Found a nice rub today & figured I'd take a few pics & share how I analyze the situation to put the rub into context. Rubs are seemingly made for many different reasons and most don't mean much of anything to me. But I always take a moment to look around the immediate area surrounding it to see if there's an obvious "why" or if it's just a random rub like most. This one was interesting on a couple different levels so thought I'd share my thought process. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Starting with first pic there is a rub facing a very well worn, bare dirt, large bed nestled up tight to a dead log. There's poop old and fresh all over the place. Behind the rub are two more lesser worn beds.
Second pic shows rub from opposite side and if you look up there is a broken limb with branches & wilting leaves dangling low. The lowest branches have no leaves but up just out of deer reach are plenty of leaves. Since deer don't prefer eating beech leaves but do prefer them for scrapes, I'm going to assume the leaves are missing because they're using it as a licking branch. It's likely how the limb got broken in the first place.
Last pic is a front view of the rub, what a buck laying in the bare dirt bed would be looking at. The rubbed area isn't tore up aggressively, nothing abnormally impressive at first glance. But then I see an antler gouge mark about 5ft up, which I'm pointing at. Upon a closer look there are faint gouges and scuffs all up & down between where I'm pointing and the rubbed area.
Here are my thoughts. There are acorns laying everywhere. That the rub is not wet or green so it's at least a few days old, as old as the dry poop laying around. That means the deer have been there for as long as the acorns have been dropping and likely will be until acorns are gone. Being late summer it's almost certainly a bachelor group, not just one buck. The multiple beds are probably single random use all except the bare dirt one. It's getting used obviously more than once. Given it's proximity and alignment with the rub I assume that's where the dominant buck in the group is laying, and 5ft high gouge marks mean his tine length rubs that high as he tilts his forehead down to the rub area. Not a yearling fork horn. It's wide open closed canopy with near zero undergrowth so acorns is all they have to eat. That tells me this is a largely nighttime area and daylight is being spent in a greener area where they can source moisture or water. Even still it's flat, open, shady, cool, and breezy. Nothing can get anywhere near without being seen, heard, or smelled. But since they're not in there during daytime I should be able to get in a couple hours before dark to hang a stand & wait. Ideally I'd wait for an overcast evening with cool breeze. The overcast cover would make it seem dark early so they'd come out earlier, while the breeze would both knock acorns to the ground and give me a consistent wind to hunt. It would also possibly mask my movement if I had to draw my bow.
That's how I interpret the sign and how I'd approach hunting it. I know season is more than a week away yet and by then these deer may be a mile away. But if season was open today I think I'd have better than fair odds at tagging a very nice buck. Finding rubs usually doesn't mean much to me but this is one of those times it does. Older bucks more than younger bucks rub & scrape next to their beds but it's usually a crapshoot guessing when he'll be there. This one is a no brainer. He'll be there.
Starting with first pic there is a rub facing a very well worn, bare dirt, large bed nestled up tight to a dead log. There's poop old and fresh all over the place. Behind the rub are two more lesser worn beds.
Second pic shows rub from opposite side and if you look up there is a broken limb with branches & wilting leaves dangling low. The lowest branches have no leaves but up just out of deer reach are plenty of leaves. Since deer don't prefer eating beech leaves but do prefer them for scrapes, I'm going to assume the leaves are missing because they're using it as a licking branch. It's likely how the limb got broken in the first place.
Last pic is a front view of the rub, what a buck laying in the bare dirt bed would be looking at. The rubbed area isn't tore up aggressively, nothing abnormally impressive at first glance. But then I see an antler gouge mark about 5ft up, which I'm pointing at. Upon a closer look there are faint gouges and scuffs all up & down between where I'm pointing and the rubbed area.
Here are my thoughts. There are acorns laying everywhere. That the rub is not wet or green so it's at least a few days old, as old as the dry poop laying around. That means the deer have been there for as long as the acorns have been dropping and likely will be until acorns are gone. Being late summer it's almost certainly a bachelor group, not just one buck. The multiple beds are probably single random use all except the bare dirt one. It's getting used obviously more than once. Given it's proximity and alignment with the rub I assume that's where the dominant buck in the group is laying, and 5ft high gouge marks mean his tine length rubs that high as he tilts his forehead down to the rub area. Not a yearling fork horn. It's wide open closed canopy with near zero undergrowth so acorns is all they have to eat. That tells me this is a largely nighttime area and daylight is being spent in a greener area where they can source moisture or water. Even still it's flat, open, shady, cool, and breezy. Nothing can get anywhere near without being seen, heard, or smelled. But since they're not in there during daytime I should be able to get in a couple hours before dark to hang a stand & wait. Ideally I'd wait for an overcast evening with cool breeze. The overcast cover would make it seem dark early so they'd come out earlier, while the breeze would both knock acorns to the ground and give me a consistent wind to hunt. It would also possibly mask my movement if I had to draw my bow.
That's how I interpret the sign and how I'd approach hunting it. I know season is more than a week away yet and by then these deer may be a mile away. But if season was open today I think I'd have better than fair odds at tagging a very nice buck. Finding rubs usually doesn't mean much to me but this is one of those times it does. Older bucks more than younger bucks rub & scrape next to their beds but it's usually a crapshoot guessing when he'll be there. This one is a no brainer. He'll be there.
