There’s a lot of deer sign around my place. Not droppings, but rubs and scrapes. These sign point to the rut starting very soon, even before the November 6 opening. Still, I haven’t seen any bucks chasing a doe, they’re not there yet.

Before the season starts I always check around the edges of the oak trees for scrapes, the first one this year was an accident on my part. Walking the road around the hay field and checking on how much trimming was needed, I almost stepped on the scrape pictured below.

And, sure enough, there was a leafy branch hanging over the scrape. The buck will make, or visit, the scrape, urinate over his tarsal gland on to the scrape ,while licking and nosing the leafy overhang.

Just like the scrape, I’ve discovered one rub line that runs from just past the shooting range to behind the feedlot. Big, dominate bucks make the first rub lines and I bet this is the same buck that I saw, and didn’t get, last year in my 2009 posts, “[Deer Watching]”, November 15 and “[Deer Sighting]”, December 10.

Pictures of the various rubs follow. Lots of sign!