Education on Rubs. Fresh, old, dead tree?

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buttonbuck
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Education on Rubs. Fresh, old, dead tree?

Unread postby buttonbuck » Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:09 am

When summer scouting here I am coming across old rubs. Some are clearly last years rub. Some trees I question weather its a historic rub or something else. Trees missing bark from knee high to chest but dead. Is there any clearly laid out rules on reading old rubs vs rot? Is there a picture resource that clearly lays these differences out? Do rubs kill trees? First year buck hunting guys, appreciate it.


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oldrank
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Re: Education on Rubs. Fresh, old, dead tree?

Unread postby oldrank » Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:14 am

If the rub girdles the tree it will kill it. Most of the time it will just scar the tree.
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Re: Education on Rubs. Fresh, old, dead tree?

Unread postby SplitG2 » Sun Aug 04, 2019 8:56 am

Oldrank is right, if the tree becomes girdle it will kill it but in most cases they just scar the tree when rubbing.

I'm not 100% sure exactly what you're getting at with your questions so my response is just a stab at it, so please forgive me ahead of time. Anytime I have come upon a historical rub, I can't really think of a time in which I could not decipher if it was rot or a historical rub based solely on its appearance. With that said, if I ever did there is a few things I would check for like whether or not the tree feels weak, if it feels super dry like a dead tree, does the bark just peel right off of it with little to no effort, whether it even has new growth at all or peel some bark back and dig your knife into it and if it seeps water or the wood seems damp, if its still wet then its still got some life in it. Bucks, in my personal experience will not rub a dead tree(at least not a noticeably dead tree), if they do I have never seen one in my 27 years of hunting.

If the tree still has all its bark, shows noticeable signs of life but you're still not certain, I would look at the leaf litter at the base of it(especially if its a cedar). Although things are green and grown up, a lot of times you can still see some shreds of bark laying on top or within the leaf litter at the base of the tree and look for long shallow gouges. If you find all of these things more than likely it is a historical rub or just a rub in general. Most historical rubs I have ever seen are on bigger trees, say softball size up to size of a telephone pole and are hit by a lot of different bucks throughout the season.....I have even seen small racked deer rub telephone pole thick historical rub. Also most historical rubs in my personal experience are typically hit at random times when passing thru and mostly at night. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be paid attention too, they should but there's better more important rubs that one should pay attention too

Hope this helps
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