My preferred method for hunting whitetail bucks is to locate a fresh scrape and setup downwind.
I have killed more bucks this way than any other way, scrape watching, not rubs.
"Rubs" tell you where a buck has been, "scrapes" tell you where he is going to be, especially if it has urine in it, this is a
"hot scrape".
A buck will urinate in it and a doe will also urinate in it or nearby, causing a buck to lose his mind and have shot several within 20ft. Finding a scrape line, then establishing the direction and angle the bucks will come in to the scrape takes a knowledge of the terrain and wind direction, thus, making wt hunting during the rut the most exciting form of hunting to me personally.
Where I hunt wt there are no mule deer or very few of them so I know I'm not wasting my time looking at mule deer sign instead of wt only sign, a real plus I figure.
The reason meat tastes poor (if handled with care) is because during the rut all the fat gets run through the meat with the bucks not eating and running all over looking for does using up fat reserves, thats why I try to get my mule deer early for the choice meat. I have had 3 wt bucks that went to sausage as I honestly couldn't eat the steaks and roasts from these ones, there is a short time frame where even wt will gag a maggot, all 3 were shot near the end of november, each to their own however, good luck to the OP.