Sizing up a buck using his rubs?

[DuckHunt]

With all of the big horns I see others taking, I can't help but wonder what type of sign those monsters (Amish Buck) must be leaving in the woods. I've hunted near rubs that I thought must have been made by a trophy only to find it was a trophy 3-point with an itch.

I've always thought that bigger bucks would tend to rub on bigger stuff. Now I realize that they can rub small stuff as well, but I wouldn't expect a spike to rub a big tree.

Take a look at these three rubs and let me know what you think. I saw this one about a week before the gun season on public land.


While I was out today I ran across this one a few hundred yards away...


Then 100 yards farther I ran into this...


I can't help but think a nice buck had to have something to do with this. I've seen similar sized rubs in this same area two years ago. I saw at least a dozen scrapes and fifty buck rubs in all. Occasionally you see a rub that makes one wonder how big a buck it would take.

I'm sure up north you guys must have some wood lots that are pretty torn up.

[fletch]

Wow that is the biggest rub I have seen. If I were you I wouldn't ground hunt. Set your stand up close by and when you nail him you can post the pics so we know exactly how big of a buck does that.

[huntman]

I personally have never had luck hunting a rub line. Now that doesn't mean that its not possible, but have always undrstood that a buck will do the MAJORITY of his rubbinng much earlier on in the season while shedding his velvet. I feel that scrapes are a better indication of an active buck in your area. Now if these are all new tree rubs then i stand corrected. but to your question if i had to guess that would be a real nice buck doing that rubbing like you mention hard to see a small spike making that kind of damage

[groundpounder]

Big bucks usually make big rubs and that looks like a nice one. Not always the case but I would play the odds and hunt nearby. Usually when I find a rub as large as that one its a "signpost rub" that gets hit year after year. And I also believe multiple bucks will hit a sign post rub so check those trees out in future years also. Usually though when I find one like that its on a large cedar.

[knobby]

imo when you see rubs as large as your arm...you have a pretty decent buck around

when you see rubs like in the center of the last pic....you have a very large buck in the area

by large I mean in body...often a large rack to match the body but not always

large bodied buck like large bodied trees to work out on

I have found rubs in southern Ohio on trees as big as my waste. That HAD to be a new world record buck... right? hehe

[chris4570]

I've hunted near rubs that I thought must have been made by a trophy only to find it was a trophy 3-point with an itch.

If I see a big tree rubbed I assume it is a big deer. I have, so far been right with this assumption. Doesn't mean you will see the deer that does the rubbing. If it is public land and the rub was made by an older deer, he is probably nocturnal.

I hunted (with camera) one area for three years. I found scrapes and rubs. The rubs indicated a large buck in the area. It was a small area, in the heart of a large city. I eventually saw him bedded down one morning while walking my dog. Ran back home, swapped the dog for the camera and some rattling antlers and got him to come within seven yards!!! A great ten point!

[shurite44]

Does not look real to me.

[Grizzly Adam]

The biggest rub I ever saw was in south-central Indiana, on a tree around 9 inches in diameter. The buck that had rubbed it had a rack so big that it was mostly torn up by his brow tines ... you could see where other tines had gouged and scratched it on the sides as he raked it in front with those stickers ... and those brow tine gouges were deep and furrowed. It was an awesome rub. Wasn't any way you could say it wasn't the genuine article, because the ol' boy's tracks were right there!

[LV2HNT]

Those look like some nice rubs but I would be hesitant to spend a lot of time hunting them. It bothers me that they are so short. I tend to trust the height of a rub as an indicator of a large buck more than the diameter of the tree. I have seen large bucks take on plenty of small trees and little bucks rub large trees. So the tree size does not mean a lot in most cases. If a buck is realy big it will usualy have a large spread to match. Bucks with large spreads will rub at least a couple of feet of the trees trunk. I don't usualy pay much attention to a rub unless it goes up to atleast my waist (about 3.5 to 4 feet). The rubs in the picture seem to be only about 1 to 1.5 feet high so I would not place a whole lot of hope in the buck being a monster. If I ever find a large tree with a high rub or if I find a little tree with a high rub and a lot of broken branches or the tree broken in half then I know it is worth hunting him. I also like rubs when they are in a line going to a feeding area or bedding area because they are usualy an indicator of the trail the buck takes often. They are usualy the most reliable in the early season and again in the late season because the buck may stop going to that area all together during the rut. The other time I realy like rubs is when they are randomly made in large numbers in a small area (usualy a thick bedding type of area). That usualy indicates the bucks core area where he spends most of his time, explaining the random cluster of rubs. If you look hard enough in these places you can find a single bed a lot of the times.