cal516

I hunt in TN. Its early bow season and unusually warm weather. When should I start seeing rubs and scrapes? Should I look for it now?

iSnipe

Yes! Most my time in the woods is actually spent scouting. I never sit on stand and wonder if I will kill a deer there. My scouting predetermines that and I should know before I sit on my stand.(it's a state of mind) So I advise to always be scouting. I wouldn't go in deep in the heart of where deer reside, like their sanctuaries or bedding areas, but the edges and areas where they are known to travel through and feed at. Also spray your lower extremities down very well as to not lay down a scent trail to tip them off you're around. Don't walk on deer trails and areas suspect of bedded deer, stay down or crosswind of such areas. Be very quiet and do it quickly looking for trails, tracks, dropping, feedings and beds. When you spot a rub or scrape, it may help to take a look to see what direction he was traveling when he made it and determine when it was made. Many of these activities are done at night and if you set a stand over sign, make sure it's somewhere they are apt to visit it during shooting hours. Also determine if it's to their feeding, from their feeding, like headed back to bedding areas, etc. Then you can decide if it's a morning or evening stand. Sign can tell you a lot, but you have to learn to read or decipher it and that is the harder part of scouting; to figure what you are reading and determine the next step. This activity is best done during the middle of the day when most deer are bedded down.

Good luck out there, be safe and have some fun!

iSnipe

cal516

iSnipe...Thanks for the pointers. I am moving to NC end of the month and that will be good for starting out in a new area to hunt. What I was asking is when I will start seeing them? I was lucky enough to have a friend who hunted the same public land for about 15 years and he "passed on" all of his spots he had hunted over the years. Its all the same corridor that the deer travel. I have seen quite a few deer and bagged a decent buck last year. Like I said I was wondering when I would start to see scrapes and rubs. I have not spotting any yet this season.

7MMXBOLT

Being that I am new to this site I can tell already that "iSnipe" is a very successful hunter! He pretty much put everything in a nutshell for you. When to start looking for rubs & scrapes from what I have learned from over 35 years of hunting is from the opening day of your earlyist season and you will start to see them show up by the first to the middle of October and that all depends on where you are geographically located. I always keep an eye out for them everytime I enter the woods but I don't believe there is a set time they show up. Once I start to notice that the same scrapes are being freshened up on a regular basis, thats the area I want to have a stand. Bucks scrapes are generally on a active run that is being used by doe's and other deer regularly and like iSnipe pointed out usually when they are moving from bedding and feeding. Bucks will also bed during daylight hours during pre & peek rut near these scrapes so your stand location is critical so not to disturb them. As the Fall turns to Winter during the hunting season, deer are more active during the day and begin to feed more heaverly to put on more fat and to be in the best physical condition possible to survive a possible harsh Winter.

It can be very frustrating sometimes when deer feed where they are bedding and thats generally when they have gone nocturnal because there is heavy hunting pressure or a lot of human activity in a given area. Just last week I was hunting in the Northern Zone of NY (Adirondacks) and that's excactly what they had done. They would be bedded in the jack pines before first light and hang tight until total darkness. We couldn't get within 50 yards of them before they knew something was up and they slipped out the back. There was fresh sign everywhere from droppings to rubs, & scrapes but if they're not moving there is nothing you can do about it. It didn't help that every day it was dead calm and we had colder than normal conditions and it was like walking on corn flakes!

This time of year your best bet is to keep note of where you find a scrape or rub and check on them as often as you can with out disturbing the area and this can be hard to do sometimes. As the rut gets closer the scrapes & rubs you find now may not be in use so you need to be familure with the area your hunting. Knowing all of where they're feeding & bedding will tell you where you typically will find scrapes. As you already know, in the heat of the rut the bucks are in seeking & chasing mode and those hot scrapes are where you want to be. The scrapes you find now pretty much just let you know that there are bucks in the area. If you haven't found any as of yet you may be looking in the wrong places or there are not many bucks in the area your hunting right now. But don't worry if you notice there are plenty of doe's around the bucks will show up sooner or later and the scrapes will be everywhere.