RUT REPORT morgan/lawrence

What is folks seeing far as rut in morgan and Lawrence county? Is it getting close?

Next week will be a big week in the area.

Ya done missed it.

I have a feeling you may be right.

Ive found it really starts in that area around December 1st, but really gets cranking around the 9th or 10th and it is wide open.

Ive killed a few good ones on December 2nd. One of my favorite days to hunt. Good bucks out looking during daylight, or trailing does, pushing them.

Good luck and let us know what you see and shoot.

Central and eastern Morgan county will be January normally, The western part of Morgan should be good soon. I work on the northwest part of Morgan by Lawrence county and there is nothing yet. Last year I saw good activity the 2nd week of December and have seen it strong through the end of December

Feel free to wait til Jan in the NW part of Morgan or in Lawrence and you'll miss it. A few big ones hit the dirt this pm that we're chasing pretty hard. Dec 5-15 is the primo max.

I've worked for Kinder Morgan at Nucor for nearly 8 years and spent a lot of hours driving the port road back where Nucor joins Mallard Creek and last year there was hard chasing the 2nd week of Dec. Thats probably the first year I remember it that hard that early. I saw a 3 yr old 8 pt this week and some other guys have been mentioning seeing smaller bucks. No one has seen anything great yet. In years past it seems the last week of December was very good. I may still have pics a guy got on one day of 3 different bucks, I figure there was a hot doe that day. One was around a 120 8pt, then 150 10pt, and the last is hard to say but from a 100yds off he looked very wide.

From 65 East its a different story. Our bucks are probably still in groups and won't get going until January

Yea you're right about priceville/Somerville area but it's kicking west. By dec 25 season mostly over for us out west.

I have been working all week and not able to hunt much, but I was able to get in my shooting house about 4:15 yesterday evening & killed a decent 8 pt a couple of minutes later. After I shot him, I pulled my camera cards to check the past week's activity. Starting on the 24th, the buck activity on my little place really picked up, and I have several pics of them following or chasing does, and hitting a scrape. I had previously had some buck activity around the week of the youth hunt, but it had gotten very slow until the 24th, then its like a switch was flipped. This is in eastern Lauderdale Co.

Congrats! You got a picture of that 8?

This is true. From what I'm seeing the bucks are still hanging around together.

Finally figured out how to post the pic. Excuse the fancy camo, I went right from work to the shooting house.

Pm sent

Otdoorobsession and boo boo head hit it. Breeding data for most of the valley in Lawrence county and western Morgan is consistently anytime in December. December 1-15 should be prime.

1st post so go easy...

Seems like most people refer to Black Warrior WMA as simply "Bankhead." I could be completely mistaken and, if so, I welcome any and all corrections. So, would this information be pertaining to the entirety of BNF or just to areas north of 278?

Didn’t get the pm.

I’m not referring to anything on Bankhead. I’m referring to the TN Valley north of Bankhead. Bankhead dates are even earlier. Peak breeding has already taken place there. The valley is about 14-21 days later.

What he said

Thanks gents

Actually my lease borders Bankhead NF on 3 sides (not the WMA but the NF) and we’ve just now started seeing scrapes. In the last week we’ve had 6 mature bucks show up on camera that haven’t been on our lease all year. Figure they’re 10 days out from hard chasing and 3 weeks out from peak rut.

Why would they be chasing does weeks before the rut?

Don't let them cross the road. It will set the rut back a whole month!

All this Rut talk lol, we have nearly 2 months before it'll good down here

So technically bucks are in rut from the time they shed their velvet till they shed their antlers... that peaks when the largest population of does go into estrus. That’s usually when they’re done chasing and they’re locked down with the does. That 10-15 days before the peak has always been the best hunting for me.

You interested in trading a North Alabama rut hunt for a late season one?

Where are you located? We may have breeding data from closeby I can provide you.

Northwestern Lawrence County will be hot these next two weeks, especially with the New Moon and another cold front. The last couple of years has seen the rut wide open in the Valley going into the second week of December. We have started seeing deer running across the paved roads during the day and night this week in Lawrence Co.

Yessir!

Bankhead deer are still a bit out. The ones we saw today showed no sign of getting ready. Maybe a week or so out. The cooler weather this week may jumpstart things. Just a little later than usual.

You must be south of 278, because north of 278 is wide open now.

They’re going to be winding down soon on Bankhead, at least from DS north to Moulton. If you’re there you’ve waited too late to catch the bulk of it. Even south of 278 there’s a lot of very early December breeding taking place.

I will tell you this, if they are about done, they sure haven't left much sign. The does we saw still had cottonball hocks and the bucks were not even close to being smelly or swollen. Or maybe we were just in an area with weirdos. After the early am, we covered a whole lot of ground and found very little buck sign where the does stay generally. Maybe west of 33 it's different, but east of 33, wasn't much going on nor any real sign that there had been lately.

North or South Bankhead seems to make the difference in timing to me. I have also noticed less food equals less buck sign. Maybe they don’t won’t to waste energy...... I’m no expert by no means just my experience.

There is very little food in the woods over there. Found one place there we're still a few acorns, but looked like they were hitting the briars and mushrooms in the hemlocks more.

I saw a dandy buck yesterday morning on the North side of Hwy 20 @ Hillsboro , right across from the gin on my way to work about 6:30 a.m. He was right behind the little block house or building, he was definitely looking for love I’d think. Robinhedd

Please shhhhhh on that sighting.

Just going off 4 yrs of hunting a couple miles south of D.S. the best days to hunt are Dec. 16- Christmas week. Start rabbit hunting or fishing after new years.

Any ag fields near or in that area?

No. It's all scrub brush and Nucor plants

Those damned Nucor plants have sharp spines. Can't ever get them out of my shoelaces.

I know it. They're taking over. Invasive species

From what I hear they took over all the ag land in the area and there isnt any more! Its why there arent many deer in that area.

Also the deer that are there are so small and have such poor antlers. Heck I hear their even high in those PFOAs and stuff from that 3M spilling contaminants.

Sad little bodied , under fed , small antlered , chemically altered critters.

was just told by a coworker that bucks were chasing does all over in the Eva area

big buck on ULA property chasing this morning!!

doodoo how could you see him? I nearly turned around and went back home the fog was so bad this Am. I mean bad

Fog was pretty bad on the drive in but I could see there at the plant. We could barely make out a lone doe then all of a sudden he walked out of a thicket and was standing on a small hill. Probably one of the better ones I’ve seen there!!

Some giants out there for sure

Nearly ?

Been seeing a big 12 last week and this week chasing on 3M property.