Chuck Sharp has scouted and hunted hard this year, and the payoff came quickly the past few days. On Thursday he killed a mature six-pointer (he sent me that shot, too, and I can assure you it was a big six) in Franklin County.
His Saturday hunt in Botetourt County got off to a rough start when he saw three coyotes. But then this unique eight-pointer showed up and Chuck will now be back to hunting east of the Blue Ridge this week. (Hunters can take only one buck in Western counties during the early muzzleloader season, one of the strangest and least sensible rules in Virginia's hunting regs book.)
So, the question everyone wants to know now is "What's going on with the rut?"
I wish I knew.
On Nov. 2, I saw a four-pointer aggressively chasing a doe. But that's been the only real chasing I've seen. Granted, I haven't been out there a bunch, but I've been out there a decent amount.
I hunted with a muzzleloader in Botetourt County on Saturday afternoon and saw a bunch of does in a big field. I would have expected to see at least one small buck out there bothering them. But I didn't see a one. A decent six-pointer showed up right at last shooting light, and walked by me at 20 yards. He was a big deer and at least 2 1/2. But he was nowhere close to the six I shot last year so I passed on him.
My friend who hunted the same property saw six bucks that morning and none seemed to be chasing or even seeking. He said they were feeding.
Supposedly the key to the timing of the rut is photoperiod, or length of daylight and dark. So, it really shouldn't change from year to year. But it really does seem like things are kind of slow to get rolling this year, and we can't really blame the weather because it's been fairly cool, unlike in some recent years.
I know one thing is really behind -- leaves on the trees. I'd expect to see the woods in this shape about the last week of October. So maybe the bucks are chasing and we're just not noticing because we can't see them through all the leaves that are still out there.
I plan to hunt this afternoon and tomorrow morning, back in Botetourt. I have several buddies out there this morning and haven't gotten any text messages from them, so I'm assuming it's been pretty quiet.
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