I've been deer hunting for at least 40 years. And at least some significant portion of that time I have hunted in agriculture lands with small wood lots and drains and fence rows where there are not a lot of trees spread out over a large area. That cuts down on where to look and watch what the deer are actually doing. I have also been running trail cameras in those type places since they were white flash.

I have seen a lot of rubs like this. I have seen a lot of deer come by them and rub them. Small bucks, sure. I have seen a lot of much smaller rubs along trails or in a small area too. I have also seen a lot of spikes and small bucks walk past and rub those as well.

I might investigate a little further if I saw this in the woods. I certainly would not blow it off OR convince myself it was done by a spike. You can look at the rub a lot of times and tell what is going on. I noticed one like this years ago and had some cuts higher on the tree. That was a sticker off a very long G2. The wider the tree you can sometimes see how big a deer. The length or height of a smaller rub sometimes tells the tale and how it looks up higher where the G2's are hitting the tree.

For a big deer you will be able to see this. Like an expert in tracking you have to visualize the details that are almost not noticed if that makes sense.