First Sign of the Year

[The Silence]

What types of sign do you guys look for that may indicate you've got a big boy in the neighborhood as soon as velvet is shed:
(1) Shredded saplings.
(2) Larger rubs higher on the tree.
(3) Scrapes start opening up.

I've read from several sources that sometimes the first sign that shows up when a mature buck is around are torn up saplings or bushes.
Just wondering what you guys have noticed.

[tim]

BIG tracks

[Bowfisher]

I agree with the above. Tall rubs on small saplings in late august or first days of september usually tells me it's a good one. Big tracks are good sign every day 365/year. Just yesterday I was scouting a transition that I know a shooter is using, and there were multiple good trails along the transition and I found a set of big tracks using one of those trails. Not saying it's definitely him, or that he only uses that one trail, but it is a puzzle piece.

[elk yinzer]

All of the above really. Old school scouting, you put together whatever sign is available and trust your gut in a lot of cases. Above all else I would probably prefer to find big tracks also. But tracks are tough in the mountainous terrain I hunt, unless you can get a logging track or some kind of clearing where water gathers.

When I see bushes, often laurel here, or saplings shredded and busted clean off, I feel it's pretty safe to assume it's at least a 3.5 year old. So I often hone in on those and especially concentrations of those. But really any rub I think you are making a general guess and probably able to read the buck's demeanor more than age and size. I rarely ever see the big high telephone pole rubs scouting preseason, usually those start to appear later, well into October, as the rut crescendos. Scrapes, I take nothing away from those with respect to a deer's size.

[Thesouthpaw]

BIG tracks

Amen. I look for big tracks over everything else.

[<DK>]

Most cases I see bigger bucks shed before younger ones. Every one is different obviously but in general I see that. Ill be driving home after a hunt opening week and still see 1-2 yr olds in velvet on the side of the road.

So when I find a rubbed up or broken sapling now-sept 15 I relate it to a shooter near by. I love it when its got a slight reddish tint to it

[jwilkstn]

Last year I hunted the Sept 1 opener in Kentucky. On the evening of the 4th, I had a 3 or 4 year old buck follow the script. Before he stepped out, he spent 15-20 minutes absolutely thrashing saplings and bushes just 30 yards from me. He made so much noise I eventually started to doubt what I knew at first was a buck making rubs. I went back in the area the next morning to investigate the sign he left and I couldn't believe how easy to overlook it would have been had I had known it was there. For the time spent and the racket he made, I expected a whole lot more. I learned from this not to discount those first rubs of the season even if they don't look like much.

[seazofcheeze]

Tracks and glassing. If we are talking September 1 openers, hard to beat glassing intel for summer patterns/food sources.

[greenhorndave]

Last year I hunted the Sept 1 opener in Kentucky. On the evening of the 4th, I had a 3 or 4 year old buck follow the script. Before he stepped out, he spent 15-20 minutes absolutely thrashing saplings and bushes just 30 yards from me. He made so much noise I eventually started to doubt what I knew at first was a buck making rubs. I went back in the area the next morning to investigate the sign he left and I couldn't believe how easy to overlook it would have been had I had known it was there. For the time spent and the racket he made, I expected a whole lot more. I learned from this not to discount those first rubs of the season even if they don't look like much.

This is good. It sounds different than a rub line during rut. What are your thoughts on that? Was it more localized than a typical rub line? How did it relate to bedding?

[jwilkstn]

Last year I hunted the Sept 1 opener in Kentucky. On the evening of the 4th, I had a 3 or 4 year old buck follow the script. Before he stepped out, he spent 15-20 minutes absolutely thrashing saplings and bushes just 30 yards from me. He made so much noise I eventually started to doubt what I knew at first was a buck making rubs. I went back in the area the next morning to investigate the sign he left and I couldn't believe how easy to overlook it would have been had I had known it was there. For the time spent and the racket he made, I expected a whole lot more. I learned from this not to discount those first rubs of the season even if they don't look like much.

This is good. It sounds different than a rub line during rut. What are your thoughts on that? Was it more localized than a typical rub line? How did it relate to bedding?

I would consider this to be a staging area. All the rubs were within 10 yards of another. I guessed the bedding was on a point that fell off of the soybean field I sat up on the edge of. I attempted to confirm that the next morning, but couldn't locate the bed. I was 200 yards or so from that point at the head of a draw that was a shaded, low spot in the field. My thermals were just barely missing him in that staging area.