Deer Hunting: Signpost Buck Rubs
Good-sized trees with scars that have healed and thickened over the years, and upon which current bucks rub their antlers each fall, are “sign-posts.” Some biologists believe these trees are rubbed mostly by older bucks (3½ years and up). One theory is that mature bucks deposit pheromones on the rubs, and this plays an important role in the dominance and subordination process in a herd. Does and all sizes of bucks have been observed interacting with sign-posts—they often nuzzle and smell them—but generally only mature bucks rub them hard. Sign-posts are typically blazed in areas with high deer traffic, often near trails and scrapes, and should be markers for your strategy. While you won’t hunt over a sign-post per se, [...]