Late Season Deer Hunting and Scouting | How to Read Deer Sign

Rubs, Scrapes, and Bedding Areas Can Tell You a Lot About Where and How to Hunt

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As a kid, you learned how to hunt and what to look for from a close relative or friend. In most cases grandpa or dad taught you how to walk through the woods and what to look for while deer hunting. You learned where and when a scrape would appear, where to look for rubs, and what caliber of buck made it. You may have learned how to pay attention to your surroundings and the when and where of deer sign, but grandpa may have skipped the lesson on how to use it for hunting. Now is the time to learn. Scouting during the late season reveals a lot of deer sign, its time you understood the real reasons behind them, and applied it correctly to deer hunting.

Rubs

When photoperiods start causing an increase in a buck’s testosterone levels, velvet sheds, hormones are worked up, and scent glands start stinking. As a result bucks make signposts to announce presence and dominance for other bucks and does by rubbing a small, or in some cases, decent size trees. Research has found that in most cases, dad’s or grandpa’s teachings on rubs was somewhat true…

In many well documented studies from Georgia and Clemson University mature bucks were more likely to make rubs than younger bucks when present in the herd. They also found that a greater number of and larger rubs were found in areas with older age classes of bucks.

How to apply while deer hunting:

Finding a lot of rubs, and big rubs doesn’t necessarily mean you should hunt in that spot. However it does tell you that you most likely have an older age class buck on your hands, >2.5 years old and quite possibly in the 4.5, 5.5 on quite a large tree. Size doesn’t automatically correlate to a giant buck but is more likely.

The main takeaway from a rub is that it can help with pre-season scouting. Bucks will make rubs after they shed their velvet. Many hunters will have tabs on a buck during the summer but once testosterone rises and the velvet comes off that buck will pick up and move to different area of his home range. Finding a lot of big rubs most likely means you have found his home range. Put up some Bone Collector Bushnell Aggressor Low-Glow trail cameras in the area and find who is responsible for the rubs.

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