I am not sure how best to answer your question. The big bucks need refuge. This can be non-hunting zones, clear-cut’s, thickets, holly, mountain laurel, Swamp land, areas closed a lot, deep woods or any where hunters do not go. These need to be large areas where the bucks can survive during the time of the year that they are nocturnal. Where no one kicks them out of their beds. You can get burnt hunting rubs and scrapes. For rubs you want quaintly. A big rub (10 inch in diameter) tells you that a big buck is in the area, but it does not tell you where he is hanging out. A trophy buck will rub trees smaller than a pencil so a small rub tells you nothing about the size of the buck. I watched a trophy rub this tiny pencil thin bush for 5 minutes. His head turned sideways would go all the way to the ground. The total numbers of rub make a statement of hang time. I count rubs ( not literally) and even count tiny scratches that are less than ¼ of a inch long. If you see 50 of these rubs then you may have a buck hangout where many bucks come through. I like seeing what I call aggression rubs where a tree is all twisted around. Some rubs are made at night in open areas. You want to hunt where you would hunt even if you did not see rubs. Scrapes can also be it the open where bucks only go at night. The best scrapes will have many scrapes and many rubs and good food and dropping and several good crossing trails. More often it is just a few scrapes in the open. You need to evaluate the whole picture and just not a few scrapes or rubs. As a general rule the bucks can not travel without leaving a least a tiny rub every 50 yards or so. But this rule is not completely valid as bucks do not rub or scrape in some of the places that they go. Scent control is very important. I may play this up too much, but I have a 3 visit rule. Some times I make 5 visits. This includes scouting. Like when I gun hunted the first visit I would see 10 deer. The second trip I would see 3 deer and the 3rd visit I might see a deer if I were lucky. This happens even if the deer never saw you or smelled you. The deer come through at knight and smell where you have been in the day time so they go some where else to hang out. Do your scouting just before rain if you can and do not scout on Saturdays when the woods are full of hunters. Food (white oaks) is the best to hunt, but I prefer trails/ travel routes where the deer come in quick and leave quick. This leaves less time for you to get busted. I plot out where I think the bucks are and then locate the does there. I then back off of the does and then keep tabs on what other hunters are seeing. When the 6 and 8 pointer start showing up then I set up on the does. In the first 3 days of when the bucks start cruising the woods they are likely to be with does near their home territory. After that they could be any where. Before the rut, hunt the buck sign and locate does near by and as the action picks up hunt over the does. I remember some years where I saw over 40 bucks and many were 8 pointers , but not a single trophy. I was in the wrong hunting area. All of the areas have big bucks, but if you are not near where the big boys hang out then you are out of luck.
I just started a face book group (Barry's bow hunting forum). You are welcome to join. I am not sure where it will go. So far it is only pictures. it is attached to my facebook page (Barry Henningsen)
Barry