Understanding Buck Rubbing and Movements

Few things excite deer hunters more than the discovery of numerous large rubs on their hunting property. Hunters have long used the size, location and number of buck rubs to select hunting locations and to help understand how bucks move throughout their property. But, excitement often leads to disappointment as they spend countless hours hunting rubs, often with little success.

Previous research has revealed that white-tailed deer are “creatures of the edge” and spend a majority of their time in close proximity to habitat edges. These can be “hard” edges like those bordering a hardwood forest and a field or “soft” edges like transitions between...