Colorado’s second rifle season commenced Oct. 25, and I found myself with a couple of elk hunters that morning. We had some luck early, putting down a nice 6-point bull. As we took photos and prepared to gut the bull, I noticed a big-bodied deer feeding in a neighboring field.

I immediately dropped what I was doing and grabbed my spotting scope. This buck was heavy and mature, with dark horns and a swollen neck. This is the first buck I’ve seen this year exhibiting any rutting characteristics, which excited me.

The following morning, we returned to the same spot. There were now four mature bucks with a small group of does. I had hunted this spot a week earlier and hadn’t seen a buck, period. How things can change this time of year! Two of the bucks sparred consistently until a group of hunters showed up and opened fire on them. In an unfortunate turn of events, with 10 shots fired, two of those bucks will not be making it to the rut this year. We watched the barrage from behind some solid cover and didn’t find ourselves in harm’s way — good thing, because those hunters had no regard for anything beyond the deer they were shooting at.

The opening weekend of Colorado’s second season can be pretty wild, as it’s the easiest season to draw for deer, and it has over-the-counter rifle bull elk tags. Aside from keeping your head on a swivel and remembering to always watch your six during rifle seasons in Colorado, the moral of the story is that bucks are moving in, and they are starting to feel a little froggy. Another week and we should have some real rut activity transpiring.

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A bunch of units opened for Arizona’s early rifle season, too, including the 12 Kaibab units. Hunter Garcia, a guide for Arizona Custom Hunts, sent me a photo of a giant buck he guided a hunter to on the opener. Garcia said some of the small bucks in the group were dogging does and lip-curling. He said the big buck was with the group, but was just feeding; no signs of elevated testosterone. Northern Arizona is usually a little bit behind Colorado, so I suspect mature bucks will start swelling up and traveling heavier in a week or two.

In Texas, Blake Barnett of Trailing The Hunter’s Moon TV sent me video footage of two bucks with a doe pinned down in his backyard. He lives in the lower Hill Country, and the rut is going strong there. In fact, most of the Hill Country should be seeing pretty good rut activity right now.

Heading north, it's still the pre-rut, but peak breeding is just around the corner. Allen Robinson of The Ranch Advisors Group manages the hunting on a ranch about an hour south of Fort Worth. He said the bucks have broken up from bachelor groups and are spending most of their time alone, exhibiting normal pre-rut activities, including rubbing, scraping and just generally resting up. He’s observed a little bit of nosing from young bucks, but nothing of any real substance.

Robinson mentioned a cold front that brought some much-needed rain recently, and he hopes the cooler weather will help kick the rut off in earnest. The general season opens on Nov. 2, and I suspect that much of north and central Texas will have at least some early rut activity going on by the opener.

The northern half of California, Nevada, and Utah are seeing very similar activity to Colorado. It’s still the pre-rut, but bucks are traveling, and younger bucks are nosing around. Travel corridors are great places this time of year to catch the mature bucks moving to their rutting grounds. The does are piling into food sources now. Our fields are gaining more deer daily. You won’t likely catch a big buck with the does just yet, but he may be staged up close, waiting for the first doe to fire off.