I have to agree with you on the rut Rufus. My dad has a farm in Orland and he calls me evry night to tell me about all of the bucks he is seeing. Here is a good story he told about yesterday.
On Saturday evening he was watching several smaller bucks. To him anything less than 10 points is a baby sparing in the field when all of a sudden a very large 16 pointer comes out to let all of the little guys know he is the boss. Dad said this buck was a perfect 16 pointer with a huge inside spread and brow tines at least 15 inches long. Possibly the biggest deer he has ever seen on the farm. Well this huge buck ran down the hill and jumped into a thicket about 20 yards from his stand and got himself stuck in all of the bushes. He was thrashing around for ever trying to get out and destroyed this thicket of briers and tangle berries and dad said this guy was stuck. While all of this was going on a five point walked over to investigate this big guy as if to say Ha Ha you cant get me. Dad couldnt get a clear shot at the monster because it was just to thick so he just had to sit there and watch. Well it got dark and dad had to wait until the bucks left so he could get down without giving away his location and finally at 8pm they were gone.
On sunday morning he went back out to the same stand and as it was getting light he could see what looked like a buck bed down right around were the comotion had happended the night before and wondered how a deer could have snuk in on him with out him hearing it. He knew it wasent there when he walked in because he would have spooked it out of there and he just figured he didnt here it walk in. Dad worked in a noisy factory for 30 years with out using ear plugs so he couldnt hear a howitzer going on next to him, so he thought maybe it walked in and just couldnt here it.
So here he sits in the tree sunday morning remaining motionless watching this deer until 11 am and he couldnt take it anymore so he moves a little and makes some noise and no response from the bedded buck. He finally has to get down and strecth his legs and he could see it wasent the monster buck from the night before so he climbs down.
The buck is still there.
So he decides to walk the 20 some yards over to it and see what is going on. When he gets to it he discovers the bedded buck is a dead buck. There is hair all over the ground and the buck appeared to be the five pointer from the night before. The left side of its antlers were broken off and the right side had 1 point broken off. It appeard as if the neck was broken on the buck and Dad is guessing that him and the big boy tangoed with each other and possible locked horns and the big boy won.
Dad sat on the stand for the rest of the day and saw several does and just about dark the big boy came out again and was chasing them all over the place, but again didnt get close enough for a shot.
Hopefully he will present himself for the old man before gun season opens. Because if he dosent, I will be there and hopefully he will be mine.
Good luck rufus and I hpe you can get yourself a wall hanger
