Where I have been hunting, they play a little role. I'll try to hunt the rub lines very early, when they first appear. Unfortunately, they're often so visible that half the other hunters find the rub lines and hunt them hard. So... I end up hunting where I think/hope the deer would travel when they are avoiding the four guys set up along their rub line.
down here in patrick county,va the deer seem to bunch around where there is scrapes and rubs but the bucks are so nocturnal you really have to hunt the weather and time of day. it seems like they got an alarm in thier heads when opening day comes in cause they disappear.but on across the line in mt.airy they move a little more i've noticed my question is does elevation factor in?
I like to find rubs, they tell me alot about how bucks use a property. When I can put together a defined food source, a defined bedding area, and the rub lines between, through in a shed on one of the rublines, or bed and even I can feel pretty good in these type of areas! Heres the kind of rubs I love to see, but know that they are made at night. this rub showed up after our shot gun week, on public land. I find alot of big rubs right after our shotgun week I beleive that bucks get knocked off, and other bucks get pushed into different areas, causeing a new sence of finding the new pecking order. This bow is 33" ata.
Some, often I use them to help determine where I think a buck is bedding/feeding and try to set up accordingly. I have a few stands on rublines that I've hunted for 15+ years that still have good buck activity.
2 of the 3 P&Y bucks my dad has shot were on rub lines. He's saw a good share of other good bucks on rub lines too but things just didn't work out. I'm still trying to learn the "right" way to hunt these rub lines but I believe they are the cats meow when you find them and hunt them right. I don't find many rub lines anymore In the woods I hunt but when I do 9 times out of 10 I'm usually In for some good action but unfortunately I'm never usually set up right. I need to learn this style of hunting much better. Rub lines and big rubs excite me more then anything, I love seeing em!!!
I have used rub lines from the previous year when picking stand sites that next spring. I try to use the rubs and decipher what area that buck is using as his core area. Just the other day I walked through a fresh clear cut on our farm. It's very brushy in here, and running right through the middle of the clear cut was a very heavily used trail. No scrapes or rubs to speak of though. However, just on the outside of this clearcut there was a lightly used trail. I walked this trail out to the field, and there were numerous rubs along it. When I start setting my stands up, you can bet I will be hanging one on this rub line instead of the more popular trail in the thicket.
