David, I hunt about 25 miles South of Sonora and was out there this past weekend.  I did not see any signs of an early rut, just the typical pre rut activity.  Peak for our area is usually Dec 5.  I was still seeing mature bucks together, young bucks were tickling horns but does were showing no sign of coming into season.

Thanks Ken...

We usually peak a little before you do, after Thanksgiving, just a little before Dec 1.  But, I talked to the rancher who owns our place a couple of days ago - he thought they were getting into it last weekend.  This morning I talked to a friend who hunts west of Eldorado...he saw big bodied deer with their noses to the ground last weekend and was fairly certain they were rutting.  Since the original post I've talked with a local taxidermist in Eldorado - the ranchers are tellin' him the same thing...and apparently hunters are bringing in bucks to the taxidermist to back that up.

At this point I have to believe up in our neck of the woods (which is about 50-60 miles north of where you are), especially with this last call from the taxidermist, they're in rut.

Well, that would be good news for the timing of my annual T-Giving hunt with my wife and daughter!  If the rut kicks off a little early,that weekend would be perfect timing this year!  Regardless, right now should be a good time to get out and rattle some up!!!!

Best of luck to you David.

We are about 15 miles NW of Ft McKavitt. Didn't see much last weekend that would indicate that the rut was on. A phone call this evening, and the landowner says she is seeing bucks moving with their noses to the ground. Sounds like things are starting to heat up. This would definitely be earlier than any year that I can remember. Typically we take our best deer the first weekend in December. Oh well, I am off for the next 10 days. We will see what happens.

Thanks Tony...you're confirming what I've been hearing.  Usually I'm not able to do this but this year I was able to move up my hunt to the week of 11/16.

Will let you guys know what I see.

Well - no buck but some really fun times out with my eldest son.  Got to talk to an area game manager who said that due to the lack of early rains the rut may be all over the map this year.  And, what we saw on the place we hunted sure seemed to agree with what he was saying as well as what some of the other folks in the area we talked to have said...we definitely saw some rut activity, but it was sporadic at best.

Here's what we saw 25 miles east of Eldorado (also in the pictures section) as we were driving in...that and 2 bucks hit by trucks between Brady and there.

That rub is on a tree somewhere around 7" in diameter with gouges over 36" from the ground.  They're out there all right.  Lord willing, maybe next year.

David,

I would have to agree with what the local game manager. We just returned from a six day hunt from the same area. The scrapes and rubs would indicate that the rut is on. The deer activity that we observed was interesting. Some bucks appeared to be in full swing chasing and seeking. While others seemed to be disinteresred at this point. We were able to rattle and grunt up a few smaller bucks, and take a few culls. The bigs boys are either deep under cover or with does. I guess that means we just have to get back out there. Damn! I just hate that. We will give them a break and let things rest for a while. We have several messengers that will be sending updates.

Thanks Tony...let us know what your 'messengers' say!

Another interesting thing we saw was the acorn crop...we were told it was outstanding this year when in fact the crop quality was far from that.  Don't know where you are hunting, but if what holds the deer at your lease is acorns they may have to be moving more to feed. That may have affected our place. 

We think the big boys on our place have moved to where the does are feeding.  We rattled hard, and brought in 3 decent bucks, among others. the biggest probably a 120 B&C 8-point.  Nice buck, but like yours a little too young.

Hav'nt been to the lease and hunted yet, but talked to our lease manager yesterday and the other hunters are seeing a lot of deer activity right now. A couple of new hunters told me when I was there that they were very disappointed, because they had been told that we had a lot of deer, but they had not seen any. I told them that at that time with the full moon and hot weather the deer were most likely moving at night. Charley told me that both of them were now very excited at the amount of deer they were seeing and had seen some real nice deer. I hope to get down this weekend and check out the rut and see if I can find that wall hanger I saw last year.

Sorry, but I forgot to tell you, we hunt about 25-30 miles west of Eldorado off of 190 in Crockett County.

It'll be interesting what you see William.  Hope you get a boomer.

David,

We are hunting a couple miles north of Hwy 190 just east of Hwy 2084. The acorn crop was very good on and around the property that we hunt on. It is pretty obvious that the deer are feeding mostly on acorns now as the feeders are going mostly unvisited. We are not getting many pictures on the cameras right now. We did get a pretty interesting call yeasterday evening. The cull buck that I shot last week Thursday was with another(much bigger) buck and they were tailing a doe. We know this doe as Floppy, as she has one ear that was injured and it hangs on the side of her head. Floppy was seen with the same bigger buck on Monday evening at the feeder behind the house. This means that he has been with her now for five days. I don't really know if this indicates anything specific, but typically that don't stay with them that long. The rest of the report was small bucks moving and big boys not. We will go with what we know and plan the first weekend in December as our get the big one weekend.

I also talked with several hunters today that are hunting in Mertzon and Eden. They are see mostly younger deer and they are not visiting feeders either. One of these ranches is a highly managed game fenced place. The owner is saying that it is still early.

ing

Tony,

Let's hope your friends are right on the rut not coming in yet.  Have to admit, on the place we hunt movement patterns have been the strangest we've ever seen in the 5 years we've hunted it.

That is how things are with deer, when you think you have them figured out, everything goes out the window.

Heading west this afternoon. We got a call last night that the deer are absolutely running eveywhere. Big bucks coming to the feeders behind the house. Some that we have never seen and two that we have been after all year. Weather is going to be very cold. In the teens Friday and Saturday morning. Snow in the forcast from 2:00am-4:00pm Friday. This is the weekend to get'er done.

Sounds great!  let us know how you do.