I've heard and read that whenever you find an abandonned stand or ground blind in the woods, pay attention. This definitely was the case today.

I was out scouting a new area. Mostly I was just exploring and shed hunting as I had already sited a couple good stand sites in the area I hunt. Anyway - wouldn't you know it I stumbled on an old fallen down, half rotten ground blind about 100yds into the bush from a clearcut. There was NOTHING at all that was "buckish" about the site, other than that it would have offered a decent shot in 3 directions about 5yrs ago (it has since grown up with young spruce saplings about 4-5 ft high).

But since I didn't have anything else to do, I checked a little more thoroughly and sure enough - eventually I found a still well used trail...which led to a couple rubs from last fall, one of which was done with such fury it had almost uprooted the tree and it looked like it had been peeled with a paring knife, a little further down I found a large scrape, then another smaller one. The ground in the area was littered with droppings - some old, some made within a few hours.

All I can say is that had I not seen that blind and checked the area thoroughly, I'd have walked right through it and missed a very promising spot.