[quote]ORIGINAL: parkerchamp

Ok, here's some more food for thought...

I've always been under the impression that deer make rubs for TWO different reasons, depending on the time of year.

1. During early season, they are simply making rubs to clean their antlers when the velvet starts coming off. Obviously, a mature buck can't fit a six inch tree in the small space between the different points, so this leads me to believe that young deer AND mature deer will mostly rub small saplings.

2. Later in the season, during the rut, deer make rubs to mark their territory, so it is likely that the more mature deer will rub larger trees than younger deer, and they will make them in the heaviest travel areas so that the majority of the herd will see them. Also the more dominant bucks will make "rub lines" to help mark the territory.

As I said, I don't know if this is completely accurate, but that's the way I've been taught since I started hunting.
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Despite what most people think deer do not rub there antlers to get the velvet off they only rub to let other deer they are using this area,I watched a dvd on a study done on a 3000 acre ranch over 25yrs in texas and this was there conclusion so that's good enogh for me.Rubs are nice to see though!