Scouted this weekend. Confused

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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djw5250
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby djw5250 » Tue Apr 15, 2014 1:48 pm

The long oval like droppings and the marks on the trees are a tell tale sign of porcupines look closely at the rubbed trees and you'll see marks in the tree going diagonal with a small amount of bark in between almost like this ////. Porcupines love eating the inner bark off of trees, I've seen them destroy pine trees and small saplings. If your finding a lot of those droppings under pine or hemlock trees more than likely there's one or more living in them. I don't mean to be a debbie downer but that my opinion, I'm over run with the damn things here.


Bowhunter74201
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby Bowhunter74201 » Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:18 am

a buddy of mine suggested that too. some of the rubs do seem to have a distinct pattern to them. porkupine droppings look similar to deer? i thought all those piles i found were deer..
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headgear
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby headgear » Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:26 am

christian1 wrote:I am looking on my phone so pics aren't real clear, but I did find a bunch of smaller trees that looked like they were rubs but upon closer investigation I found it was rabbits or other critters chewing the bark

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I think we might have a winner here, some of those could be rubs but some of them look an awful lot like chew marks. From a distance they can all look like rubs but up close something doesn't look right. When I have found moose rubs in the past they have been over my head and usually bigger trees with a lot of broken branches.
djw5250
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby djw5250 » Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:47 am

yes porcupine droppings look very similar to deer droppings. They dry up very fast though and will look distinctly dryer compared to deer droppings in only a few days.
Bowhunter74201
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby Bowhunter74201 » Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:29 am

lots of pieces to this puzzle i guess.. thanks for helping me put it together guys.

judging by the tracks and the definite deer rubs i found, i do believe there is a good buck using this area.
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Swampthing
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Re: Scouted this weekend. Confused

Unread postby Swampthing » Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:18 pm

I've seen this in tough winter years where there is a lack of forage and deep snow. Deer willl chew up bark right off trees.

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