All I know is the Mathews is going nuts waiting for a deer. This weekend definitely looks like bad bowhunting weather.

Agreed Leech this cold rain is prob. the worst bowhunting weather possible. Unless you saw it go down it would be difficult tracking...

Besides the Tracking part....do you guys think the Deer will be moving in this weather?

Weather two weeks out.LOL the weather man cant get the daily forcast right.

Haha- thats what my first thought was! :))


There will be deer moving, but only when there are breaks in the rain. A light rain probably wont change their habits, but a moderate to heavy one will keep them cooped up. It doesnt really matter anyway, the evil october lull is in full swing. I think it will be over in another 2 weeks though.

I've hunted east of Frazee the past five years. This will be my 4th year bowhunting there. I live SE of St. Cloud, so my trips up there are limited unfortunately. So far I hunted the opener and last weekend, but just the evenings due to morning fishing outings. The first weekend was awesome. Sat eve had two young bucks come by right under me. Sun eve had 5 bucks including one shooter(at least a 130-140 easy) walk by but it was to dark to get a confident shot at 25 yards. No does as I'm not sitting in a specific doe area. They bed a couple hundred yards to the west of me, the bucks to the east. Last weekend sat Fri and Sat eves and nothing, but I saw the first rubs and a HUGE scrape nearby my stand on their main trail.
As far as the rut timing up there, I have kept track of deer movement as I've bowhunted the last 3 days before rifle season each year. Nov 3(exactly) is the day I first start seeing bucks chasing does. Just a few small bucks here and there before then. Hard to tell when the does actually come into estrous, and stand for the bucks, but I'm guessing it happens within a week of the first chasing. I've hunted the second week of rifle each year, too, and see minimal activity then, probably a sign that the mature bucks are holed up with does. Mostly young deer moving. I pretty much stay put and don't walk the land much so I don't disrupt and chase anything out.
Last year was unsuccessful with the bow as the 3rd was the rifle opener. Did not see any mature bucks right up to that Fri eve before it. Then with the rifle in hand on the 3rd, right at 6:50 am, an nice 10 came out right on the heels of a doe. Let him go. Saw another 10 at 3 pm tearing it up in a doe bedding area. Let him go at 150 yards. Next morning(Sun) I ended up pulling the trigger on a 130" 10pt. following two does and a six. After I waited a half hour to get down and get the buck, two more bucks came by. A respectble eight and another six behind another doe.
So...for me, I want to be in the stand from Nov 2nd-10th to see a mature buck.
As far as the weather goes, it is virtually impossible to predict weather more than 6-8 days out. Cripes the local forecasters can't even do it 2-3 days! Accuweather does a good job, but their 15 day outlook(days 7-15) changes daily. The way this fall has been, I wouldn't get too excited yet for hard freezes by then. Seems it's a couple weeks late up there. Poplar trees' leaves were still green last week.
I'm going to Ripley next week for the first time, so my stand will be unattended until the end of the month. Then it's BBD time! Monday's the 3rd so I got all week to watch them run before the rifle season!

the deer have been moving every night in my area, the bucks have been shy though till lately. lots of chopping of corn in my area so the deer have lost alot of hiding places. finally have seen some bucks in the last couple of nights. And for the rut the last week of oct. and first week of nov. are usually the prime time but last year was strange with the above average temps. if it stays cold it will pop off soon. with hunting wed thru sun i keep a good track of movement. and better my odds. like i've been told you can't shoot a deer if your not in the stand? i've seen some scrapes beeing made in the last couple of weeks wich is a good sign. my personal thought is that hunting only gets better from here on.

With all this corn everywhere the hunting is hard the deer just wont leave except to get a drink, with the rain though the deer will be looking for some dryer ground to bed in

Well there is my $1.50 good hunting guys

So if your saying the peak rut should be either the last week in Oct. or the first week in Nov., then pre-rut, aka. chase mode, should be in about 2 weeks, or at the latest the last week of oct.? Isnt the pre-rut usually about 1 week ahead of peak rut, when they are actually holed up with does?

I hunted this afternoon over an alflafa field. Lots of activity. saw the first deer at 3:30 pm. I climbed down at 6:00 when it really started pouring. I ended up seeing 18 deer including 8 small bucks still grouped up. No signs of rut activity yet........

Around where I hunt, which is the hwy 200 area east of Mahnomen, I just started noticing more scrapes and rubs starting up last week. They should be easier to monitor now with all of the fresh leaves on the ground. There is a nice cool down coming up this week, so I'm going to be hunting as much as my soon to be born will allow it.

18 Deer in 2.5 Hours?
Including 8 bucks?

Where abouts (location) was this?

South of D.L. - none of the bucks were even close to shooters in my book. Spikes, forkies, basketracks. All young deer. This property is basically huge alfalfa/corn fields with oak ridges. Ideal deer country. It is nothing to drive the roads at dawn/dusk and see tons of deer. I was fortunate to get access on this place. The landowner is quite cranky most of the time. I met him in church and worked on him for 3 years before he finally let me in.

I cant wait until the 23rd. This cool weather is getting me more pumped. Will they still be eating acorns then? I heard that once the leaves cover the acorns, deer will not try and dig them up because the leaves make them turn bitter faster. What things should I key in on while im up there???

I don't know about the leaves thing??? I've seen deer on many occasions (and the sign from it)diggin around through the leaves to get to the acorns. Honestly where I hunt there are a lot of oaks and not very many acorns. But in other areas they are loaded. I've seen them eating acorns into November and later, so they should still be eating them but not sure if they will be keying in on them. Still a lot of standing soybeans and corn in the area due to all of the rain.