Ok...Its not a deer. The scat and tracks all around these trails are from last year, and what I heard was a mouse. I have seen the deer in these parts. Three singular sapplings torn to pieces. I guess its just a fluke.

I wont be taking your advice though, and will show you him when hes down on the ground with me holding his rack in my hands. I know this property like the back of my hand. The scenario for this part of the woods is prime whitetail habital, and the 9 pointer taken last year during muzzy was just a pretend deer too.

I wish you luck in WI with rubs that arent rubs. However the rubs have been popping up all this week in places where I know the deer are eating my corn, having pictures taken, etc.

I was just sharing my 25 years of scouting, and I have seen many instances where bark decays and falls, branches and trees dying and flaking, birches flaking...but never before, in these woods, have I seen this and it not be a buck rub. Usually they are alot smaller, on smaller cedars and sapplings, but this is not a small deer.

Im not the only witness to these markings, or the sighting of the deer. The neighbor was the one who pointed me to the edge of the field where he had been seen going in and out of. I guess I will tell them it was a fluke.