How is the rut for those who hunt in and around Marion Junction, either north or south of Hwy 80.

Have been down to my place every weekend and a few weekdays for the last 4 weeks, and haven’t seen much rut activity. Seen a few bucks half heartedly mess with doe while feeding in green fields; have also seen quite a few rubs. But out of my 800 acres I have only found one minor scrape.

Trying to figure out if I missed the rut or if it still hasn’t happened.

Yes

It happened last year.

Not much of a rut this year. Last year nearly every buck you seen had a busted up rack.
Last weekend they were out roaming. Talked to an old timer that hunts most every day.
He said he hasn’t seen any chasing all week.

It was always January 10 to end of season for us. We hunted just north of 80 on the Cahaba

Same with us, but it’s been extremely slow for us this year.

@turkey neck

Lol.

We're right at the Junction, and mature bucks deers started roaming on our place the first week of January

Thanks for the reply. Usually our deer don’t start rutting until late January/early feb, but I’m afraid I may have missed it this year based on the other responses. Our rut was very late last year - I have trail cam pics of fawns with spots on them in early December of 2019...

I don't see how there is any deer left around Marion Junction. There is more coyote out by the Auburn place than anywhere I've ever seen. Literally, I see at least 1 every time I go there. I will see more coyote there on 120 acres in the summer than all the other places I go combined. Obviously, they are attracted to the sound of a tractor and hay cutter.. They will get about 30 foot behind the cutter and follow it catching mice. I've had as many as 5 behind the cutter at one time with more around the field.

That's nuts. We have land that is right next to the Auburn facility and we have yet to see a yote. We hear them a bunch over that way though. Y'all keep them over there.

For us on the other side of the river, it is winding down. The young bucks are feeding heartily to get their strength back. The older, stronger bucks are still roaming looking for the left over does.

Kinda like that global warming theory. You can always find an expert to say it's true but you can't find any evidence.
Ironically the places with the most coyotes always sport the best deer population.

I've never seen a deer on this property but it is all pasture and I'm only there during the summer. So, not the best time or habitat. Fawn wouldn't survive a night on this particular property.

How do you know a fawn wouldn't survive? To what evidence can you make that conclusion?
Plenty of fawns survive in high Coyote areas, that's why we see so many deer. I live in an area with a tremendous Coyote population and a tremendous deer population. I'm here every day, year round, I get to watch them interact. I've seen, many times, deer and Coyotes together in the same field, neither one paying attention to the other. I'm not defending coyotes, by any means, in fact I hate them. But I also know for a fact they are not the deer killers that we're led to believe.

I know you have read the study at Ft. Rucker. Your argument was so many was killed because of poor fawning habitat. I'm agreeing with you. 120 acres of pasture is poor fawning habitat.

I hunt Marion Junction just south of 80 and also hunt the land just north of the Auburn facility. We think the rut in Marion Junction may have happened a little earlier than usual this year. We've been there 6 years and it has always been MLK week. Little action this year on those dates. A couple of weeks before that we saw some young bucks fighting and some ground that had been torn up by fighting deer. No way to know if they were just young ones scrapping or big boys, but it looked like some major fighting happened. One guy killed a good buck that had puncture holes all in it. He killed it on Jan 19 and the holes were scabbed over and full of pus. Looked to be several weeks old. All that to say everything we saw pointed toward maybe an earlier rut. We did kill 3 good bucks this year and saw many more on their feet than previous years, but only one seemed to be chasing. I personally didn't see a single buck chasing the whole year. That's never happened to me down there.

The land above the Auburn place IS slap covered up with Yotes. My BIL has killed 3 or 4 in the past month and we see them in the ag field we hunt literally every time we are there. We're planning to do a number on them this offseason though...

It always happens about the same time. Some years you see it some years you dont but it happens at the same time

This is actually true all across the state. Those people who don't believe in shooting a doe are the reason you don't see it.

Or maybe people have shot to many bucks.