It's late season now in Wisconsin. The firearms season has come and gone. The chase part of the rut was a bit more subdued than usual this year. I'm hoping to find that the rutting activity will continue late into December. I plan to hunt from a tent blind for the first time to help deal with the cold while bowhunting. I just discovered a line of rubs at an edge between some pine bedding and some mature hardwoods. They seam to be relatively fresh. One particular tree at the intersection of 3 trails is especially shined up. Is it worth focusing on these rubs at this time of year? Would it be wise to add a mock scrape to the area in hopes of convincing a mature buck to check it for competition?
Go here http://forums.bowhunting.com/member.php?u=22 and dukemichaels . He is the guy you want to speak with. He has a thread http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php?t=17667 here about scrapes as we speak. Good luck.
Trailcam is your friend, setup a cam on a good one or that intersection and see if its worth it. If done right theres no harm in stirring things up a bit with a new scrape either.
I found that most of my action near my rub lines has slowed down with the rut. It seems like most of the deer are staying closer to the food sources and cruising through the trees there. It seems like they aren't traveling as far to go to their beddig areas.
