Judging Bull sizes by rubs

Wrayzer

New member
Aug 17, 2013
19
Hey Guys

I found a fresh rub today from a bull rubbing velvet.  Ripped apart a small aspen.  The bull never showed up on my trail cam in the area, so I was trying to determine the possible size of the bull in regards to the highest point of his tines hit on the rub.
I measured it up to roughly 8'9" at the highest point.  Does anyone have experience in judging average height of rubs?

Season for 6 points here in B.C opens on Sept 10 so I am getting real anxious.
 
Sounds like a pretty nice bull to me. Its hard to tell by the height of a rub how big the horns are. Once a bull reaches his peak he will start loosing size and gaining mass. So realisticly you could see a 8 ft high rub and he could be a huge heavy bull instead of a long tined 5 by 5 or something that could potentially bend a pine tree  or something and knock a branch off 9 ft up. Id look at the size of the tree the rub was on, the size of his tracks and any other sign he might have left. usually you can find enough clues around totry put an age on him. Then you can guess about how big he is from there.
 
I used to get really excited when i would find a 12 foot sapling rubbed 10 feet up until i watched a small five by four rub a 10 foot aspen sapling all the way to the top. he started at the base and worked his way up. folded the tree over and preceeded to rub the tree all the way to the top. for me i now take in to consideration how thick the tree is and if an elk can fold it over to reach the top.
 
Good info guys, basically what I came to the conclusion on this rub, it was a young aspen, and was bent over, ripped in half and just demolished.  I had a pic of a young bull with a double main beam (going to be real trashy!) on his right, but he was still in velvet when I checked the cam by the rub.
I do have another spot that had rubs that were on some older Spruce trees that the top of the tines hit around 8-9'.  I have a cam in there this year so it'll be interesting to see what matches up to the rubs this season.
Always gets exciting seeing rubs of any size, even more when ya find the maker of them.
 

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