2020 Blacktail rut/pre-rut and post rut thread

[SeatoSummit88]

Here we go! Thanks.

Last picture of the BT Hair on the bone is my rattling pair***

[fishnfur]

I think I found the culprit!  Big rub, tiny horns...

I think the rub was created by a forkie or better.  A little button buck/small spikes seem to like little whippy one inch wide woody stems, but I guess only the deer know for sure. 

[fishnfur]

Here we go! Thanks.

Last picture of the BT Hair on the bone is my rattling pair***

Definitely buck hair in the middle.  The long black on in the last photo would be elk if you had them in Bothel, which doesn't seem to fit.

We all knew it was a weird year, the way the general season was really slow getting going.  Things seemed to get back to normal at the end of October, but then the first 2.5 weeks of November, the bucks were non-existent, though a few nice ones hit the dirt in late buck.   The last buck I had on cam was the 19th, which is a full week later than normal and at a point that during a normal year, the bucks would have been gone for good. 
    I almost pulled in my cams yesterday, but I was feeling lazy.   I grabbed a SD card this morning just for something to do and find that two different bucks were in the yard chasing last night - the one sided spike and the three point.  They showed and chased several times during the night, even though the apples have been gone for a couple days now.  We talk about second estrus in late November but this is the first I've ever recorded it. 
   I heard from my neighbor that the guy across the street from us arrowed a five point in his back yard last week, and that another five point had been shot/arrowed (?) and found dead and unrecovered under a cedar in his front yard.   I guess that explains where the nice bucks disappear to every year.

[fishnfur]

I found this capture from the 14th of November on a different cam - a 4 X 3 that I've never seen before.  These are the ones that I find really interesting.  When you start capturing bucks you've never seen before, it signifies something has changed for those bucks.  I'm guessing that it may be that all his local doe are bred or in between cycles, so he's cruising outside his normal territory to find new action.  That of course has no impact on how we hunt them though.

[fishnfur]

Last word - this is the moment you suddenly come to the realization that you have too many cams in your back yard :   

I'm hittin' the woods tomorrow.

[TheStovePipeKid]

Last word - this is the moment you suddenly come to the realization that you have too many cams in your back yard :   

I'm hittin' the woods tomorrow.

Why aren't you poking deer in your back yard too?

[fishnfur]

I've never seen a buck with my own eyes in my backyard in 13 years here.  They are there in the daylight only for about 3 minutes per year as far as I can tell - talk about long sits between sightings!  

I've got neighbors very close on all sides, and those deer can run a long way after getting arrowed.  I think most neighbors would question my sanity for hunting in my back yard, and perhaps not give permission to retrieve or blood track an animal.  Mostly though, they are more fun for me to watch and study their habits than they are to eat, at least for the local herd.

[SeatoSummit88]

Fishinfur, so the hair in the middle picture on the tree is all the same on the bottom. I wiped the rub and then put the hair on my rattling set for the picture.  Would both bucks and bulls rub the same tree??

[fishnfur]

Yes they will, though the buck rub is typically around a foot lower than the elk rub.  Deer hair is short and gray.  Elk hair from rubbing is typically somewhere around three inches and black.