no scrapes why?

[habs]

explain why i have no rubs or scrapes. on my property i seem to never see bucks until after the season is over, is the seeking phase not in progress? i hunt near the vermont border , on the canadian side.

[shaman]

I've seen property like this-- no sign until waaay after season.

THE rut is actually a bunch of ruts. Does breed as early as October in some areas and as late as February in others. The bucks, too go through fits and spurts. Probably what you're dealing with is does that are not breeding in the main November rut, and the bucks are coming around in December to tend them. For whatever reason your bucks don't feel the need to be demonstrative in November. Possible reasons:

1) Not that many deer
2) Not that many bucks
3) Small, immature bucks

. . . basically you need a fair number of 1.5+ year bucks in an area before you see scrapes and rubs.

My current property was like that when I first got it. It had been over-hunted for years. The bigger bucks that came in from the outside, would show up in December, and they were the ones making sign. It took a couple of years controlling the access to my property and the other neighbors in the area doing the same before we started seeing mature bucks during the November rut.

[Woods Walker]

4.) DST change!!!!!

shaman, really now...how could you miss this one?????

[shaman]

You're right, Mister Wood. Sometimes it's hard to see the obvious. It's probably DST and to much UV light in the hunting area.

[habs]

what is dst? i have 20 deer a night in one field i hunt, just to let you know

[USN_Sam1385]

Daylight Savings Time.... In a lot of areas, particularly the east coast where it is 1 hour in the future(already very confusing for them).. the fall back hour can really throw the bucks off their game. Same thing happens here with the turkeys when we have to spring forward... really throws the animals off their patterns.



Old Indian says:

"Only a white man thinks you can cut a foot off of the top off a blanket, sew it to the top of the blanket, and think that somehow you have a longer blanket."
(THOUGHTS ON DST)