Trying to determine the size of a buck by the size of the tree or bush he rubs with his antlers can be deceiving. The prevailing theory on the subject says that big bucks rub big trees and little bucks rub little trees. However, this theory is simply untrue.
When you see a tree as big around as a grown man’s thigh, that’s been stripped of its bark and the inner wood gouged away, you can rest assured the damage was not done by a small buck with spindly antlers. It was done by a mature animal. Conversely, when a small sapling the diameter of your little finger is rubbed bare but still standing, you can be fairly sure it was rubbed by a small, immature buck with very small antlers. So far, my examples favor the theory that I am disputing. But, here is the difference.
Mature, large-antlered bucks often rub on small saplings and bushes, too. But when they do, they do not leave them standing. They shred them and break them off or rip them out of the ground. The rubs of mature bucks on small shrubs are not delicate like the efforts of young bucks with dainty racks. The older bucks violently rip them apart. The key is in being able to differentiate between the evidence left on smaller shrubs, since both large- and small-antlered bucks are likely to rub them.
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