E Texas Rut

[Lefty99]

Any of you boys hunting in the sticks see any chasing going on?  I haven't been to the place in 3 weeks and would figure that they are chasing pretty hard right now.

[Mr.Green Jeans]

Not last weekend.

[Lefty99]

[quote name="dub" post="697012" timestamp="1257362971"]
Not last weekend.
[/quote]


Where are you hunting at?  I'm in Kirbyville.

[Mr.Green Jeans]

Near Kountze.

[T-daddy]

in jasper every doe had a buck behind her..

[BearBryant]

Not chasing so far in Kirbyville.

[ranchhand 79]

Last weekend they weren't rutting in Newton Co. Right now, they are trying to avoid water where we hunt. Have to miss opening morning of gun season, waiting for water to drop. Terrible luck. Looks like it will be OK Sunday morning though.

[Mr.Green Jeans]

Still no sign of the rut this weekend.

[Lefty99]

I got skunked over the weekend.  Foggy as all get out but I think the moon had alot to do with it.  Also, didn't hear about much being killed.  This weekend should be on with the moon being almost non existant.

[Bucof2010]

Dad said there were up to 12 does at once and no bucks the whole weekend in sour lake

[ranchhand 79]

Finally get to hit our lease in Newton Co. with a gun tommorow. The few people who have been up there said the flood waters we have had have the deer all confused and are seeing them everywhere. Hopefully, there is a lack of food now and they will be looking for corn. Hopefully rut is not messed up.

[643]

IMO the rut here in S E Tex is winding down, my reason being is the 2 bucks we've (not me)taken were seriously run down, 1 of which went str8 to feeder, although alone its only concern was the corn, he ate for a while before ever raising head, his hip bones were a good sign of his run down condition, a nephew took his first doe, she looks to have been bred a cpl of weeks ago as the fetus was about 2" long. I did watch a 17" buck eat with several other deer for a while, he also looked to be run down and not to concerned with the girls....

[BearBryant]

Thats weird because in my opinion its just starting to heat up. 

[Mr.Green Jeans]

Hopefully this weekend will be a little cooler.

[Lefty99]

[quote name="bearbryant" post="703265" timestamp="1257855031"]
Thats weird because in my opinion its just starting to heat up. 
[/quote]

I feel the same way.  No sigh of rubs...scrapes or seeing any chasing yet.

[Guest happyhour4]

im in crockett and they and in rut there there is scraps everywhere and the bucks going crazy

[VBhubby]

[quote name="ranchhand 79" post="699453" timestamp="1257560998"]
Last weekend they weren't rutting in Newton Co. Right now, they are trying to avoid water where we hunt. Have to miss opening morning of gun season, waiting for water to drop. Terrible luck. Looks like it will be OK Sunday morning though.
[/quote]Ranch Hand, I'm on the Old Fowler Club and we are hunting in the bottoms any news about Newton about the deer activity would be great. I've been monitoring the Sabine River Authority daily and it looks as if the river is going back up.

[spoonbill]

i'm hunting by rayburn and have seen plenty rubs but no scrapes. on the other hand, opening morning my wife shot an 8 point that was following a doe. we've usually seen some scrapes by this time, but not this year. i watched some does come thru, but nothing was following. hopefully things get going soon. i believe the deer around here go thru more than one period of the rut cycle. we need some sustained cool weather. it would be nice to get camo'd up and not have the skeeters gnawing on you or sweat to death.

[Mr.Green Jeans]

The cool front coming Monday should help things.

[Lefty99]

[quote name="dub" post="704920" timestamp="1258040476"]
The cool front coming Monday should help things.
[/quote]


Really wish it was coming tonight! 

[ranchhand 79]

VB, I drive within 10 feet of the river driving to my stand and it looked pretty good to me. It did look a little higher this morning (Thursday), but not too bad. The creeks are still backed up in places, I hunt in the bottom, but I didn't go through anything deeper than 8-12". Haven't seen as many deer as usual, think they are confused. Our whole lease had anywhere from 8" to 3 foot. Don't get me wrong though, there are tracks everywhere, just there pattern is messed up. We had one 10 pt. about 125" killed and that is it.

[ranchhand 79]

VB, where exactly are y'all at? We are close to Artesian Springs.

[VBhubby]

[quote name="ranchhand 79" post="705102" timestamp="1258050904"]
VB, where exactly are y'all at? We are close to Artesian Springs.
[/quote]Old Fowler Hunting Club, we were up youth weekend and by the time we left the road leaving out had about a foot of water over it and I had a friend go up last weekend and saw that three of our camper got anywhere from 12 to 18 inches of water in them so i figured the water must have risen another 3 to 4 ft after we left. He said there were tracks all over the road and they saw deer driving in on the clear cuts around 2 pm. I was just wondering if the water had gotten that high and pushed the deer to high ground if they had started heading back into the bottoms yet? I guess tracks are a good sign. Maybe, with the confusion and the moon it will make for a better weekend. We will see!!

[tvc184]

[quote name="Lefty99" post="703476" timestamp="1257874173"]
[quote author=bearbryant link=topic=61839.msg703265#msg703265 date=1257855031]
Thats weird because in my opinion its just starting to heat up. 
[/quote]

I feel the same way.  No sigh of rubs...scrapes or seeing any chasing yet.
[/quote]

I have been seeing a lot of scrapes (even more than usual) for about three weeks now. I haven't seen any chasing does or even following them.

According to the TPWD (by their surveys over a number of years) the south area of the Pineywoods should be peaking in the rut around 11/10 or right now with the more northern parts peaking around 11/20.

The rut will go from mid-October and into January though so it would not be unusual to see deer rutting for quite a while. The peak is what you are looking for. That is also one of my complaints about not killing enough does. They will usually go into estrus again and again until they are bred. When there are so many does to chase down, not all of them get bred at all and the ones that do get bred over several weeks.

I know that we see fawns on our lease that are four or five months apart in age. We see 40 pound fawn bucks with 1.5 inch spikes and then we have fawns with spots on them when the archery season starts.

[ranchhand 79]

Our campsite is higher and was the only thing on the road that was ok. I have a new 2009 that I wasn't able to get to in time, so I got very lucky. I checked the Sabine River Authority, and it shows what I have seen the last few days to be crested and dropping so we should be ok. Good luck, those newton co. deer get BIG.