roscopee said it above, if you can't kill a buck in 3 1/2 months, maybe needing to hunt during the rut isn't the real problem. I am 40 years old, have hunted my whole life, and have hunted in Lowndes, Lee, Chambers, Macon, Tallapoosa, Talladega, Calhoun, and Cleburne counties. I have seen deer chasing in October, Nov, Dec, and Jan. I have hunted multiple seasons in a row without seeing even a spike walking behind a doe. And I have killed at least one good buck virtually ever year. I couldn't care less if I see a buck chasing a doe or not, and I don't need that to happen for me to see a mature buck. My point is I (nor you) need the rut to happen in order to kill a mature buck. Every time a hunter tells me "I never see mature bucks until the last week of January" (or February, or Spring Turkey Season), I immediately want him to show me where he's been sitting. If that's your case, the problem is NOT needing the rut to occur, but rather you need to move where you can see a big buck. Get out of the shooting house, get off the fields, don't ride you ATV within earshot of your tree, be in the tree WAY before daylight, sit till WAY after dark, quit hunting in that "pretty spot" where you want deer to be, and on and on and on. Big bucks are in the cutovers from Thanksgiving through January, period. If you don't have cutovers, find a new club that does, because you got jacksquat chance of seeing a big buck in any other place. But quit screwing up a 3 1/2 month long hunting season because you've bought into the "Outdoor Channel" hunting worldview. If you have racked deer on your cameras at night, they are there in the light!!! And they don't lay flat all day long, they're not in a cave, they will actually stand up and move during daylight SOMEWHERE on your land. If your land is thick, all short pines, etc., find another land!!!! Quit being a "hunting club" member. Put the climber on your back, walk as far as you need to, don't be stupid with the wind, and hunt where the bucks are, not just on the big pretty greenfield that he is NEVER gonna walk out on. In the last 20 seasons I have killed more mounter bucks from Oct 15 - Oct 31 than all the rest of the season combined. And I have NEVER hunted anywhere that a genuine rut didn't occur between Christmas and Jan 10. Deer are poly-estrous, meaning they'll cycle every 28 days till bred. The rut will get stronger each cycle because fewer does are remaining. First rut will be weak, 2nd rut stronger, etc. What you're seeing from Jan 25 thru Feb 10 is the stronger 2nd cycle. The first true Alabama rut happened between Christmas and Jan 10. You may not have seen it, but those scrapes didn't show up mid-December for nothing. But I guess you were expecting every racked deer on your land to be wide-eyed and fighting, standing in the powerline with a doe, and otherwise acting like the Outdoor Channel shows?? It's Alabama, it's just the genetic dispostion of our deer, and the overall poor deer structure. You can't depend on a defined, dependable rut. If Bama's season ran from June 1 through Sept 15 (3.5 months) I'd still kill deer. I reckon I sound like a know-it-all, but it's just common sense. If you had to kill a buck to eat (or you'd starve to death), how would you do it???....men, you've got 3 1/2 months to kill 3 bucks. Don't piss it all away hoping (against hope) that they'll finally walk the last day of season. And don't take my October away because you want an Outdoor Channel rut-hunt in February. I killed three good racked bucks this year...you want to know when I killed them? Nov 29, Dec 11, Jan 7. I also shot a buck and lost him on Dec 7. And I probably saw at least 10 racked bucks this year. Not a single one of them was chasing a doe. The common denominator?....Hardwoods in bow season, cutover in gun season.