I saw more big bucks this weekend in Mills county than I had seen all season. It was odd. On one side of me I had a group of 7 small bucks up to 3.5. They stood around and sparred some and the two oldest bucks worked some bushes, but it appeared they were just settling the pecking order in their bachelor group.

1000 yards north of them I had one of the most mature bucks I have seen cruise a long brushline in a neighbors place, jump into our place in broad daylight and make over half a mile there before disappearing into a ravine. 40 minutes later I had a deer with an even better rack (8pt, 130+) come through parallel to the first but 200 yards closer to me. Both of them looked like they were hot on the trail of some wimmens.

Sunday morning in another pasture I had a real heavy-horned 10 run through an empty field and cruise a creek, again in broad daylight.

Timing-wise, this would be about the third go-round of the rut, so a hot doe wouldn't necessarily be out of the question, but these guys were treating it like the peak of the first rut.

It made for some fun hunting, and all three should make it through!

That's crazy. I hunted and worked in Mills County this year in November. Seems like the main rut was VERY strong, maybe I timed it right out there, but it seemed much more pronounced than our Brown County place. Something in the water, I guess.

I saw three ruts in Brown County this year

Our first rut was somewhat muddled, but we took four does this weekend and all were visibly pregnant when we cleaned them. They definitely bred a while back.

We saw 3 ruts in Freestone county as well.

I saw quite a few bucks in Coleman County last weekend - both with binoculars and on game cams. Didn't think much of it. One of our nicest bucks came out and ate at the feeder. Definitely a shooter, but giving him another season to plant his seeds.

Walked the woods in Walker Co. this weekend with a buddy and we found active scrapes all over the place

I was guiding a young man for his first doe on Thursday morning and watched a 3.5yr old 9pt make a scrape. It was a neat teaching experience for the boy, as he got to watch a buck nuzzle low hanging branches, paw at the ground, and finally raise his tail and finish the job on the freshly scraped dirt. I haven't seen any chasing/fighting lately, but this buck was definitely still interested in the opposite sex.

We are roughly ten minutes west of Goldthwaite.