I bumped 2 on the way in this morning in the dark. Sat until 9:30 without any other action so got down to do some scouting. This same bedding area is where I killed my bucks the last 2 years this same weekend. I was underwhelmed by the almost non-existent buck sign in the area this year. I still feel it is a solid doe bedding area so not giving up on it yet. I have a cell cam in there now so I guess we will see what story that tells in the coming days.
On the way back to the truck, I scouted through the area where I bumped the first deer (maybe 1/4 mile closer to the parking) and that area was tore up with rubs. Also found a couple scrapes. The interesting thing is a walking trail zigzags through this area of the property and it is heavily used by hikers. This pic was one of the better rubs. Based on height up the tree (over waist high on an uphill slope) this tells me a decent buck is in the area. So interesting how sometimes they tuck themselves into a little pocket surrounded by human activity.
Would you guess this sign is mainly being laid down at night? I feel like it would be worth a couple sits but feels a little odd to watch hikers go by all morning while I’m hunting. The terrain makes the wind pretty janky in this area so it is going to take some trial and error to figure out how to kill this thing.