Will a mature buck, 4.5 or older, lay down sign outside of his core area? Pre rut, rut, post rut? I've said before that I truly believe that I have more bucks than does on the property I hunt. That being said, every year there's tons of buck sign. Rubs and scrapes everywhere you look. And usually scrapes are textbook with a few that stay open year round and then you have the community scrapes and random rut scrapes. I don't run a lot of cameras due to not wanting to mill around when I don't have to. I'm very careful about intruding due to the amount of hunting pressure that surrounds me. Just curious on your opinion.
BSK? Or anyone who can answer
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BigAl
Well-Known Member
That might be true but i've never seen it. Now I've seen plenty visit scrapes, pee in them, lick the overhead branch, etc.
Yes and buck may hit a scrape or make a rub but he also may not. I see a few random pass through bucks on camera every season and about half will stop to sniff a scrape and about half of those will interact with it. Most either visibly ignore/avoid it or very cautiously sniff it with their necks stretched out then move on. Usually the ones that hit it are young.
BSK
Well-Known Member
A couple of things to remember about buck sign. First, rubs and scrapes burn a lot of energy to create, and deer - being survival machines - don't burn energy wastefully. Second, rubs and scrapes are communication devices between deer. They have developed these as a way for other deer to come in contact with their personal pheromones. Because rubs and scrapes burn energy to make, and they are primarily communication devices for other deer, bucks will not make them everywhere in their range. They concentrate rubs and scrapes in areas where they can smell that other deer frequent, most commonly in areas where multiple deer travel patterns converge. So within a buck's range, his rubs and scrapes will not be spread around equally. They will be concentrated into those parts of his range where he regularly encounters other deer. And also remember that it is common for bucks to double the size of the range around the rut, which suddenly brings them into areas they normally do not use outside of the rut. So it would be very possible for mature bucks to only use a property around the rut, making sign wherever they encounter the smell of other deer, only to leave that property after the rut.
