now. Due to weather, forage is also changing in the woods sooner that normal. Acorns are already falling, the leaves and forages in the woods have changed more significantly and are sweet and palpatable, apples and persimmons are ripe for the taking. The deer are now eating mostly in and around their bedding areas where they have security cover. There is no need to travel long distances to crop fields when they have all they need right now in their bedroom. This usually doesn't happen in our area until October 10th but due to our weather pattern it has started 2-3 weeks earlier. I failed to recognize the change and was hunting the wrong areas.

So what can we learn from this? Remain flexible in your hunting. Just because you think you have the deer patterned and have a great plan to ambush them today, doesn't mean you wont have to throw it out the window tomorrow if you want to be successful. Although we have to remain persistent and put our time in the stand to be successful on mature bucks, we also must remain flexible with an open mind.

I have learned a valuable lesson for next season. Even though I currently have a better understanding of where the bucks may be and what they are doing right now, I am not about to move in on them in their bedding areas and over pressure them. For me, I would rather give them a month to be comfortable and not pressured before the rut. At the end of October I will start again on trying to pattern the bucks during the pre-rut. I usually start by moving from the outside in. This gives me something to prepare for and look forward to next month. Besides, we probably don't have a lot of nice days left after this month to finish our work around the house and have fun with our families outside. It is time to get outside and enjoy the weather.