Hope ya get a shot on him
BR.
Here in Ohio, our 1st. pre-rut starts about the last week of Oct. and usually peaks towards the end of the second week of Nov.
Our bucks are currently still running together as I watched three last night browsing the clover field. I suppose they are getting less tolerant of each other as I watched one buck un-aggressively shove the other aside. But there was no question they were together.
Needless to say, I was out squirrel hunting/scouting the other day and came across a very fresh deer scrape already.
The deer haven't even started rubbing yet.
It's a very large scrape under a tree that usually has a scrape every year. The prints in the scrape were about 1/4" wider then a shotgun shell. There was also a huge pile of (clumped) droppings at the edge. Lots of evidence of a very nice buck.
This is the earliest I can remember ever seeing a scrape. And again, have not even found a rub yet.
Been trying to figure this out and wondering if the fact that the last couple years, there have been many fawns dropped very late in the season has something to do with these particular does cycle. That, and we've had some unseasonably cool nights here.
Don't know but it seems strange.