Unofficial Beast Rub Study
- Lockdown
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Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Ok guys I finally got time to start the rub study we talked about in another thread. We've had quite a few questions over the years asking how to determine how fresh a rub is. I'm pretty green on the subject so I decided to do a study to shed some light on the situation.
I found a small patch of trees that happens to be on my way home from work. I'm planning on checking these rubs daily for at least the first week. Then it might get a little more periodic from there. Actually I know it will... I leave for South Dakota in 6 days
I picked four different species of trees. I used a claw hammer to shred the bark. I will also note the weather conditions along the way and record details of how each rub changed in appearance and also by touch.
The day I made them the temps were low 50's and skies were overcast, but we received no precipitation.
Tree #1 is a 4" diameter evergreen. Pretty sure its a spruce tree (I'm no arborist)
The rub itself felt wet to the touch and as you can see was bright white. Of course all bark peelings were soft and pliable.
Tree #2 is a 1" buckthorn shrub
Same as the pine, the moisture was very easy to feel and bark shreddings were soft. The wood had a yellow hue.
Tree #3 was a species of ash (by the way if you know I'm wrong in naming any of these, PLEASE CORRECT ME)
Wet feel, pliable shreddings. I did notice that this rub didn't have the fresh appearance like the others. Going by looks alone I would have thought it was a couple weeks old. The others had a "sheen" to them, likely due to the moisture, but this one was a bit drab. However it was obvious it was fresh when I felt it.
Tree #4 has no picture because I got a phone call and forgot to take one Keep in mind I'm doing this in a hurry as mama is at home with two kids waiting for me. You'll see it on day 2. The feel was the same as the other 3. The moisture in the rub itself was very obvious.
I found a small patch of trees that happens to be on my way home from work. I'm planning on checking these rubs daily for at least the first week. Then it might get a little more periodic from there. Actually I know it will... I leave for South Dakota in 6 days
I picked four different species of trees. I used a claw hammer to shred the bark. I will also note the weather conditions along the way and record details of how each rub changed in appearance and also by touch.
The day I made them the temps were low 50's and skies were overcast, but we received no precipitation.
Tree #1 is a 4" diameter evergreen. Pretty sure its a spruce tree (I'm no arborist)
The rub itself felt wet to the touch and as you can see was bright white. Of course all bark peelings were soft and pliable.
Tree #2 is a 1" buckthorn shrub
Same as the pine, the moisture was very easy to feel and bark shreddings were soft. The wood had a yellow hue.
Tree #3 was a species of ash (by the way if you know I'm wrong in naming any of these, PLEASE CORRECT ME)
Wet feel, pliable shreddings. I did notice that this rub didn't have the fresh appearance like the others. Going by looks alone I would have thought it was a couple weeks old. The others had a "sheen" to them, likely due to the moisture, but this one was a bit drab. However it was obvious it was fresh when I felt it.
Tree #4 has no picture because I got a phone call and forgot to take one Keep in mind I'm doing this in a hurry as mama is at home with two kids waiting for me. You'll see it on day 2. The feel was the same as the other 3. The moisture in the rub itself was very obvious.
- Twenty Up
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Also could you pay attention to the shavings on the leaves? Not sure how long “fresh” shavings stay on top of the leaf litter but would be interesting to see.
Thanks for taking your time to do this and record it for us
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- Lockdown
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
DAY 2 - OCTOBER 17th
Highs in the 50's with sunny skies.
#1 - SPRUCE TREE
I didn't even realize it until comparing pics, but the rub had yellowed some. I'm assuming this is due to the sap I was pretty surprised by this happening in only 24 hours. The bark shreddings had dried up big time. That was also a surprise. They cracked and snapped when i tried to bend them and felt very dry. The rub itself dried out as well. Although I could feel a LITTLE moisture, I think most of that was the tiny sap beads which are shown below.
I took a screwdriver and scraped the existing rub to check the color difference. I tried to keep it small as I will do this each day. You can see the white patch next to the unaltered bark. Pretty eye opening.
People often comment "there were still fresh shavings at the base of the tree" so I decided to document that as well:
#2 - BUCKTHORN (I hate buckthorn so #2 is a fitting number)
At first glance I thought it looked very similar to when it was made. But there were noticeable differences. The wet feeling was not there anymore. However the bark shreddings were still pliable and did not break or crack at all. Very different from the pine.
When I scraped new bark off the differences were quite evident. The first thing I noticed was the buckthorn rub got lighter, when the pine rub darkened. So its very evident that scraping new bark to gauge freshness is a must unless you have a genius IQ and can memorize the individual changes tree to tree.
Bark at the base
#3 - ASH
To me this one looked exactly the same.
But when I scraped the bark the color change showed. I should have scraped a little more... you can see the thin vertical lines where I peeled it some. Bark shreddings were soft and pliable when I bent them.
Bark at the base. There's a lot of it there if you look close.
#4 - MYSTERY TREE The leaves looked like an ash but the bark was quite smooth. Anyone know this one? Regardless the type of tree doesn't matter to me a whole lot.
Unfortunately we don't have a day 1 pic, but as you can see there's a large amount of orange bark underneath the outer layer. Here's what the new scraping showed. You can see where the tree stopped my screwdriver. That and just to the right are where I scraped. Bark shreddings were also soft and pliable with this one. This includes (for all four test samples) the bark at the base of the tree. The pine was the only one that had dry shavings.
So that tree darkened a hair as well, but not much.
Bark at the bottom
Even after 24 hours the differences are pretty noticeable. The biggest takeaways are: Wet rubs are SUPER fresh. Less than 24 hours old. And you have to scrape the bark to really see the day to day differences. Eyes alone won't cut it.
Highs in the 50's with sunny skies.
#1 - SPRUCE TREE
I didn't even realize it until comparing pics, but the rub had yellowed some. I'm assuming this is due to the sap I was pretty surprised by this happening in only 24 hours. The bark shreddings had dried up big time. That was also a surprise. They cracked and snapped when i tried to bend them and felt very dry. The rub itself dried out as well. Although I could feel a LITTLE moisture, I think most of that was the tiny sap beads which are shown below.
I took a screwdriver and scraped the existing rub to check the color difference. I tried to keep it small as I will do this each day. You can see the white patch next to the unaltered bark. Pretty eye opening.
People often comment "there were still fresh shavings at the base of the tree" so I decided to document that as well:
#2 - BUCKTHORN (I hate buckthorn so #2 is a fitting number)
At first glance I thought it looked very similar to when it was made. But there were noticeable differences. The wet feeling was not there anymore. However the bark shreddings were still pliable and did not break or crack at all. Very different from the pine.
When I scraped new bark off the differences were quite evident. The first thing I noticed was the buckthorn rub got lighter, when the pine rub darkened. So its very evident that scraping new bark to gauge freshness is a must unless you have a genius IQ and can memorize the individual changes tree to tree.
Bark at the base
#3 - ASH
To me this one looked exactly the same.
But when I scraped the bark the color change showed. I should have scraped a little more... you can see the thin vertical lines where I peeled it some. Bark shreddings were soft and pliable when I bent them.
Bark at the base. There's a lot of it there if you look close.
#4 - MYSTERY TREE The leaves looked like an ash but the bark was quite smooth. Anyone know this one? Regardless the type of tree doesn't matter to me a whole lot.
Unfortunately we don't have a day 1 pic, but as you can see there's a large amount of orange bark underneath the outer layer. Here's what the new scraping showed. You can see where the tree stopped my screwdriver. That and just to the right are where I scraped. Bark shreddings were also soft and pliable with this one. This includes (for all four test samples) the bark at the base of the tree. The pine was the only one that had dry shavings.
So that tree darkened a hair as well, but not much.
Bark at the bottom
Even after 24 hours the differences are pretty noticeable. The biggest takeaways are: Wet rubs are SUPER fresh. Less than 24 hours old. And you have to scrape the bark to really see the day to day differences. Eyes alone won't cut it.
Last edited by Lockdown on Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- Lockdown
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Twenty Up wrote::clap:
Also could you pay attention to the shavings on the leaves? Not sure how long “fresh” shavings stay on top of the leaf litter but would be interesting to see.
Thanks for taking your time to do this and record it for us
got pics of that on day 2
If anyone else has any suggestions let me know.
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Thanks for doing this, LD!
Already proving that alot of our common assumptions and corresponding descriptions of what we find aren't always accurate...
Already proving that alot of our common assumptions and corresponding descriptions of what we find aren't always accurate...
Not all those who wander are lost...
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
This is great. Lots to learn here. I think maybe we need to test scrape freshness as well
- Dewey
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
I'm wondering how long before you walk in to take pics and a guy will be set up in a stand hunting the "big buck" making all those rubs?
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Dewey wrote:I'm wondering how long before you walk in to take pics and a guy will be set up in a stand hunting the "big buck" making all those rubs?
I've used mock rubs and scraps to contain other hunters
Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Good stuff I’ll be following along. We will need to do a buck track and scrape test too!
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Day 3 - Rubs are 48 hours old
70 degrees with sunny skies
Tree #1 - PINE
The first thing I noticed was the sap beads. They were larger and more numerous. The center of the rub had definitely gotten stickier. The sap seemed to be spreading more evenly, but the biggest most concentrated beads were still toward the outside of the rub near the existing bark.
Overall color was very similar to the day prior. Here's a new scraping of bark.
The shavings hadn't changed much. Of course they were still dry and brittle.
Tree #2 - BUCKTHORN
I think I made a mistake yesterday. I don't think I rubbed the tree hard enough when I scraped it. Yesterday it appeared the rub itself was lighter than fresh bark, but I don't think I got deep enough to the core of the tree. Here you can see today's and yesterday's scraping.
I did notice the shavings had dried some. Both on the ground and on the tree itself. They were still pliable, but definitely a little stiffer. The shavings on the ground lost some color and were getting tougher to see. I attribute some of that to new leaf litter.
Tree #3 - ASH
I had the claw hammer again which was easier to use forcefully. I was amazed when I scraped the ash because I had a hard time exposing fresh wood. When I did the color was basically the same as the 48 hour old wood. Then I tried peeling it like I did yesterday and that produced a lighter color again. You can see the peel mark and the deep gouge I left with the hammer.
Consistent with the buckthorn, the shavings felt a little drier, but still weren't brittle.
Tree #4 - MYSTERY TREE
No major change in rub color but it might have darkened some. The bright white of the new scrape is obvious. Scrape from previous day has faded already.
The shavings were consistent with the Buckthorn and Ash as well. A little drier but not brittle. I think the shavings themselves will be an accurate indicator of rub age. The ground shavings were getting harder to see with this tree, which I think is consistent with all four at this point.
One can only assume all the shavings will be very brittle at some point. The pine is a different story. Its shavings got brittle in a day. Here I think the sap is a much better indicator. I expect there to be even more sap tomorrow, and the shavings from the other three should be noticeably dryer yet.
70 degrees with sunny skies
Tree #1 - PINE
The first thing I noticed was the sap beads. They were larger and more numerous. The center of the rub had definitely gotten stickier. The sap seemed to be spreading more evenly, but the biggest most concentrated beads were still toward the outside of the rub near the existing bark.
Overall color was very similar to the day prior. Here's a new scraping of bark.
The shavings hadn't changed much. Of course they were still dry and brittle.
Tree #2 - BUCKTHORN
I think I made a mistake yesterday. I don't think I rubbed the tree hard enough when I scraped it. Yesterday it appeared the rub itself was lighter than fresh bark, but I don't think I got deep enough to the core of the tree. Here you can see today's and yesterday's scraping.
I did notice the shavings had dried some. Both on the ground and on the tree itself. They were still pliable, but definitely a little stiffer. The shavings on the ground lost some color and were getting tougher to see. I attribute some of that to new leaf litter.
Tree #3 - ASH
I had the claw hammer again which was easier to use forcefully. I was amazed when I scraped the ash because I had a hard time exposing fresh wood. When I did the color was basically the same as the 48 hour old wood. Then I tried peeling it like I did yesterday and that produced a lighter color again. You can see the peel mark and the deep gouge I left with the hammer.
Consistent with the buckthorn, the shavings felt a little drier, but still weren't brittle.
Tree #4 - MYSTERY TREE
No major change in rub color but it might have darkened some. The bright white of the new scrape is obvious. Scrape from previous day has faded already.
The shavings were consistent with the Buckthorn and Ash as well. A little drier but not brittle. I think the shavings themselves will be an accurate indicator of rub age. The ground shavings were getting harder to see with this tree, which I think is consistent with all four at this point.
One can only assume all the shavings will be very brittle at some point. The pine is a different story. Its shavings got brittle in a day. Here I think the sap is a much better indicator. I expect there to be even more sap tomorrow, and the shavings from the other three should be noticeably dryer yet.
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Edcyclopedia wrote:Dewey wrote:I'm wondering how long before you walk in to take pics and a guy will be set up in a stand hunting the "big buck" making all those rubs?
I've used mock rubs and scraps to contain other hunters
Nice
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Cool post man, i'll have to take a look around when I check cams next week. Wish we had tapatalk here for major photo uploading
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Pretty neat, can’t wait to see how this is gonna pan out.
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Re: Unofficial Beast Rub Study
Good stuff LD. I never thought about scraping a rub to guage freshness until it came up on here recently. Perfect idea to go along with the in season scouting thread.
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