|  |     
    
    I Hunt the Allagash Wilderness in Northern Maine, I also hunt my home
    state in N.H. where I hunt deer and take what the good lord sends.
    
    But, up in Northern Maine I only hunt Trophy Whitetail Buck's and
    the very last week of the season is the best week there is.
    
    The Rut in my opinion is on big time and the snow is on the ground.
    (I love hunting in fresh snow every-day) anyway to answer your question
    The last week is the best because of ::
    
      The Rut.
    
      The Weather.
    
      Less Hunters(This does'nt apply to the Allagash where i never see any
                  (people while hunting)
    
      Good-Luck,
    
        Rick
 | 
|  |     If you can, pick a time when the moon is new.  I just finished
    a 3+ day hunt in Central Missouri and only saw two deer.  However,
    there were more tracks than you could imagine and I know that
    there are a lot of deer there.  In my opinion, the main two reasons
    for our poor showing was 
    
    	1)  The weather was warm and windy during the entire hunt, and
    
    	2)  There was a big, beautiful full moon which came up about
    	    4 in the evening and set about 8 in the morning.  I firmly
    	    believe that the deer were running all night and laying	
    	    up all day.
    
    My hunting partner is going back Saturday.  I expect that he will
    do better because the weather has turned cold.  I'll let you know
    how he did.
    
    Jerry
 | 
|  |     Thanks for your reply, Jerry, and I've heard the one about hunting
    during the new versus full moon cycle also, but I don't think that's
    it.  The last new moon was Oct. 28, the start of the week I hunted in
    Maine.  In prior years I've hunted in both full and new moons and it
    didn't seem to matter.  I don't know if they're related, but last year
    and especially this year, the first week of the season was especially
    warm.  In these two years I saw zippo and my brother managed to see
    just three does.  In the preceeding two years, hunting at the same time
    (calendarwise), but with colder temps prevalent, together we saw about
    30 deer.  All four years we hunted the same area.
    
    I suspect it's a combination of factors, such as later in the season is
    better because colder temps = more movement, stronger mating
    motivation, easily available food becoming scarcer, but these are just
    guesses on my part.  I've been hopeful that someone in here has
    something more factual than my guesswork.
    
    Maybe the fact hat ther have been only a couple replies to my request
    should tell me that NOW is the best time 'cause that's where everyone
    is; out there hunting NOW!  
    
    (I hope to get back up there the two days after Thanksgiving.
    
 | 
|  |     According to a well respected magazine, the prime rut in Maine is
    between Nov 7 and Nov 21...
    
    
    Well, I don't agree. I was out all last week (did'nt shoot anything,
    yet) and the deer are not in the rut yet....All the bad factors,
    warm, rain, full moon, no human sacrifices, etc, were in effect
    last week..We saw LOTS of deer, but not many shots...The woods, for
    the most part, were very noisy and the wind was howling....
    
    I would say the last week may be good to hunt in the rut, but after
    four weeks of strange beings in the woods, the deer are very skidish.
    They will run at the slightest noise.
    
    Some of my many opinions are:
    
    	1) The first week is the best IF it is cold. Deer have had no 
    	   pressure and are less likely to spook.
    
    	2) Thursday, Friday and Saturday usually have more hunters in the
    	   woods. That means more pressure. The deer get a rest on Sunday,
    	   it's slow Monday and for the most part Tuesday is slow also. 
    	   Wednesday starts to pick up but still the not weekend numbers.
    	   I beleive Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to hunt.
    
    	
    I'm going back tommorow night to hunt Wednesday, coming back home
    Wednesday night, going back for the weekend. 
    
    Jeff, we know where the biggies are, right you sure shot you ?
    
    Jim
    
 |