Is This a Big Buck? (Pic)
 

I found this rub around where I hunt. This is one of the biggest trees I've seen rubbed so far. A 12" diameter hemlock.

How big a buck would you think would take on this sort of tree? In the side of the tree, there were gouges a half inch deep going up and down the tree as well.

no pic showed up...for me atleast...


but after watching a TINY buck work this tree over, i quit banking on rub sizes telling me a whole lot...the tree isnt HUGE...but the buck was tiny...i think a real small Y buck...



it was during the chasing phase of the rut....a doe came by panting, tounge hangin out etc...then here he came...i grunted at him to see what would happen...it was my first experience with the rut and bow season....

he proceeded to attack that tree like he thought he was king of the hill....he worked it a minute or 2 and caught his wind and took off on her trail...poor girl really had nowhere to run and didnt look like she was going much farther in her condition lol....

it was an awesome hunt...ive never witnessed any of that...

i know the tree isnt HUGE...but, before then, id never said a tiny Y buck would made that rub...

I would tell you, but I don't see a picture.

Sorry about that. I added the picture to the first post.

wowwwwwww!


i dont know what else to say!! i thought ive seen some BIG rubs....but never seen or heard of on like that...that looks to be bigger than a telephone pole! WOW!!

not questioning you...but you sure its a rub? not a porcupine or something starting to work on the tree??

Yep, it's a rub alright. I thought porcupine when I first saw it from a distance. I inspected it close-up. On the sides of the tree you can see the gouges from the tines.

I emailed myself another picture which showed the tine gouges but I haven't gotten it yet. It's from my phone.

View of side of tree where tines were gouging in.

wow....

hard to say...could be only as wide as those 2 gouge lines...i dont know...thats a BIG rub though!!!

The fact that he chose that tree tells me he's sending a message to all the other deer out there. I'm the boss :D

We have 8-10 inch trees get rubbed every now and then. This was definitely the biggest, though.

based on the pic, the two spaced gouge marks almost look as if they could be the G1's so based on that it looks like the buck as a real nice spread. Id assume its a nice buck

Yeah, he could be gouging the tree with his brow tines while his left beam is rubbing the side of the tree.

About 100 yards away is a bale of alfalfa in a field that has a million tracks around it. I set up a trail camera there on Sunday. Hopefully he shows and still has his antlers. I'd love to see this joker :D

Where I hunt in Ohio, I have seen multiple telephone poles torn up.

I would definetly keep an eye on any pictures out of that trail camera...that will tell You if its a Big Buck or a small Buck with a Big attitude? ;)

That's from a big buck. Smaller bucks usually don't pick on trees of that size. I hope you get some pics of that thing.

Most rubs we see are on 2-3" trees. A few 5-6" here and there and an 8" or so every few years. I think a lot of the bucks like some of the smaller trees because many of them are black birch. That seems to be their favorite to rub.

nope. Has to be a bear... Or at least thats what I am telling myself so I am not worried about getting killed by an outrageously huge whitetail next time I go out in the woods.

definitely looks like brow tines

most likely the two vertical guges are from the brow tines i have seen deer do this many times. but on that 2nd pic posted.... i think that is a sign post rub...and we have one like that we put the trail cam on this fall and we had a couple small 1 1/2 yyear old bucks rubing and a big 14 pt. and a couple other 2 1/2..so i believe multiple deer are rubing that tree.

This tree is on a logging road I travel often. I just noticed it this weekend. It must have been made in January. Definitely not during the rut itself. I guess bucks can always rub while they have hard antlers.

thats from a big buck, has to have a lot of neck strength to rub a tree that big and he is making a statement to other deer in the area.

Got these pictures about 100 yards away from the rub. I don't know if any of these guys could have made it. The buck with the forked G2s has the rack for it, but he's young and has a small body. The 6 pointer definitely has the body size, but his rack is on the decline and he's an old man. :D

It's fun knowing there's a big SOB out there somewhere. He should be bigger next year....

Either of those two bigger bucks could of made the rub or it could even be a combination. This year while on stand I saw a 1.5 year old 4 pointer try to rub a tree that was about 10" in diameter. He hit it for around a minute or a little less but was rubbing the far side of the tree so i decided to go look at the tree later that day. There was barely a mark on the tree from him and he was trying to do some damage to the tree. About a week later I watched a small antlered 3.5 year old buck tear the same tree up. They went at the tree with the same approach and hit it for the same amount of time but due to the stronger neck and body of the 3.5 he did a lot more damage to the tree

ive seen many rubs large and small . ive had spike bucks rip up big trees on my cams and also big ones shred tiny trees smooth so unless u have a cam on it youll have to take a guess or measure the brow tine scrapes then ,where the tines would be scraping around the sides of the tree to determine a approx size

Big Bucks rub little trees, but little bucks dont rub big trees. Hope you get him.

as far as little bucks not rubbing big trees ,thats not true at all ,ive seen spike bucks rubbing 30 ft high pine trees that are about 15 in in diameter which was right next to the house ,we were gonna set up a stand to bag this big buck which we thought it was but the moultrie determined it was a spike .we were excited for a minute.
ive had button bucks rubbing on trees too with just their bumps and a 1.5 yr old that allready had dropped his antlers but was still rubbing and sniffing on 2in trees, so the size of the tree or buck doesn't matter where here in southern IL

HAHAH oh my! I guess we can say one thing...he's at least 12" wide haha. Seriously though...that thing has to be a beast. That's the kind of rub you see in IA or IL. Make some mineral licks adjacent to think cover in the vicinity now...Then put your camera out in the beginning of may. He'll already have several inches of growth by then.

are we sure its a rub?

Yes. You can see where the tines gouged the tree as well as where the beams rubbed away the bark.

Jason...very interesting, and it makes sense. I wonder if you looked at rub tree diameters as a function of muscle mass (or age) what the results would be. Wonder is theres a certain diameter rub that a 2.5 physically cannot make.

Barnes...I just read that you believe the rub was made in January. That tells me that you found part of a matures bucks core area (the part of it that he frequents after the hunting pressure turns up). Scout that area with the snow, and hang a stand with late season (at the least) in mind for next year.

The rub is right along a logging road that separates the woods and a field the deer love to visit at night. And close to those fields is the road. It's a night time area for them.

However, in the rut, the big bucks will cruise this area. Mainly at night, but they seem to cruise through any time as the does like bedding near by. I rattled in two bucks in the woods behind the field in 2008. One I shot. An 8 pointer with a 23" spread. I've seen jaw-dropping bucks in the field at night during the rut, but it's a different area in the day time. When the weather is nice, people like to hike around there. I should probably take time off and hunt during the week.