A little bummed out... not sure?

[SteveMcD]

Question for anyone. I went and checked out my gun season hunting area beginning next Saturday. This area is bow only and I usually hold of hunting the area until gun season starts. The problem is,  except for a few perimeter scrapes, I am finding absolutely NO Buck sign. Last year there were buck rubs everywhere. This year not even one found! A little discouraged other then some deer posibly pushed into the area by gun hunters I am wondering why bother. Or am I putting too much stock in Buck Rubs?

[jr.deerslayer]

I have had the same issue as you and many of my friends, buck sign seems to be pretty scarce this year. We found a few rubs, but not as many as previous years. There does seem to be more scrapes then rubs. Fortunately i've seen more bucks then many other years bowhunting thus far.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Maybe I am all wet but I wouldn't put much faith in buck rubs at this point in the season. Scrapes are what I would be focusing on...and maybe not even them. A deer that is locked up with a doe is not going to be scraping. I really believe...right or wrong that most scrape activity at this time will be by immature bucks that can not find a partner yet. The bigger boys inthe woods will be having first dibbs on the hot does. If the "experts" are right this year will be a dragged out rut and that should mean the more mature bucks will be spending a lot of time locked up with does.

If your area has produced in the past I wouldn't give up. All you need is the does to be there or get pushed in and you are golden. The pressure will build fast with the opener and your little sanctuary will be great. I have a small 10 acre plot I save for the end of gun. it is bow only and loaded with deer come the final half of gun season.

My 2 cents but I think you will be fine.

[Fantail]

I am looking at it from a slightly different angle. This past weekend on my lease I spotted two fresh scrapes, one being hit over I mean you can tell, spotted it last weekend. From that point being close to a stand and a blind set-up instead of looking for more I would only disturb the area long enough to get back and forth to the spots. Maybe there is more sign elsewhere, I am not sure but I have a forest floor full of crunchy leaves already.

[20ftupatree]

I have seen nothing for sign in comparison from previous seasons. As far as the rut goes I had 5 doe yesterday (the first deer I've seen all season so far) with nothing behind them. They were completely calm going about their business. So as far as I'm concerned I'm stumped on why I'm not seeing the deer I usually do, I can usually go on state land up here in 5G and walk till I find sign and sit, This year I can walk all I want I see half a$$ed rubs and a minimal amount of scrapes. This season has been tough to figure out for sure.

[SteveMcD]

Thanks for the input. Good to know. I will keep the faith then. But, yes agree, so far it has not been a stellar season.

[Bleitten04]

I have had the same issue as you and many of my friends, buck sign seems to be pretty scarce this year. We found a few rubs, but not as many as previous years. There does seem to be more scrapes then rubs. Fortunately i've seen more bucks then many other years bowhunting thus far.

Same here.  I think there might be one tree rub on the property I hunt.  Maybe two.  The only ground scrapes I've seen are my mock ones LOL!!!  I have seen more bucks this year then ever before.  Two of them are wall hangers also. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

I was out walking the new farm a bit this weekend and found a ton, and I mean a ton of fresh scrapes and a few nice rubs. Now at my dad's place, about 10 minutes north, I have yet to find a rub or a scrape, but I know there are a bunch of bucks around. I honestly dont think the peak of the rut has happened yet and I dont think the bucks have locked up either. I think they are more spread out this year, trying to find does in estrous. We will see what happens in the next 2 weeks. If the "experts" are correct, its gonna be a great gun season.

[jr.deerslayer]

I was out walking the new farm a bit this weekend and found a ton, and I mean a ton of fresh scrapes and a few nice rubs. Now at my dad's place, about 10 minutes north, I have yet to find a rub or a scrape, but I know there are a bunch of bucks around. I honestly dont think the peak of the rut has happened yet and I dont think the bucks have locked up either. I think they are more spread out this year, trying to find does in estrous. We will see what happens in the next 2 weeks. If the "experts" are correct, its gonna be a great gun season.

If gun season is anything like archery, for me anyways, we are in for one hell of a season

[bushnell]

In my personal experience I don't pay too much attention to scrapes or rubs. One year there were deer trails and a lot of scrapes and rubs and I hardly saw any deer that year. Then there was a year where I saw almost no deer sign and saw a lot of deer.

IMO if you see deer sign the deer were already there. If you haven't seen a lot of deer sign the deer have yet to come. So just keep your hopes up and don't get discouraged.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

In my personal experience I don't pay too much attention to scrapes or rubs. One year there were deer trails and a lot of scrapes and rubs and I hardly saw any deer that year. Then there was a year where I saw almost no deer sign and saw a lot of deer.

IMO if you see deer sign the deer were already there. If you haven't seen a lot of deer sign the deer have yet to come. So just keep your hopes up and don't get discouraged.

LOL...my incle use to tell me that as a kid and I would get excited about deer tracks...He would tell me "don't pay attention to tracks .....They have already been there"