Three Myths About Buck Rubs
A deer rubs his antlers on a small tree to mark his territory right? How complicated can that be? Well, here are some things that will shed new light on what rubs actually mean. By Bernie Barringer Outdoor writers like myself are always looking for new ideas and new things to write about. We are always analyzing what we see and trying to learn more from each nugget of bucks sign, mostly in the hopes that we can learn something which we can pass along to our readers in order to educate them and help them hunt more effectively. That’s all good. The bad side of the coin is that we also tend to overthink and overanalyze things from time to time. In our zeal to learn more that we can write about, we sometimes read way too much into what we are seeing. I think that is true with much of what has been written in the outdoor magazines about rubs in the past 20-30 years. There are even books about how finding rubs lined up in one direction can lead you to your next big buck. Well, let’s just say that’s a stretch. The advent of GPS collars that track the movement and activities of bucks 24/7 has added to our knowledge of deer behavior, but it has also turned some long-held beliefs into rubbish. Some of those beliefs are related to how deer make and use rubs. Here are three myths that we can put to rest. Rubs are Territorial Markers If bucks were patrolling a territory, making rubs to mark the edges of their range, the GPS tracking data would bear that out, but it does not. There is no evidence whatsoever that bucks even have a territory they try to protect in any way. They do have home ranges—areas where they spend the majority of their time—but they show no evidence that they try to protect that home range from other deer in any way. That’s not to say that rubs are not forms of communication; however, because they are. When the bucks rub trees they deposit scent on them, which communicates to the other deer in the area the statement that, “I was here.” But really, not much more than that. It’s a way for deer to get to know each other better and have a feel for who is using the same areas they are using. Velvet Shedding Rubs Some deer authorities have surmised that different rubs at different times of the year and on different sizes of trees can be filed into certain categories, such as Velvet Shedding rubs, Signpost Rubs, even Rutting Rubs. Possibly the most misunderstood is the belief that bucks use rubs to remove the velvet from their antlers. First, it’s important to understand that when the velvet dries, it will fall off whether they rub it on something or not. Secondly, if a buck is inclined to remove it, it wouldn’t make much sense for him to use the trunk of a small tree to remove it. Some bucks don’t seem to care much unless the velvet is hanging down impairing their vision, while others seem to aggressively work at tearing it off. A friend once watched a full velvet whitetail walk by just out of range on September 5. He sat in a ground blind and watched that deer walk right up to a leafy bush and stick his antlers right into the brush. The buck twisted and turned the antlers in the brush, then slashed at it from side to side a few times, completely removing every trace of bloody velvet within 60 seconds. Bucks may remove some of the velvet from their antlers by rubbing on tree trunks, but that’s not the preferred method. Only Big Bucks Rub Big Trees This has an element of fact in it because larger bucks do tend to rub larger trees than smaller bucks at time. But that’s about all there is to it. Biologists have theorized that one of the reasons bucks rub trees is to exercise their neck muscles for the battles that will occur during the rut. It stands to reason that a buck would choose a tree that has some flex too it so it “fights back” so to speak. Larger, stronger bucks would naturally choose thicker trees to create the exercise needed. Certainly, a tree that is really shredded was rubbed by a big buck because small bucks simply do not have the antler size and physical power to really tear up a tree the size of your wrist. I have personally witnessed small and large bucks rub trees of any size. I have even seen them rub fenceposts and power poles that had no give at all to them. Some of these have been called signpost rubs. They can be rubbed by the biggest buck in the area one minute and then a spike the next. Signpost rubs are rubs that get used from year to year and are often on big trees. Seems like every deer that comes along, no matter the size, can resist giving it a stroke or two. These don’t seem to be chosen for any specific reason other than the fact that they are in a spot where a lot of deer go by. And that in itself has some value to the hunter. So don’t read too much into what you see in a rub. In fact, if you really want to learn a lot about who is using a particular rub, put a game camera on it. Seeing is believing.
Aggressively Scouting and Hunting Public Land
It’s not like being at home when you have all season to get it done. By Bernie Barringer I settled into my stand before daylight with high hopes. I had arrived in Iowa the previous day with a coveted archery tag in my pocket and spent the day scouting out a large piece of public land. I had found this area in mid-afternoon and hung a stand. Within view were a dozen rubs and half that many scrapes. It looked like a natural funnel, and I planned to park myself there for the entire early-November day. This was one of my first out-of-state road trips for whitetail, and I didn’t know it at the time, but I had made several mistakes. Now, having more than 20 of these trips under my belt, I do things a little differently. About an hour after daylight I heard the distinct sound of two bucks fighting just over the crest of a hill to my north. I could hear the clashing and shoving clearly, they were only 100 yards away! But I never did see them; they left by another route and were unresponsive to my calling. An hour later, a few does and a buck moved down a ridge to my west. They too ignored my pleading through the grunt tube. I began to lose confidence in my spot. Over the next few hours, what I had seen began to grind on me and soon I was on the ground checking things out. The two bucks had been fighting near what appeared to be a bedding area in a thick creek bottom. The trail on the ridge also led to that same bedding area. I learned a hard lesson through that experience. During my day of scouting, I had been sneaking around like a cat, looking for some sign to set up on. When I found it, I set up and I was done. Over the years I have learned that this is a low-percentage way to go about killing a buck on public land. Nowadays, I want to know what’s over that hill. I want to know where the deer are bedding and feeding and what stage of the rut the deer are in. I also want to know I am in the best spot I can be. It’s a whole lot easier to park your butt in a stand and remain alert for an all-day sit if you have a high level of confidence in your spot. Public land is different So much of what we read nowadays and what we see on TV preaches minimal intrusion on private land, with the sanctuaries and inviolate areas that accompany well-managed hunting land. Those of us who hunt on public land do not have the same luxuries. Public land bucks are adept at patterning hunters and either move out or go nocturnal when they sense too much pressure. But how much pressure is too much? Humans use public land for everything from hunting squirrels to gathering berries and ginseng. Coon hunters run their dogs through the properties at night. Bowhunters walk regular paths to their stands morning and evenings. Bucks pattern them all and you should too. You need to avoid human activity as much as possible and to do that you need to know which areas are getting the most use. It’s no secret that the best hunting on public land is far from the roads. That’s a given because the bucks move away from human intrusion, but they cannot totally avoid it, especially if there is no other place to go, and the does aren’t leaving. If the does are still around, the bucks won’t be far during the rut. And they have become somewhat conditioned to human scent. We have that going for us. All these factors give us permission to learn the property intimately. You can limit your intrusion by spraying down with scent killer and keeping clean to minimize ground scent, but you cannot completely eliminate the clues to your presence. If you are going to learn the property, you will need to walk it out. Scout aggressively When I look at a new piece of property, I want to know as much as I can about it. I gather as much info as I can before I ever leave home. A call to a biologist or game warden can offer clues. Examining the property on Google Earth can show some potentially good areas, but you still have to burn the boot leather to learn the property. Analyze trails and travel patterns. Where are they feeding and where are they bedding? Sometimes bedding areas can be hard to determine and you need to walk right in and bump the deer out before you find them. I hate doing that but it is part of the learning process. Once you have found it you do not need to intrude again, the bedding areas will be the same year after year, all other factors being equal. Land features that funnel deer movement will not change unless there is a significant change in landscape or food sources. The more you go back to the same properties in successive years, the less intrusive you will need to be. Learn where the rubs and scrapes and rutting activity is found. But don’t make the same mistake I made those years ago in Iowa. Scout the surrounding area before hanging that stand. Rather than set up right over a bunch of scrapes, I have learned that it is often more successful to set up downwind of them to take advantage of the bucks that just scent-check them, or better yet, set up between the scrapes and the nearest bedding area so you increase your odds of connecting with a buck who leaves the bedding are right at last light to check his scrapes at night. Trail Cameras are a big key to the puzzle Trail cameras are a significant part of an aggressive
This coyote control package will help your deer herd
You know the coyotes are taking their toll on the deer on the properties you hunt. You know you should be doing something about reducing coyote numbers but if you really didn’t know where to start, here’s the perfect kit to get you going. Serious hunters and land management experts know that maintaining a healthy deer herd is not just about food plots and waterholes. To truly maximize your lands wild game potential, you must also manage your predator population. With their new Complete Land Management Predator Package, Dakotaline has streamlined this sometime intimidating and arduous process. This kit has all of the tools a land manager may need to successfully manage predators on their property. For most large predators, the foothold trap is the way to go. With a bit of bait, and a properly set trap, the coyote will walk in on a string, paying more attention to the setup than his steps, and be waiting for his moment of fate when you arrive back the next day. The Dakotaline Predator Management Package comes with everything you need to quickly and effectively set up the six included Bridger #1.75 traps. Along with footholds, neck snares work well for large predators like for coyotes. Simply find the trail the animals are using, brush it in a bit to funnel their movement, and wait. The Dakotaline Predator Management Kit comes with everything you’ll need to run 12 neck snares. Kris Hoffman, of Dakotaline had this to say about the package. “Whether you are dealing with coyotes, skunks, or raccoons raiding bird nests or beavers who are wreaking havoc on your trees – this Complete Land Management Predator Trapping Kit can do it all. Use the footholds and make dirt hole sets, flat sets, and post sets for any predator and then use the snares to effectively cover trails predators are using in the area.” The complete list of everything included in the Dakotaline Complete Land Management Predator Package follows. Valued at over $230 separately, this kit is available for only $189.95. With two instructional DVD’s and enough gear to run 18 traps, no predator will stand a chance on your property! Included in the Dakotaline Complete Land Management Predator Package: (6) #1.75 Bridger Regular Jaw Traps (12) 60″ Dakotaline Versatile Snares (Good on coyotes, raccoon, beaver, and fox). These snares come with Dakotaline case hardened Lopro locks, #9 gauge swivels, support collars, and are made from 3/32″ 7 x 7 steel cable. Each snare is cleaned and dyed an earth tone black with our Dakotaline Trap & Dip. Just hammer the floating deer stop where your state requires and the snares are line-ready. (12) Support Wires: Support wires have changed snaring. Years ago, trappers would look for a trail that went by a tree or a bush that they could hang their snare on. Their set locations were very limited. Now, with the advent of support wires, a trapper picks the best location on the trail, drives his support wire into the ground and hangs the snare. Dirt Sifter Package of 24 Pan Covers Narrow Blade Trowel Cold Creek 2 lb Trapline Hammer (2) 1 oz lures: Drifter’s fate Predator Lure and Bold Choice Long Distance Call Lure 8 oz Bottle of Red Fox Urine Pint of Bait: Highway 61 Predator Bait (attractive to all predators) Berkshire T-Top Driver (12) Berkshire Cable Stakes (12) 6 Gauge J-Hooks to connect the trap to the cable stakes Redman Snare Tool: This implement is designed for you to put your support wire in the ground. Instructional Snaring DVD: This 38 minute DVD that shows on the line snare instruction with lots of catches Predator Trapping Problems & Solutions DVD with Slim Pedersen: Learn to trap predators from a legend! Slim has caught predators all across North America and you will see over two hours of action packed footage of coyote, bobcats, red fox and more! This video is a great resource: Order HERE.
Find State Hunting Land Near You
There are 50-million acres of public hunting land available to the whitetail hunter across the eastern 2/3 of the US. Learn how to find it in your area. By Bernie Barringer I grew up in a family without hunters, so when I became a deer hunter at age 14, I was mostly on my own in learning how to hunt and finding a place to hunt. Fortunately, growing up in small town Iowa, access to hunting land was fairly easy. A couple farmers in our church gave me permission to hunt, and I got even more land just by knocking on doors and asking. It was rare for a farmer to turn me down when I asked to hunt deer or trap raccoons. Those days are gone. Hunter recruitment and retention is a serious problem in today’s world. The vast majority of people are growing up in urban areas with little knowledge of the outdoors as the small towns shrivel up. Large corporate farms have replaced the family farms of my childhood and habitat is sparse in much of the area I once hunted in rural Iowa. Where are the kids going to hunt? I would hate to see hunting in the US go the way it has in Europe where it is reserved for those born into wealth and those few who are owners of hunting land. For hunting to continue to be healthy, youngsters and adults alike need a place within reach where they can hunt for free. Fortunately, I am not the only one who has these concerns. Many state agencies have begun to address this issue in the past decade. The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) routinely surveys state game agencies regarding trends, and one trend that has come to light is the interest in state game agencies to acquire more land for public hunting. Of the 29 states that responded to a 2015 survey, 20 reported that the amount of state-owned public hunting land had increased between 2005 and 2015. The increases are small, as land is expensive, but it all helps. It might surprise you the states that offer the most state-owned public hunting land. Wisconsin has 7 million acres of public land, about 20 percent of the state’s land. This includes state wildlife areas and managed forest land that is open to public hunting. Florida comes in second, with 6.9 million acres, or 17 percent of the land area. Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania all offer about 4 million acres. Not all of this land is whitetail habitat of course, but there’s enough available that most people can find a place to hunt. Other states lag sadly behind. Iowa, with its high-priced farmland for example, offers only 450,000 acres. Iowa, however has 99 counties, most of which have aggressive programs to purchase and manage lands for hunting. Much of it is targeted at pheasant and quail hunters, but there is a lot of terrific deer hunting found on these often small gems. Much of the county land in Iowa is found along rivers or prairies in parcels of 40-160 acres. Iowa and Minnesota, like many other states, have recently implemented programs whereby private landowners can open their land to public hunting. North and South Dakota, and Kansas have been on the leading edge of these programs. Kansas’ Walk-in Hunting Access (WIHA) program began in 1995 and now offers more than a million acres of private land where hunters can walk in and hunt. North Dakota’s Private Land Open to Sportsmen (PLOTS) program places hunters on nearly a million acres of land in a state where 93% of the property is in private ownership. More states are seeing the value of increasing hunting access and the number of hunting licenses sold decrease. That puts the game agencies in a difficult spot when they need to increase the amount of state land while revenues are decreasing. Many states have some form of Habitat Stamp or additional fee where the revenues from these stamps are funneled directly into land acquisitions. Without these habitat fees, the amount of state land open to hunting would not be slowly increasing. In most states, there is hunting land available, but more must be done. More land is needed within reach of a kid on a bicycle or a hunter who wants to hang a treestand and spend a few hours in the outdoors after work in the evening. If your state agency is not working hard to increase hunting access, start putting pressure on them to do so. Programs that pay landowners to allow hunting on their property have been very successful and every state should have one. States, counties and even townships should be actively involved in acquiring good wildlife habitat when it comes up for sale. That means the funds need to be available when the opportunity presents itself, so programs should be in place for raising these funds. States and counties should institute programs whereby landowners can get tax breaks for giving land or leaving it in their will. Above all, hunters like you and I should be actively spreading the word that more quality wildlife habitat open to hunting is needed and supporting programs that increase hunting land. The future of hunting for our children and grandchildren depend upon our efforts.
How to Succeed on a Bowhunting Road Trip
By Bernie Barringer Ever since the advent of outdoor TV, hunters across the US have become more aware of the hunting possibilities for chasing whitetails in other states. It has become common knowledge in the past two decades that there are places where whitetail hunters see big bucks most every day that would be the buck of a lifetime in Michigan, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas or the Southeast. Midwestern states like Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have earned a deserved reputation as destination states where hunters can go and have a chance at shooting a mature whitetail. There are some sleepers too, such as North Dakota, Tennessee, and Nebraska. Hordes of hunters are applying to hunt these Midwestern meccas of whitetail hunting each year, but for many people, shelling out $3,500- $4,500 for a guided hunt, plus licenses and tips, is way over the top. Not even a consideration. Can a person hunt those places on a Do-it-Yourself basis? The answer is a resounding “YES!” But you better know what you are doing before you jump in the truck and head off towards Whitetail Heaven. Here are some tips that will dramatically increase your odds of success. Know what you are getting into Start by researching the states and familiarize yourself with their tag allocation process. It will take you three years of applying to draw a tag for the good zones in Iowa. Kansas and Illinois also have drawings for tags, but allow much more nonresident hunters so you can draw most every year in those states. States like Wisconsin, North Dakota and Missouri are still bargains with low prices tags and over-the-counter tag purchasing. Pricing varies a lot. By the time you buy two years of preference points for Iowa, the most sought after trophy state, and then purchase all the licenses and tags required, you will have about $700 invested before you ever leave the driveway. See the attached database for a huge head start in learning this part of the equation. Do your homework Today’s technology offers some amazing shortcuts to learning how and where to hunt. Google Earth and Bing Maps offer aerial photos of public hunting lands. The various States’ Departments of Natural Resources offer websites with lots of resources. Websites like bowhuntingroad.com offers lots of free resources and advice for the travelling hunter. Interactive forums like archerytalk.com give you a chance to ask questions of people within that state and others who have hunted there as nonresidents. Those resources give you a great head start on finding a general area to hunt, and the aerial maps even help you narrow down specific stand sites that look good from the air, but you have to get out on the ground to really determine for sure if that is where you want to be. And that’s the final step to finding a great place to hunt… setting up in the right location. The right spot Once you have used all those resources and have decided where you are going to hunt, it’s time to burn the shoe leather and learn the land. You should have a checklist of places to examine and maps in your pocket. Now get out and look them over. Some public hunting areas get quite a bit of hunting pressure, but once you get a mile from the road, that pressure drops of drastically. Most hunters won’t lug a treestand that far, and they are afraid of the work of getting a big buck out. The bucks seem to know that and if you are willing to work harder than the average guy you can get away from the crowds. Learn to travel light. Lightweight stands and equipment are important keys to reducing your workload. Don’t load down your back pack and choose light items to carry such as smaller binoculars and the Havalon line of knives which are much lighter than standard hunting knives. Put trail cameras out to inventory the buck population so you know what you are working with. Check for rubs, scrapes and trails, and gather as much information as you can before putting your treestands out. I like to spend the first day doing more looking than sitting. I may even spend the first evening and morning in a new area just glassing or sitting in an observation stand. Later, I can sit on stand a lot longer if I have confidence that I am in the right spot. It takes time to find the exact right spot. You will find that the first time you go to a new area, you spend more time learning, but as you continue to go back year after year, you will have a much better chance of bagging a mature buck. You have built a storehouse of knowledge about the area to draw from in your daily where-to-hunt-today decision-making process. Cut costs where you can One of the keys to making this work is to keep the costs down. Some motels will give you a weekly rate and often small-town motels in rural Midwestern states are pretty cheap. I like to pull a travel trailer so I have everything with me including cooking equipment. It’s amazing how much you can cook in a motel room or camper if you think about it. A crockpot with a hot meal waiting for you at the end of a cold day is a welcome sight. Before leaving home, I freeze the entire contents of the meals in plastic containers, then pull one out in the morning and drop the whole frozen mass into the crockpot set on low heat when I leave in the morning. When the evening comes I arrive to find a hot meal ready and waiting for me. With a microwave and a toaster, you can make all kinds of meals. Another way to cut costs if to go with a buddy who can help split the bills for motels and fuel costs. Make sure you get someone