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The Rut. Is it in a Rut?
Posted By Wisconsin at 11/15/2009 12:00:00 AM

Disappointment comes in many of life’s doings when success is not attained. This year’s hunting situation shows much reason for my disappointment. It has been my poorest season of my bow hunting career.

Our rut this year is my main issue. We have waited for, prepared, and thought about these past few weeks all season. What happened? This question lingers in my mind and it is becoming more and more painful. The mature deer rejected me, the heat laughed at me, and I let them beat me up. For the situations faced over the past two weeks, I have placed myself in the best spots thought possible. They didn’t live up to expectations. Rut action has been not very good overall. We encountered many young immature bucks both 1 ½ and 2 ½ years old. The only hit list buck that we saw was X&Y. We saw him five or six different times and could have shot him multiple times. After having him as close as five yards we concluded that he was only a 3 ½ years old.

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The mornings have been where it is at. The majority of activity has been observed in the early to mid-morning hours of the day. There are a few factors that have hindered my rut experience so far. Number one is time. With a tough school schedule time is very limited. The weekends have been when I have done my hardest hunting. It just so happened that the weekends have held the worst weather for hunting. This leads to my second factor…Weather. Heat really slows down daytime activity. We saw and felt this. Sweating after a long walk in is not fun. Now the crop issue arises. Oceans of standing corn remain where we hunt. The wet fall has kept corn from drying sooner. Most farmers have to wait until the corn fully dries before harvesting. The last time I checked you can’t hang a stand on a corn stalk. Deer seem to be lying low in the corn moving only to eat. Finally, I reach the factor that is the toughest to determine. Our doe to buck ratio where we hunt is very bad. If I were to guess, only two-thirds of all of our does have been bred. The bucks don’t have to travel to find the does. This results in fewer bucks moving. We still saw some chasing, but very little.

I don’t like to dwell on what happened. I like to question what I can do to improve my situation. Do I have an answer? Well, sort of. I will keep fighting and trying to beat these bucks that have won in the past. Hunting from now on will get harder. I realize what I am up against and am willing to face it with an open mind. I have four days before the gun season and the army of orange takes over. Will it happen? This question will be answered another day. I’m going hunting.

Always look on the bright side!...Justin Bernklau

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