Rutting Season?

[drewtam]

I saw two bucks in my yard just now. One looked real young, barely any antlers. The other looked more mature. Has rutting season started in Central Illinois? I don't hunt so I never did get the cycles straight in my head.

I have a couple sheds from last winter that I use as rattlers, mimicking the hunting shows from TV I see once in a blue moon. I stood out on the front porch making a racket with the antlers. The mature buck was standing under a lonely street lamp at the end of my driveway, grazing on the midnight grass and wildflowers. He quickly looked up and gave me a hard stare while I continued to make noise. A few more times I rattled the horns. A twitch of the tail, then he decided he had enough and took off into the hills and oak forests that dominate the Illinois River valley. He wasn't more than 50ft away, yet never noticed as I opened the front door and quietly made my position on the porch. I hope I didn't scare him away for good. Despite their destruction of gardens, I find deer especially graceful and beautiful animals.
I didn't get a good look at the immature buck, he wandered off while I was digging in the closet for the antler sheds. I wonder if its the same one I saw grazing in the yard earlier this spring in the midday sun still sporting the tell-tale spots.

So can someone tell me when central IL rutting season starts and ends? Google is not being helpful.

[zahc]

it starts in OH around halloween. That's when I killed my big one anyway.

[Scout26]

Normally starts in late October and runs through late November.   When the "peak" is depends on the phases of the moon.

(Can I hunt your driveway ??)

[charby]

Might be a little pre rut activities?

I remember being 17 doing some mid october squirrel hunting and being spotted then challenged by a 10 point buck. He got with in 35 yrds of me, snorted and stomped then ran off over the ridge.

Here in Iowa the full blown rut usually doesn't start until mid November.

-C

[Azrael256]

I hope I didn't scare him away for good.

You should be so lucky!  Those damned things are hard to run off.  I knew an old man (who may or may not be related to me) who used to chase them off on his ATV, only to have them return to eat up the flower beds.

Flavor is the only thing that separates them from rats.

[Jamisjockey]

Pre-rut most likely.  Some light sparring is probably going on to establish dominance, but not too much more. 

[Lennyjoe]

Concur with Jamis. Mid Nov is whan the rut peaks in WVA too.

[280plus]

Some light sparring is probably going

Somehow I am reminded of this:

Daffy, fighting with his $1.25 quarter staff : "Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha - THRUST!" (quarter staff bounces off log, smacking him in the face and bending his bill. He straightens it back to normal, and starts speaking to himself) "Let's see now. Something amiss here... hmm, I'll run through it. Ho, haha, guard, turn, parry, dodge, spin, ha - thrust." (bill bends again) "Got it." (straightens bill, and starts his fighting moves again.) "Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin!" (Porky comes up and holds a toothpick up against the quarterstaff while Daffy is spinning it, stopping it and causing Daffy to spin instead. Daffy then falls back down into the lake)

 

[zahc]

Flavor is the only thing that separates them from rats.

My dad has a bean farm in OH and kills dozens of them every year (legally) with rifles. They cost him many thousands of dollars in beans every year. The situation being what it is, one's reverance and awe of the great whitetail deer pretty much dissolves after a few years. Rats is a good description; they even stop looking appetizing after a while.