Let's hear y’alls best rut hunts or most memorable

[KevChap]

Best one for me was last November in Greene co. Bunch of us went to camp together to cook, drink some beers and enjoy some fine hunting. Saturday morning my friends son shot a nice buck chasing. A couple minutes after I heard his shot I watched a giant chase a doe and couldn't get a shot.. after I got down that's all I could think about all day. We went back out that evening and another buddy shot a smaller 8. The next morning I go back to the same stand and it was so foggy I couldn't see far. Decided to wait it out and by 9:30 the fog lifted and I started seeing deer moving. by 10:30 I killed the buck I watched the day before except this time he was 20 yards away feeding. Best hunt with all the action that weekend and my biggest deer so far

 

[KevChap]

 

[Dutch]

November 8th, 2015...it was raining to beat them band when I got up that morning to go hunting, my wife was said "are you really going hunting in this?"...I said "yup, can't kill one on the couch". So I get to the woods and make my way down to my box stand (thankfully it had a roof), get settled in and wait. This whole time it is washing the frogs out from under the stand, but about daylight it lighted up from a deluge to a downpour. I see movement about 60 yards to my right and saw antlers, turned to my right, but the buck turned and went back into the thick woods. I just happen to have my rattling antlers with me, so I commence a quick rattle sequence...and the buck comes high stepping out looking for the bucks trespassing on his turf. he is walking at a quick pace through the pines, and by now I noticed he is a good un....so I get him in the scope and pull the trigger...and miss. The buck steps behind a pine and I can see part of left side and left antler, I just knew he was going to walk straight away from me into the nearby creek bottom...but I get a good brace and keep him in the scope. After a couple of minutes he angles left away from the pine, I put the crosshairs behind his ribcage and pull the trigger...he drops his butt and heads for the bottom. I knew that I had hit him and it was raining again to beat the band so I got down and went to find blood before it washed away.

Found good blood where took off from and started trailing as it was washing away quick...used my hat, my orange vest, and my shirt to mark the trail but lost it at the bottom...started trying to call someone to get to the farm and help me find him, as I was trying to get a signal, I looke in the bottom and saw hos whit belly about 25 yds in. He was down and was the largest main frame 8 I have ever killed. 30-06 150 gr. traversed from left to right, ended up under the skin in the right shoulder.

 

[KevChap]

That's awesome.. the rut is so unpredictable and that's what makes it so fun

 

[Kev]

November 8th, 2015...it was raining to beat them band when I got up that morning to go hunting, my wife was said "are you really going hunting in this?"...I said "yup, can't kill one on the couch". So I get to the woods and make my way down to my box stand (thankfully it had a roof), get settled in and wait. This whole time it is washing the frogs out from under the stand, but about daylight it lighted up from a deluge to a downpour. I see movement about 60 yards to my right and saw antlers, turned to my right, but the buck turned and went back into the thick woods. I just happen to have my rattling antlers with me, so I commence a quick rattle sequence...and the buck comes high stepping out looking for the bucks trespassing on his turf. he is walking at a quick pace through the pines, and by now I noticed he is a good un....so I get him in the scope and pull the trigger...and miss. The buck steps behind a pine and I can see part of left side and left antler, I just knew he was going to walk straight away from me into the nearby creek bottom...but I get a good brace and keep him in the scope. After a couple of minutes he angles left away from the pine, I put the crosshairs behind his ribcage and pull the trigger...he drops his butt and heads for the bottom. I knew that I had hit him and it was raining again to beat the band so I got down and went to find blood before it washed away.

Found good blood where took off from and started trailing as it was washing away quick...used my hat, my orange vest, and my shirt to mark the trail but lost it at the bottom...started trying to call someone to get to the farm and help me find him, as I was trying to get a signal, I looke in the bottom and saw hos whit belly about 25 yds in. He was down and was the largest main frame 8 I have ever killed. 30-06 150 gr. traversed from left to right, ended up under the skin in the right shoulder.

View attachment 1045676

View attachment 1045677

View attachment 1045678

I remember that weekend. I killed a big one too and got wet.

 

[Jim Boyd]

Bulloch county Ga

1998? 1996?

Pics are long gone now.

Dawgs were playing someone big and it was hot - my brother took a pass and I went to stand.

Heard grunting coming and a doe ran past going 15 mph.

Buck one

Buck two

Buck three

Buck four

Buck five

Buck six


Can’t recall now if it was 6 bucks or 7 but the last one was about a minute behind the parade - and he was the biggest.

We talk about it to this day.

My guess is Larry Munson was calling the Dawgs and I was having the time of my life.

 

[Dutch]

2nd best was same farm on 29th Oct. 2012...full moon and 30 mph winds. Killed this one as he was slipping through the pines and came out in a 50 yd opening we had a stand on, at 6 pm. I had left my coat in the truck and was hunkered down behind the stand walls with just my eyes showing, trying to keep from being frozen. He stepped out and the 30-06 barked. High shoulder put him down for good.

 

[Josh B]

Mine wasn't even a kill. It was a young buck chasing the heck out of a doe all around me. He was basically yelling at her. Sounded like nothing I've heard in life or tv. It was like a teenage boys voice cracking. It was loud and long. I just kept hoping all the commotion would draw in a big one. I've killed plenty of big bucks acting dumb too.

 

[KevChap]

2nd best was same farm on 29th Oct. 2012...full moon and 30 mph winds. Killed this one as he was slipping through the pines and came out in a 50 yd opening we had a stand on, at 6 pm. I had left my coat in the truck and was hunkered down behind the stand walls with just my eyes showing, trying to keep from being frozen. He stepped out and the 30-06 barked. High shoulder put him down for good.

View attachment 1045682

That's a nice deer and a awesome rifle.. I'd love to find one

 

[Kev]

2nd best was same farm on 29th Oct. 2012...full moon and 30 mph winds. Killed this one as he was slipping through the pines and came out in a 50 yd opening we had a stand on, at 6 pm. I had left my coat in the truck and was hunkered down behind the stand walls with just my eyes showing, trying to keep from being frozen. He stepped out and the 30-06 barked. High shoulder put him down for good.

View attachment 1045682

I remember that day too ?. Killed a big 8 that afternoon. You and me must kill on the same days

 

[Nicodemus]

November 14th, 2016, and the rut was red scalding hot here in Lee County. This buck was the 24th deer I saw that morning, and he stepped out at 8:45. I generally try to take a picture of a buck before I shoot it, but I wasn`t about to take any chances with this deer. He`s a 7 point and weighed 232 pounds. I`m proud of every deer I`ve ever killed, but this buck is special.

 

[KevChap]

November 14th, 2016, and the rut was red scalding hot here in Lee County. This buck was the 24th deer I saw that morning, and he stepped out at 8:45. I generally try to take a picture of a buck before I shoot it, but I wasn`t about to take any chances with this deer. He`s a 7 point and weighed 232 pounds. I`m proud of every deer I`ve ever killed, but this buck is special.






View attachment 1045686View attachment 1045687

Stud! I wouldn't have taken any chances either

 

[KevChap]

Bulloch county Ga

1998? 1996?

Pics are long gone now.

Dawgs were playing someone big and it was hot - my brother took a pass and I went to stand.

Heard grunting coming and a doe ran past going 15 mph.

Buck one

Buck two

Buck three

Buck four

Buck five

Buck six


Can’t recall now if it was 6 bucks or 7 but the last one was about a minute behind the parade - and he was the biggest.

We talk about it to this day.

My guess is Larry Munson was calling the Dawgs and I was having the time of my life.

I miss ol Larry Munson.. he'd get me so fired up

 

[Dutch]

That's a nice deer and a awesome rifle.. I'd love to find one

I bought that rifle when I came home from Germany in '89. It aint pretty but it has killed a pile of deer.

 

[stonecreek]

2010 peak of the rut got in stand around 1000am planning to sit till 1 then go to work. Was overlooking a food plot that was about 100 yards long 50 yards wide. Plot had hardwoods on 3 sides and pines on the other. Around 1130 I heard a ruckus headed my way and literally thought it was a group of boar hogs on a hot sow. Out popped a big doe and in pursuit was 5 mature bucks. They never broke stride running the entire length of the plot. I sat there thinking that was way cool. About 10 minutes later they came back from opposite direction at breakneck speed. I actually yelled at them hoping one would stop. Didn’t happen. Again they were gone and I was thinking how lucky I was to see that. About 5 minutes later they came back and repeated the same route as the first run but I noticed now the big boys were lagging behind tongues out! Well I was hunting with a Remington youth model 243 that I had bought my girls years before. I did exactly what I had preached to my kids not to do. The last buck was more trotting than sprinting and I led him and popped a round. Was sure I missed? I sat there and cussed myself a bit for taking a running shot. About 20 minutes later I got down and walked the plot. No blood and I cussed myself some more. Walked to the pines where I had last seen him exit the plot and there he lay piled up 25 yards in. A fat toad of a buck. Had to get help to load him. I still preach no running shots.

 

[KevChap]

2010 peak of the rut got in stand around 1000am planning to sit till 1 then go to work. Was overlooking a food plot that was about 100 yards long 50 yards wide. Plot had hardwoods on 3 sides and pines on the other. Around 1130 I heard a ruckus headed my way and literally thought it was a group of boar hogs on a hot sow. Out popped a big doe and in pursuit was 5 mature bucks. They never broke stride running the entire length of the plot. I sat there thinking that was way cool. About 10 minutes later they came back from opposite direction at breakneck speed. I actually yelled at them hoping one would stop. Didn’t happen. Again they were gone and I was thinking how lucky I was to see that. About 5 minutes later they came back and repeated the same route as the first run but I noticed now the big boys were lagging behind tongues out! Well I was hunting with a Remington youth model 243 that I had bought my girls years before. I did exactly what I had preached to my kids not to do. The last buck was more trotting than sprinting and I led him and popped a round. Was sure I missed? I sat there and cussed myself a bit for taking a running shot. About 20 minutes later I got down and walked the plot. No blood and I cussed myself some more. Walked to the pines where I had last seen him exit the plot and there he lay piled up 25 yards in. A fat toad of a buck. Had to get help to load him. I still preach no running shots.View attachment 1045696

He's a goodun.. I suck at a free hand shot I wouldn't try a running shot? awesome deer

 

[ugajay]

Halloween 2007. Was in a climber looking down an old logging road with the only two oak trees around in front of me. Two year old clear-cut to my left and hardwood ridge to my right. I could see about 80 yards in front of me. Two does came out and started feeding and then a 4 point started harassing them. He was grunting every step he took, and I had never heard that before. A six point came out running the smaller buck off, and started sweet talking the ladies. I heard some crashing coming through the clear-cut and the six point braced down, right before a big 8 hammered him right in his side. Every deer ran off except the 8 point. I shot him at 17 yards. First 8 I ever killed and still the biggest. Was so excited I left my rifle propped up against a tree and didn't realize it until I was getting out of my truck to go hunting that evening. I'll remember that one forever

 

[KevChap]

Halloween 2007. Was in a climber looking down an old logging road with the only two oak trees around in front of me. Two year old clear-cut to my left and hardwood ridge to my right. I could see about 80 yards in front of me. Two does came out and started feeding and then a 4 point started harassing them. He was grunting every step he took, and I had never heard that before. A six point came out running the smaller buck off, and started sweet talking the ladies. I heard some crashing coming through the clear-cut and the six point braced down, right before a big 8 hammered him right in his side. Every deer ran off except the 8 point. I shot him at 17 yards. First 8 I ever killed and still the biggest. Was so excited I left my rifle propped up against a tree and didn't realize it until I was getting out of my truck to go hunting that evening. I'll remember that one forever

still to this day I get so tore up after killing a deer no telling what I've forgot?

 

[Sixes]

6-8 years ago, it was one of those absolute perfect November morning. I was setup overlooking a cleared, ready for planting clearcut that was bordered by a large creek with thick bedding cover surrounding the cut and large pushed up brush piles. From the time that I climbed up before daylight until pulling the trigger around 830 or so, I saw at the least a dozen bucks and tons of does. The deer were chasing, grunting, fighting and actually breeding all in the bottom.

The buck I killed was walking up the creek a long ways away when I saw him, I let out 2 or 3 really loud snort wheezes and the buck turned around and headed at an angle towards me trying to find the other buck. He was bristled and looking to fight. He ran into another buck that was with a doe and started after them. After a short dash, he broke away and started walking again.

I braced on the stand and when he stopped, I fired and the shot was ~265 yards and I hit him high and he went straight down. He ended up having a broken g4 on one side and a 13" G2 on the other.

The buck was rutted up and had the worst musk smell of any buck that I have ever shot. He weighed in at 220 on the hoof with a monstrous neck.

The amount of rut activity that day was incredible, my cousin was in a stand about mile or so from me and he was 8-9 bucks chasing does that same timeframe. It was just a special day.

 

[The Original Rooster]

My most memorable rut was one I posted about back in 2013 on here as the story of my first deer. Here's my story.

I believe it was 1982 when I was 11 years old. My dad, grandfather and I had built a stand down in the river swamp of the Oconee river not far from Glenwood, GA. I recall we didn't have enough lumber to finish it so we cut down an "ironwood" tree as my grandfather called it to finish the last 3 or 4 steps. We had built quite a few stands in the swamp just before the season started. This one was in a small slough off the river that was probably covered in water most of the summer.
My father had bought me a Winchester 1200 20 gauge shotgun the year before from Otasco. I had killed quite a few squirrels with it but was still too small to pump the action without setting the butt of the gun down on my knee and pumping it.
The season started and I was still sitting in the stand with my dad. We ran off a buck one morning climbing down from the stand in the slough so he said we'd hunt it again the next morning to see if it tended a small scrape it had started. My brother Nick was hunting with us that next morning. I remember it was fairly cool because I was wearing the warmest clothes I had at the time but Nick had on his old hole filled tiger striped camouflage. I always thought those were the coolest camo. Nick always seemed to have the coolest stuff. I rarely got to see him back then so it was a big deal for him to be there hunting with us. He and my dad were carrying their Remington 742 30-06's. I had the 20 gauge that was nearly as tall as me. I was wearing one of those vinyl red vests they made back then before the quiet mesh ones came out. That thing made an awful racket. After what seemed like a walk of 10 miles into the swamp in the pitch black, Nick detoured off to a beaver pond. My dad and I continued on for another 20 miles or so it seemed to my short legs. We finally came to the stand with the ironwood limbs as steps. My dad asked if I wanted to sit alone and he'd sit on the ground a couple of hundred yards behind me. Of course, I jumped all over the idea. I climbed up, he handed the shotgun to me and I loaded it up with three number 3 buckshot. The last thing my dad said was, "if you shoot one, shoot it twice to be sure". He walked off behind me and disappeared into the swamp. After a while, the sun came up and I started recognizing things around me from when we sat there the previous day. Squirrels were doing their thing all over the place and even running up and down the tree I was in. Giant great horned owls were winging their way through the swamp back to whatever tree holes they lived in during the day. I can remember it almost seemed primeval back in those swamps. They hadn't been cut since my grandfather had been a child and the lumber company came the very next year and clear cut most of it to the ground. To me, it almost seemed like the swamp was underground and the lumber company had just uncovered it like it was a hole waiting to be found.
But not that morning. The sun had to get up pretty high before it was very light at all. The trees blocked a lot of the light and it stayed pretty cool because of it. Finally, I could see fairly well. I was trying to remember everything my dad and Nick had taught me over the past few years. Move your eyes before you move your head when you're looking around. Move slowly and don't jerk around or fidget in your seat even though that plywood I was sitting on was not the least bit comfortable and the blood to my legs was getting cut off by it. Keep the brim of your hat down so your face doesn't shine. Keep your head covered. (I had platinum blonde hair as a child). While I was trying to remember everything they had said, I looked over to my right and saw a 6 point buck about 50 yards away. Strange, but I wasn't that nervous. I had seen deer before plenty of times in the pastures and woods so seeing this one didn't make me that shaky. He was feeding on acorns and slowly walking a half circle of a path that was going to lead in front of me. My dad had pointed out a few trees to remember on our previous hunts in the stand. "Don't shoot one if they are farther than this" he had said. It was about 30-35 yards to those trees, but it might as well have been 30 miles as well as I could judge distance back then, but it didn't matter. That 6 point kept plodding on, eating acorns and stopping every 10-12 steps. I had eased off the plywood torture seat and was sitting crouched on one knee on the platform of the stand. Right on queue, he stopped in a clearing right in front of the stand next to one of the trees my dad had pointed out. I eased the safety off between my fingers so it wouldn't click, just like dad and Nick had showed me. I pulled the shotgun up tight and put the bead just above his shoulder. When I pulled the trigger, he dropped like he'd been hit by lightning and started to flop around. Remembering what dad had said about shooting it twice, I sat the butt on the stand platform and racked another shell into the chamber. By this point, any calm feelings I may have had left me completely. I had a deer on the ground and I was determined to keep him there if it meant throwing the gun at him. Aiming as best I could, (which wasn't so good at all I discovered later), I let fly another dose of number 3 buckshot. Again, I racked the slide on the Winchester and tried to steady the bead on the deer. Boom! (It's funny, I don't recall hearing noise at all) I fired my final shell at the flopping deer and was terrified that he might get up and run off before my shaking hands could load some more shells into the shotgun. I figured the best thing to do was to yell for help before the deer took off, so I hollered as loud as I could. "Hurry up before he gets away Dad, Hurry up dang it!!!" I'm sure I ruined the hunting in the surrounding counties by yelling so loud.
Within a few minutes, Dad came walking up. Smiling, he asked, "Did you get him"? Grinning back at him, I said "Yeah, he's laying on the ground over there". We walked up to the deer from the blind side and poked it in the eye to be sure (something they never do on the hunting shows, and one of my pet peeves!). Grave yard dead he was. I felt like the greatest hunter who ever lived. For just a few minutes on that glorious morning in the swamp, maybe I was. I then discovered the bad part of deer hunting. Dragging the deer. In the days before 3 wheelers, 4 wheelers, golf carts, and Kubota’s, deer required dragging. Its a delicate art, make no mistake. I understand now why so many hunters die of heart attacks in the woods. Finally, after dragging the 6 pointer for 20 miles or so, Nick took my place and dragged it the rest of the way for me. They sent me ahead to get the truck, but I couldn't get it started. Not much of a driver back then I guess.
While cleaning the buck at my grandparents house, we found that someone had shot the buck the previous year in the hind quarter with what appeared to be bird shot. It didn't penetrate the meat, but was all stuck in the hide. Proof that there were idiots in the woods back in those days too! Dad found where I had hit the buck with 6 number 3 buckshot in the shoulder area. One of the shot had gone through the heart. Obviously those insurance shots I took were wasted money, but they certainly made me feel better at the time! Pictures of me and the buck were taken and festivities ensued.
The next year, the swamp was clear cut. I recall my dad saying, "You'll be my age before it looks like it did again". A few years later when I was a much more mature 14, we found the old stand while scouting the clear cut swamp. The ironwood steps were nearly rotted away but the lumber company had left the tree with the stand, I suppose because of the nails in it. Despite being too rotten to use, I was glad it was still there.
Well, 31 years (38 years now!) have passed since that morning. Dad was right, the swamp did eventually grow back. Not the same swamp I remember, or at least when I saw it last, which was about 8 years back. I still have the Winchester 20 gauge, but I couldn't tell you the last time I shot it. I even still have some of the number 3 buckshot my dad had bought at the Otasco. I graduated up to a rifle a few years after my first buck, so the 20 gauge didn't get used much. My nephew Warren used it for a while when he was little, which he didn't stay for long. He was probably the last to shoot it, but I keep it clean and oiled in the safe so it's ready to go at a moments notice in case a squirrel dares to run across the roof of my house.
I've killed quite a few deer since that morning, although it took nearly 8 seasons before I killed my second buck. After that one, there was a whole bunch I killed when I had access to a lot of fraternity brothers farms. Since then, I've hunted heavy some years and not at all others, but every year about this time, I think about that first buck and how much more fun hunting was to me back then. If I have my way, my wife and I will be buying a new house this year with some acreage attached. I believe I'll take up hunting and see if I can't make it fun again like it was back then.

It's been 7 years since I shared that story on this forum. As luck would have it, 3 years after I wrote this my wife and I did find a little piece of property with a house on it and I enjoy hunting my little 15 acres every year. This little place has really brought back the passion of hunting to me after I lost it from bad experiences with hunting clubs.
I've let dozens of does and several small bucks walk on this property and haven't pulled the trigger on a single one of them but this year, that's going to change. I've decided the free passes are over. I'm craving some bacon wrapped grilled backstrap. I'll be dropping a buck or doe soon and it will be a deer of many firsts, just like the story of my first deer. It will be the first deer on my property and my first with a muzzleloader. I'm hoping it will be tomorrow morning!
Hope y'all enjoyed my story.
RT