Southern Maine Rut

[duckey]

Was Grouse hunting this past Monday with my father and on some old stomping grounds.  Found a mess of grouse by some old apple trees and also the area was torn up with tracks, rubs, and a fresh scrape.  I am confident the buck had visited this scrape the same morning.  I feel it is late for the rut or could this be a second rut?

[aquaassassin]

A doe that never got bred or a fawn coming into estrous late is totally normal. I have seen it on a few occasions this late.

[nofishin]

Bucks will continue to scrape and rub long after the "rut" is over.  I have seen bucks rubbing trees into January.  That being said the second rut is about or is happening.  Yearling does or those does that have not been breed yet will come back into estrus

[duckey]

Thanks for the info. 

[Aziscohosbuck]

Thanks for the info.

The rut is very late in Northern Maine this year, was just getting going during the last week of firearms season, from my observations this year it was late in starting in Central Maine as well, can't comment on Southern Maine as I don't hunt down there.

[mdanforth]

it started the last week here as well.....

[rude the dude]

it started the last week here as well.....

the rut is a month long event with different phases, the peak of it was when all the big deer where getting posted on here.  I hightly doubt it STARTED in southern me. the last week of nov.

[MEhunter]

Like Rude said the "rut" was all month, but the peak was for sure that last week in Southern Maine, or at least that's what the pictures I got on all my cams that week led me to believe.  Had multiple bucks on each cam that one week.  Also judging by the amount of movement that went on during that big storm we had the day before Thanksgiving.  Normally it seems like the day after the storm is the best or at least a few hours after the storm.  It was pretty evident that the deer in my area moved continuously throughout the storm judging by the amount of tracks that had varying amounts of snow in them.  The buck I tracked that day I jumped for the first time at 1 and I had already followed him for about an hour and a half and he hadn't bedded once.  He was just zig zagging in and out of a real good bedding area that had a lot of other deer tracks in it (he was really searchin hard for a hot doe).