Noland Outdoors

  While the rut is in full swing north of the Mason-Dixon line, down here in Central Alabama, the action is slow right now, at least in my neck of the woods.  But it usually is this time of year.  The hot action that always accompanies the first week or two of the season is replaced by what I not-so-affectionally refer to as the November doldrums.  November is just the hardest month to kill a deer down here.  The deer have become skiddish because of increased hunter activity in the woods and the rut has not yet begun.  The goal is to gut it out until December, and the pre-rut arrives.  By this time next month the deer ought to be moving more during daytime hours.  And hopefully by then we'll have had some good frosty mornings and the skeeters will be dormant.  Them awful things are worse this year than any year that I can remember and they make hunting in the afternoons almost unbearable.