No Hot Sign But 5 Mature Bucks Seen

[Double Draw]

I am hunting public in PA. I have been out 6 times. I know of 100's of buck beds and have scouted some areas very well but I am not seeing the 'hot sign.' I have, on the other hand, bumped or observed bedded at least 5 mature bucks (4.5 or older). The bucks I have bumped I did so because I assumed nothing was home and pushed in farther bc of lack of sign. In all but one case I could barely find a rub let alone a scrape anywhere near the bed and the bed was the same bed I observed a mature buck in while scouting in late spring. Wondering if anyone has an idea of what is going on. I know it is not bc of excessive pressure...I have not seen a single hunter on public yet! Barely even seen a vehicle in the parking lots or along public land, in fact. The few scrapes I have found seem 'half-hearted' and once and done by the deer. By the way the deer are behaving it would seem the rut is 2 months away. I did see a 1.5 year old 8 point last night chasing a yearling doe. Help me understand, please! Thanks in advance!

[WV Bowhunter]

I’m seeing a lot of the same here in WV and SE Ohio. Very few rubs and no scrapes. Very weird year so far.

[Twenty Up]

I'm seeing quite the opposite here in GA. Found well over 50 scrapes today, rubs are not as common yet. I'll see a fresh rub here and there which I've really keyed in on but I'm willing to wager the rubs will pick up as well.

Haven't seen any chasing yet but heard of guys saying they have.

[northeast beast]

Haven't seen much scrapes or rubs...weather is very warm still here. Once the cold kicks I think it gets them a little more amped

[Jhand]

I scouted a new place on Sunday. Found probably 20 scrapes all over the property but not one fresh rub anywhere. Ton of old rubs from the last few years but not one from this year.

[Barker]

My thoughts exactly. The hot sign has yet to bust open. I was able to find a fresh bedding area scrape on Saturday and a few trees had light tine mark rubs, nothing serious. I hung a stand in that bedding area for the evening and nothing was seen. I've had good movement after dark on trail cams in the area but no daylight activity yet. It needs to drop another 20 degrees here and I think things will change.

[<DK>]

I love the way you put the scrapes were half hearted!

[RidgeReaper]

I went in blind on a newish spot on Saturday and I went 1.74mi back according to caltopo and OnX maps. Literally No Mans Land until rifle opens. Anyway, I found 8 scrapes along the top of the ridge once I got a good distance from the main trailroad. All were about the side of an end table top. Nothing real big and only a few rubs along the route. Once I got into where I wanted to set up I found a few more ok rubs. I guess the buck just travels right along the top on the trail road...when I left the tree and got back to the trail I noticed 2 of the scrapes were hit in the time I hunted. Pretty nice tracks in them and they were "pawed" up pretty good. I guess I should've hunted the stupid trail road ...seems like I hunted just a bit too far in along the saddle. I think I would've seen the buck if I was on the other end of the dip. Other than that I haven't seen too much other good sign.

[elk yinzer]

It has seemed to me there are way less rubs than usual this year, interesting others are seeing it too. I've been pussyfooting around more than usual this year trying to push closer into know bedding areas whereas I usually do more early season scouting and doe hunting, and less buck hunting. I was starting to second guess if that was the reason. My only guess is that late September/early October heat wave really slowed things down. Things should be picking up in that department this week.

[flinginairos]

In WV I'm seeing the same thing. Barely any buck sign at all right now. The bedding area I killed from last week was holding 4-5 pretty good bucks and the only rubs somewhat close to bedding were some small ones in a patch of hardwoods where they were getting acorns. If you were speed scouting you'd pass right by because of the lack of sign. On my place in Ohio it's the exact opposite. Come first of September the bucks over there were tearing the woods down making sign!! I think the lesson to be learned here is you can't base all your hunting off of fresh sign. Just have to try the bedding areas that make sense for the wind/cover/pressure etc and see what happens. Fresh sign to me is nice but if my previous scouting tells me to sit there I'm gonna try it.

[PSDBowhunter]

I was out hiking on a piece of public that is off limits to hunting on Saturday (Oct. 14th) and ran into at least 2-3 bucks that I could see. What surprised me is that I could smell the familiar, musky, buck in rut scent where they had crossed the trail in front of me. The mountainside was tore up with multiple scrapes as well.

I went out scouting on Sunday on another piece of public that you can hunt on and could only find one fresh scrape.

[JoeRE]

That is a major difference between rut bedding and non-rut bedding I am learning. Rut bedding gets torn up and early season bedding used by MATURE BUCKS that I find has a lot less sign...plenty of exceptions but just general observations.

[tbunao]

That is a major difference between rut bedding and non-rut bedding I am learning. Rut bedding gets torn up and early season bedding used by MATURE BUCKS that I find has a lot less sign...plenty of exceptions but just general observations.

I felt the same with pre season scouting. Beds with rubs in them or coming in/out are generally easier to find IMO. A lot of the time I can find doe beds not far off from those locations. I've kept away from these areas waiting for them to make the shift closer. I figure when are they most active leaving that sign, pre rut.

As far as sign this season, I agree with the rest. It's been very limited even in traditional night sign locations. Rubs especially, but I'm betting after that cold front a slight flurry in activity has occurred.

[headgear]

Think of is this way, I have hunted hot sign maybe dozens to hundreds of times and had nothing show up, you want to hunt where the bucks are not necessarily where the sign is. You gained a ton of great intel for next season, use it to your advantage.

[nor' easter]

I did the same thing Saturday scouting the swamp edge of a new property. No sign coming in or out of the swamp, but ended up bumping a large buck out of a bed just inside the edge. Found trails running around the entire inside rim of the swamp leading to several buck beds with old rubs. No fresh rubs or scrapes, but a mature buck was bedded there. Also found fresh doe bedding in the area. None of this was visible from the timber, I had to be in the middle of the transition to see it. We have low densities here so the sign is typically sparse anyway, but typical annual scrapes have not opened up yet.