Can you recognize fresh sign?

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James
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Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby James » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:51 pm

The confidence thread got me thinking about the various in the field things that contribute to confidence. I'm not a huge sign hunter but I always pay attention to it and adapt accordingly. So my questions to my fellow beasts is, can you recognize fresh hot sign from other sign from this year?

As I was approaching the buck bed of the one I killed this year, I witnessed a lot of very fresh rubs as I passed every shrub and small tree. I have almost always had great results when you find sign that is 24-36 hours old and lots of it. I killed a great buck in 2012 on a freelance hunt by setting up over a pile of very active scrapes in a staging area near bedding. The sign basically said, setup here now!


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Jackson Marsh
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Re: Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:11 pm

Fresh Rubs in a thick nasty area always gets my attention, especially pre rut, big tracks too when I know I'm close to bedding. I haven't had much luck finding primary scrapes close to bedding.

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Re: Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:41 pm

I think tracks and scrapes are fairly easy to distinguish in most cases, especially if there is moisture in the ground. "Judging" hot sign is one thing that I've been working on.

If anyone has tips on aging rubs, I'm all ears ;) Of course if there is fresh bark on the ground that isn't dry and brittle you know its extremely fresh, but what about color, etc


One thing I have been doing is paying close attention to tracks when checking trail cameras. I've been doing pretty well on guessing whether or not I've got a big buck on camera. My #1 buck has a very distinguishable track and several times last fall I KNEW he got his picture taken. This summer I noticed big tracks before a swap, then the nice 9 and wide 8 were on the card.
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Re: Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:45 pm

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Last year when I hunted my best bedding for the first time, I found this heading into bedding as I was sneaking in. Low and behold I had a mature buck encounter that night :think: ;)
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Re: Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Oct 06, 2016 10:29 pm

Fresh sign can be super obvious and not so obvious at other times. The more I see the more excited I get. Especially when its in the right spots.

This morning...Hunting a bedding area where known buck has been bedding this year. Lots of morning activity on camera. Just breaking light and I can just start to make out the 4' ground scrape looks wide open.

Going to hunt it this am and hang a camera.

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Re: Can you recognize fresh sign?

Unread postby blueKYstream » Fri Oct 07, 2016 4:36 pm

Great thread and I was just thinking about this earlier today!

I do a decent job at recognizing fresh sign. The other day I saw lots of acorns and fresh droppings. One of the droppings had flies circling it, so I knew it was fresh (plus it still hadn't dried out. There were some rubs around. I should have looked at their height like Dan says, but I forgot. I ended up hunting there that night and saw a decent 8 and 10 (passed on them). It didn't result in a kill, but definitely a good lesson.

In the past, I've looked for well-worn trails and locations where the fence has been bent up/down where the deer typically cross. Sometimes they work out and sometimes not. There's lots of sign out there, but I think I need to improve on recognizing the fresh sign that I SHOULD hunt and at times WHEN to hunt it. Is this a productive scrape to hunt? Are these series of rubs from a buck worth hunting and will he return?


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