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DIY Licking Branch

A

arrowchukker

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2020
Messages
80
Anyone set up a DIY licking branch to get an inventory of bucks?
I’ve tried in the past, at best I seem to just get sporadic attention from the deer. Any tips to increase the effectiveness?
I typically use a native vine for the branch, and a pre orbital scent.
 
arrowchukker said:
Anyone set up a DIY licking branch to get an inventory of bucks?
I’ve tried in the past, at best I seem to just get sporadic attention from the deer. Any tips to increase the effectiveness?
I typically use a native vine for the branch, and a pre orbital scent.
Click to expand...
A friend of mine puts a cedar post in the ground with an oak branch screwed on the top. Branch is 1" by 4' long,
he gets lots of pics of bucks licking the branches and rubbing the cedar post. I may try it myself.
 
Check this thread:

Summer time mock scrapes

Who runs summer time mock scrapes? I am running some this year for the first time. My scrapes are getting visited daily. Currently freshening them up about once a month, because the deer are doing a good job at keeping the scent fresh. Seems to me summer mocks are a great way to get inventory...
saddlehunter.com
 
I think the most important thing is placement. You can do everything right but if it's not at a place a scrape would naturally form it's not going to take off and be used consistently. That is the trick but finding them spots can be a bit of a guessing game because patterns change throughout the year. I had a natural scrape close to the back of my house that was being hit consistently in April and may by all the deer moving through and now it's not seeing much attention. I'm sure the local deer are using a scrape somewhere else because food source and bedding changed but I don't know where it is.
 
CZMark said:
Check this thread:

Summer time mock scrapes

Who runs summer time mock scrapes? I am running some this year for the first time. My scrapes are getting visited daily. Currently freshening them up about once a month, because the deer are doing a good job at keeping the scent fresh. Seems to me summer mocks are a great way to get inventory...
saddlehunter.com
Click to expand...
You prefer the scrape to the branch? Or are you saying to combine the branch with a mock scrape?
 
I killed a nice buck last October off one.
I know they work. I think they work best when you set one up early in the year. I've noticed the longer they are up the more comfortable the deer are with it and will hit it almost every time they walk by that area.
It does help to put one up in a place that deer naturally funnel through.
I like to use a vine that's around an inch in diameter. My favorite way to hang one is off a sapling. I bend the sapling down, grab a branch and zip-tie the vine to the branch and then make a large mock scrape underneath. I've done the preorbital in the past but after doing a bunch over the years it isn't necessary. Something hanging head high to a deer seems to be a magnet and after a few weeks its full of real deer scents. I've done them with rope hanging off large tree branches and they work but the rope holds human scent for what seems like a long time. They will come to it but I get pics of deer being spooked from it or deer on their back legs smelling up high. I think the rope off gasses scent every time it rains and flows down to the vine. The zip tie doesn't hold smells and having a smaller size tree that shakes when they use it seems to work best. In my testing around here in Virginia the DIY licking branch over a scrape works better than one without a scrape. I get does and bucks peeing in the mock scrape. I've also found that less DIY licking branches work better than a bunch. I usually have 2 on opposite sides of 800-1000 acres. If you have a homerun travel crossing spot I'd just put one there with a cam facing it for inventory and that's a wrap. Like everyone mentioned above... location is key.
 
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