Clusters of rubs

[burkeju76]

Ok guys so ive got a spot about 15 yards inside a field edge that has more rubs, both historical and current that ive ever seen in such a small area. The field is sometimes beans, however this year it is just weeds. The rubs still showed up. Whats going on with this area you think? Im sure its night sign and am not suggesting hunting over it, ive just never seen an area like this. I wondered if it is just an area where they are entering the woods at night from surrounding ditch banks/blocks of woods, if they just like rubbing whatever species of tree these are, etc. Any ideas of the significance of this little spot?

[stash59]

I've seen this alot. Sometimes it's because it's just an area with a preferred species of trees and or size of trees. Stuff on a field edge doesn't usually line up with daylight movement. But I've found clusters in or near thick areas too. These areas can be good. Usually means multiple bucks are using these areas. All wanting to leave their calling card.

[Mathewshooter]

I have noticed these areas are where the buck will walk through when in that general area. Being as its near a field, daylight movement may not happen there. I have great luck hunting spots like these back in the timber near thickets.

[Hawthorne]

Maybe he can sniff a bunch of air in that spot. Maybe a nighttime air movement

[Buckfever]

How many rubs? 10, 15, 20 or are we talking like 75-300?

You say it's 15 yards from a field edge, is it a thicket does it have good security cover so that it's a safe place for staging or is it open?

Is there bedding nearby and could they use the topography to get to the staging safely from the bedding?

Is there a reason that there would be no human scent there, for them to be comfortable staging there during legal?

If there is bedding nearby was there an area of concentrated scrapes towards the bedding?

I'm not going to lie to you field edge rubs and scrapes are usually worthless, but 15 yards off in thick cover I don't write off.

[burkeju76]

Id guess probably 30 rubs in a 10 yard circle. Right behind this is sort of a wall of vines and such and then you drop into some woods that are kinda prickly. I know for sure there is bedding nearby becuase there is an irrigation canal that they tend to bed on either side. Ive kicked deer out of beds along that not 100 yards from this place. That particular ditch runs on out and borders the field on two sides with a real brushy bank. If a buck is laying on that bank and coming to this block of woods at night maybe this is his entry point? If he does happen to be out there i dont have any idea on how to move on him.

[headgear]

Sounds/looks like a killer bedding area to me based on everything you have said so far. Got a topo or aerial?

[burkeju76]

Ive posted a drawing of the area. It's pretty crude but is good enough because the land is flat as a pancake. The blue is the irrigation canal. The field labeled a weed field is weeds this year but has been beans in years past. I know for sure they bed on either side of the canal from the parking area north because I've jumped them when I'm going up it in a canoe. The woods labeled here are all lands that the feds have replanted so the trees are still young with low limbs that are in the process of dying off. Also mixed in there are pockets of blackberries, etc. Basically a young forest trying to get established. There is also a wet weather slough in the woods that runs parallel with the weed field. These rubs are just between the field and that slough.

[seazofcheeze]

I hunted an area with almost exactly the same kind of sign on an inside corner like that. Every year thered be 20-50 new rubs in an area maybe 50yds by 50yds. It was a staging area where bucks would hold up before entering a field (after dark) to feed. It wasn't any good for hunting, but a few hundred yards away there was a good buck rut bedding area and it always held the best bucks in the area at the end of October and Early november. That's also when most of the sign showed up on the field edge.

Just put of curiosity is the prevailing wind on your drawing out of the NW?

[burkeju76]

Yes, the prevailing wind is from the northwest. Two years ago i killed a good one about halfway up the slough going north on the east side of it, he was paralleling the slough at the last few seconds of shooting light. I guess scent checking the bedding that I've seen along the canal? I really can't seem to figure out where they bed in here, but he came from the south (like from that rub area direction). I have no idea where he was coming from because you really can't see much more than 20 yards in all of those woods, just too tight in there.

[burkeju76]

i can almost understand the rubs being there when the field is beans, but right now it's brown weeds. I don't see a good reason for them to go there unless they are just crossing it to get to the next woodlot or if they are bedding on the canal where it borders the weed field.