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   Deer breed in the fall, generally in October or November and have their fawns late spring. The breeding season or rut is when the normally cautious deer run around like they have no sense at all. As bow hunters like to be within thirty yards or so, this is the time to be in the woods. The timing of the rut is determined by the number of daylight hours. The deer’s activity is determined by temperature. Since we have had unusually warm temperatures, most of the early rut activities have been at night when it is cooler. As the temperature drops, the activity will increase to where deer will be running around day and night. That is when it is ideal to bow hunt for the big bucks and is also the time when most deer/auto crashes occur. The deer have only one thing in mind and are a danger to themselves and vehicles.

   Early signs of the rut beginning are when bucks make rubs and scrapes. A rub is a tree where bucks rub to remove the velvet from their antlers and leave a scent to let other bucks know they are in the area. They polish their antlers and mark the territory as theirs. A rub is easy to spot as the bark is also polished off the tree in use. Usually, the larger the tree used for a rub indicates the size of the buck marking his territory. A scrape is a place on the ground where the grass has been pawed down to bare dirt. Above this bare dirt, anywhere from four to six feet is a branch that the bucks lick and rub the glands near their eyes. In our area, these overhanging branches are usually from shingle oaks. I have seen scrapes near other trees such as cedar and Osage orange, but for some reason, shingle oaks are the tree of choice for scrapes. Bucks also prefer to make their scrapes in short grass, probably because it is easier than having to plow down through tall grass or brush.

   My wife and I took four cameras out to find some good scrapes or rubs in hopes of getting an inventory of the bucks in the area. At this time of year, the deer at our place are the ones that live here all year long. In a couple of weeks, we will start to see bucks that have traveled, sometimes up to several miles, to breed does that are coming into heat. I was driving while my wife watched for shingle oak trees that had branches hanging over the trail. The trails have been groomed recently so the short grass below the overhanging branches made ideal places for fresh scrapes. She found good scrapes in several different parts of the farm. It was almost as if every shingle oak had a fresh scrape. We set up the cameras in hopes of getting some great pictures.

   The trip back to the house was a pleasant drive on a warm fall afternoon. My wife was enjoying the sights and sounds of nature while I was lost in thought of the pictures to come of the big bucks in full rut.

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