Originally Posted by
bucklessyooper
Where we hunt in Northern Michigan between the severe winters and wolves the deer herd is low.
A popular outdoor magazine claimed 10 deer per square mile,but in my opinion (and many locals) its probably 3-4 deer per square mile.
Now with the background info outta the way here's my question.
With such low deer numbers do the bucks stop rubbing as much and save energy to cover more ground looking for does?
Scouted 8 hrs this fall in mid October in old and new clear cut - hardwood edges and found only 3 rubs. The rubs were at most 1" in diameter.
Nothing compared to the number of rubs I would see 5-10 years ago looking at the same types of areas.
IMO I think the bucks sometimes rub/ scrape more on low numbers years. The reason being that with less does around they advertise more. Last fall we had come out of two really tough winters in northern Canada and there was more rut sign than I can ever remember.
One other factor IMO is weather, this year we didn't get snow in my area until the third week of November, as opposed to getting it in late October like usual. The snow usually sparks a flurry of activity, The rut obviously still happened but the pre-rut was pretty quiet and rut sign was pretty scarce all year. I think without that cold weather getting them horned up and frustrated well ahead of time they just got down to business when it was time. My wife shot a buck at the end of the first week of November that was still running with another buck, highly unusual to say the least!