There are a lot of big deer pictures floating around the Internet these days. One that’s recently caught our attention is this super wide buck from Virginia with a reported 32-inch inside spread.

The buck was supposedly killed around Chase City on October 30th on a large tract of land that borders the town limits where hunting is not allowed.

The next 10 days will likely bring some of your best hunting of the year. Last week we saw a marked change in buck behavior (on and off camera) and what we saw we liked. We are looking for some pretty good action after this storm passes, provided all our deer are not blown into Ohio.

We’ve received numerous reports of hunters getting shots and many more almost getting shots. Numerous chases have been reported but they still sound like testosterone-driven chases of short duration and no actual breeding. From the description provided, only one estrus chase was reported last week.

According to most breeding models, somewhere around 10-12% of the does will be in estrus this week or next. If one or more does on your property comes into estrus it will be Katie bar the door for a day or two. If not, it will still be business as usual. 

Each fall, my son Neil and I head for a world-class piece of property we affectionately refer to as The Laboratory, which has increased our understanding of the rut dramatically. This elevated box blind affords us the opportunity to keep track of deer rutting behavior on more than 600 acres at once. It’s equivalent to watching several properties at the same time, and we can often see a dozen or more bucks simultaneously in a variety of habitats.

This stand overlooks acre upon acre of CRP fields, a dozen or so food plots, a few crop fields, and several woodlots. The CRP fields are made up of goldenrod, brushy areas, and hedgerows. The timber is mostly hardwoods with some stands of conifers mixed in. The crops are usually corn and beans, and the food plots vary by the year.

With the “hunter’s rut” still a few weeks off, your game plan for hunting the week ahead should be to stay on those food sources, but tread lightly.

The past few days have been relatively quiet here on our New York property, and contacts from all over the country are reporting similar activity. Although bucks are exhibiting some rut-related behavior, we clearly are a number of weeks away from prime time.

Statistically, we observed 6.6 deer per hour on stand this week. We stayed on food plots as our resident deer clearly remain on a feeding binge—there have been plenty of sightings to keep us awake, alert, and having fun through the entire sit. While we saw plenty of deer, older bucks were in short supply