Well they are definitely beginning to rut up here in SD. I have seen a change driving to work since Halloween...bucks in the open in broad daylight...nice ones, People I'm in touch with back home in Southern Indiana are seeing it too since last weekend, from reliable sources, so im saying they are on the same timing as us up here...Since Virginia is only a bit south in lattitude from down there in indiana, I wouldn't expect you guys to be too far off, if it hasn't picked up already. Are you seeing scrapes? Usually down in that area I'd see scrapes the last week of october... a lot of guys will find a line in november and not realize they're a week or two old and that the bucks are already out of that phase... man, i found a line once while still-hunting, with dew on the ground, and the scrapes dry... with dry dirt particles on top of the dew... i know i was right behind that buck within a few hours, and i just kept following the benches and hitting the nearest saddles, and was finding fresh sign the whole way, that was the 3rd week of october during bow season in the catskill mountains right on time with down there in Indiana... so with my observations and experience with hunting those areas, I'd say from southern Indiana to the north by now, it has picked up... and I know you guys aren't that far off. You had better be out there. Spend a day scouting and see if you find a some sign. Sometimes just looking in a place you haven't looked in a while will tell you a lot, but my guess is you'll find some heavily tracked up trails somewhere. Try not to cross them and leave your scent if you can avoid it, but also don't worry too much about it. If you can try to spot tracked up trails from uphill that would be good. Try and check the trails in the saddles, along the top and bases of steep ridges and bluffs, especially where they level out on each end lengthwise of the steepness, and along the benches as thats where the deer tend to walk because it's easier. If you're in the hills and mountains, that is, those are places where you will expect trails to be, and if they are tracked up heavily, then you will know its on, and you can set up right on those exact places. If its forested, the bucks will move through there much earlier and later than normal (during shooting light). If a trail is tracked up through those particular places and I had the time to do it, time, honestly, I'd bring a book and sit there all day and listen for leaves crunching. If it rained the night before, and the leaves were soft, then I'd just still-hunt along all those areas slow and quiet, just uphill from the trail, and take in all the sign information along the ground for so you will know exactly where to set up when the leaves become dry and noisy to make still-hunting impossible. Also, if it is windy, or you are lucky enough that you can walk walk along a noisy stream, then you dont have to worry about the leaves as long as you walk carefully. I have actually killed deer with a longbow at under 30 yards in both of those situations...on dry leaves... the sound of wind, and water, covers up your noise.
within spitting distance of Virginia.
