I will show my inexperience again with this question I'm sure, but do deer use the same runs year after year? I hunt a nice piece of public land that gets overlooked alot, and I know there are some good deer in there...I put my stand near a rub ( tree ) last year that was very active..although I didn't get my deer...do you think he will work the same area again? The area where the rub was, was a liitle too "open"....I think he may have been going there at night.....should I have followed the run a little further to look for intersecting runs...or maybe try to set up in a thicker area? I'm really starting to itch to get in there.....Thanks for any help, Jay

Hi partsjay, Your question is a good one.Deciphering deer runs can be a big piece of creating a successful strategy.What you want to try to establish is how the runs correlate to bedding and feeding area's.If you don't know that about the run you are familiar with you would probably want to walk the run out in both directions to determine where the deer are bedding and feeding.A big consideration is to realize that the well worn deer runs that you see are being used by family groups of does and their off spring,with perhaps some 11/2 year old bucks in the mix.These runs can be productive if animals of that nature are what you are targeting.
There are to many seasonal variables to address here as it relates to where to set up to kill a mature buck,if you wish to dig deeper in to that feel free to PM me.
Good luck to you,I hope you have a lot of fun!

One way to know for sure. I use the tactic. Things change though like rotating crops and housing developments, or death of the beast.

If you have trails deer will use them. Increase your odds by setting up where a few of these come together and in bottle necks ( funnels). Remember always play the wind. Never hunt when the wind isn't right for that stand.

When you know theres a rub line along a well used trail, the buck that made them will run that trail again ( maybe if he's still alive ) and other buck too.
You might want put a trail cam on that trail then you'll know for sure.