Muley rubs and timing

[ScreamingPotato]

Sorry for the basic question, I'm a Whitetail and Elk hunter toying with cutting my Mule Deer teeth this coming year. Just now starting to work on my starting points and thinking about how things might look.

Hunting 3rd season the last few years we've found several areas that I've marked with gobs of rubs and some big ones. Deer clearly spent a lot of time in these areas previously.
Am I correct in thinking these are pretty much only to scratch their velvet off or do they spar and practice in prerut as well?
I'm assuming there's some chance they'll still be in these areas early in archery but they'll be long gone come rifle seasons, yeah?

 

[Muleys32]

Haven’t hunted Colorado but I definitely see mule deer rake brush and trees quite a bit during the pre and peak rut.