Am I missing the signs?
 

I am very new to hunting and I have very little knowledge in hunting whitetails. I have been reading about signs and I can now some what see the signs of game trails. I am not seeing any scrapes or rubs. Am I not looking hard enough or am I in the wrong places? I need all the help I can get.

Too early for scrapes and rubs. Except to rub the velvet off their antlers, bucks don't start doing that till mid to late October here. perhaps later if you are farther south.

I checked my deer cam last week and the bucks were still in velvet. Maybe things are farther along where you live.

My best advice, when the season starts, is finding the most used deer trail and sitting all day in a climbing treestand. That has been the number one venison on table thing I do. If you want big bucks it takes hard earned experience or blind luck.

In Pa we have been finding rubs for almost 2 weeks.

Not much for rubs around here yet... look for well-used trails, bedding areas, poo, etc.

That is my issue because I only have access to public land and the wma I hunt on is quality buck only with four points or more on each side.

It is pretty early right now. If it is a big wooded area, the deer may be in the lowlands hitting the farm crops yet. If you have a good amount of oak trees the deer will move into the wooded areas soon to start feeding on acorns. It is hard to believe, but I have seen it happen. Deer will abandon planted crops and go to an area with a good acorn crop. If you are new at this, try to find where the doe are concentrating to feed. Once the buck start chasing does that is where they will be. You just have to spend as much time in the woods as you can and learn. Most of the instructional books and videos are nonsense written by guys chasing half-tame deer on private property. It is a whole different game on state owned land. That is all I hunt and I don't regret it. It will make you a better hunter and nobody will sell it out from under you. Good luck, and remember, you will have some rough times in the beginning but everybody does.

^^ gunplummer^^ said it.

focus on the does right now and wherever the heavy runs are at. each week or so you might be able to narrow it down to a certain area. when your rut is in full effect you wont miss it.

I did find a bedding area this past Saturday in a thicket. Should I try and hunt near that or avoid it as not to spook the deer and run them off? And thanks for the info. I am very new to the hunting world and this is the first year that I am trying to hunt I my own.

Stay out of bedding areas!!!

As mentioned, learned what a white oak is, deer love them...That's where they are or will be as soon as they start dropping...

The time to scout is right after season. If you scout too much now, you will wreck any hunting this year and/or push deer to other hunters. Also, right after season, if you have snow, you can follow trails back to main trails and you will find where deer are digging up acorns in a hurry - it is SO easy with snow. Find the main trails and you find does - and if there are does there will be bucks during the rut. And before you scout, use Google Maps to get an aerial view of the area.

Not sure where you ar hunting,but down here in SE Al. it is way too early for bucks to start in on scrapes & rubs. What I concentrate on this time of year as I scout is signs of "old" rubs .... trees that arer scarred from previous seasons, oaks that are holding acorns (especially white oaks and chestnut oaks), trails through the woods ... especially loking for creek crossings where the tracks might be more visible, areas that for whatever reason are covered up with deer droppings, etc. One thing that you might be missing is where deer are nibbling underbrush. Look for snipped off vines. Deer down here love honey suckle and what I call "Wait-a-Minute" vines... a thorny, dark green vine that if you stumble into one , you take a few minutes to extraxct yourself ! They love te leaves of Carolina mulberry trees and Honey Locust .... a thorn laden tree that will eat you up if you stumble into one in the dark !! I know that first hand! Deer love the leaves of this dang plant and will strip them nearly bare. Deer will eat the tips of young oaks and other saplings. Just look for damage. I once showed a buddy who had missed the sign completely .... a whole patch of underbrush that appeared to have been mowed at a height of about 12"- 15" or so. Practically every plant had been snipped off. Look closely. If there are deer n the area, you can locate areas that have been browsed, or heavily used trails ... and hopefully oaks laden with acorns .... these would all be a good place to start early season.

The only rubs that I ever found were on accident.