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Scrape questions

Bowhunter33

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Messages
52
So after this being my second season of hunting this small peice of ground I have been noticing that I haven't found but only 2 scrapes on the entire property, its mostly ag feilds butting up to creek bottoms. But there is always consistent rubs in the small wood lots. One has rubs every 30 yards. Why am I not coming across more scrapes? Could these be nighttime areas only? I'm clueless on this one, any help is appreciated.

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I would rather hunt a rub line anyways, especially if it is a big one and when you check it again it got bigger. more than one buck will use the same rub. The key to all of it is finding the ones the get hit over and over again. Unless its a huge "community" scrape that looks like its been hit over and over again i dont even bother, i think they get hit at night wayyyy more than daylight. This was my first year running cameras and i put one over a biiig scrape to see if my hunch was right. All of october i had really nice bucks hitting it and constant activity but...almost exclusively at night. This is just my experience and im sure others may have a lot of success hunting them. Ive read in a few different places that bucks make a scrape like 10-12 times an hour and some of em arent worth hunting over. I also dont see as many being made during peak rut either, way more during the prerut. Right now where i live a lot of the bigger bucks are locking down. Best bet during the Lockdown phase is get as close as you safely can to the thickest cover you can find on the property and post up. They like tall brush so they can stand up without being seen. Im not a very aggressive hunter but i will climb a tree where i can see into the bedding and know im safe from getting busted and watch what is going on in there. Ill go back the next day with a better game plan and go for it.
 
Follow the deer trails back from the fields after hunting season in the snow, turn a gps tracker on. Walk these again next October stopping before the scouted bedding as your in season scouting and you will find scrapes. You can learn so much when there is snow on the ground. We got a late Oct snow storm, I took that day off from work to get intel because the property I have hunted for 20 years changed a little this year due to a timber cut on the next door property. Killed a buck the next weekend.
 
Scrapes tend to be where trails from different deer intersect. Does, fawns, and bucks all scrape and rub urinate. And then even do it year-round. Rub lines are a bucks territory trail, and no other deer should be using his trail during the fall (in his mind). And most wont. But where his trail intersects a doe's trail, there is usually a scrape. Sometimes does will scrape, or a buck will, and it will never be visited again.

Try to find were a lot of trails crisscross each other further back in the woods. If you find a bunch and no scrapes, could be the same doe or does using the different trails dependent on wind direction. I'd follow the bucks trail to see if it crosses another deer's trail. You could find a scrape there.

Another thing to try is to create a mock scrap when you find a deer highway intersection. Just google videos on mock scrapes to learn how to make one. Crazy how they can work well sometimes.
 
All of the above points are strong. Another good place to find scrapes are in thermal hubs, aka areas where scent likes to pool. This happens when multiple valleys meet up, or a body of water or open field gathers scent in the evenings. When looking for scrapes, I start in the high spots and edges, and then scout the low spots. Checking trail crossings and benches is a good suggestion as well as mentioned above.

Its worth mentioning that I use scrapes to get an inventory of bucks, but dont hunt them often unless they are close to bedding or an area I know from cameras or observations that bucks will use in the daylight (close to known buck bedding)
 
Every thing said above is stellar info guys, I appreciate the input! I guess I should've clarified myself though.. I'm not focusing on hunting scrapes, especially right now. However I do try to use any peice of the puzzle to put together a plan. I'm finding plenty of does on this property but the majority of good bedding is neighboring after the crops come out. So basically im hunting the fringes which is probably a huge factor in why im not seeing that sign. In the early season there was 13 different bucks all in the same small area. I harvested one buck September 8th. Still no scrapes to be found in the area. Just odd to me I guess.

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Here's the buck I harvested and the other two I was after that vanished come mid to late September.
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Here's the buck I harvested and the other two I was after that vanished come mid to late September.//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201120/7fa72b0f3ab4ff77884f634b68424439.jpg

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//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201120/64e33c74451786aa809688906a70aed7.jpg//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201120/6316f3ce396f78e0ebe73a8e3d753a2c.jpg
Deer like to scrape under a low hanging limbs. I don’t see any trees. Lol
 
You can always plant a fake tree with a low hanging limb and start a scrape there with scent and they should take it over if they are not on lockdown yet!!!
 
Deer like to scrape under a low hanging limbs. I don’t see any trees. Lol
Not in that picture, all the trees are behing the camera there. I'm literally hunting old fence rows grown up with big cotton woods or gnarly little trees that are hard to get into. It just has me baffled that in 1/2 mile each direction there's not a single scrape I've came across.

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If you’ve got soybeans and corn I would think you have scrapes even if they were made at night.
 
If that is corn in the last picture I have seen scrapes out in the corn especially if the does are bedding in it! Just a thought!!
 
I think I'm going to try and make a mock scrape and hang a camera over it. I'm sure this isn't the best time of year to do so but I've never tried that tactic before either. Any tips on this guys?

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All I do is use a stick from the woods to remove all debris from under a lower hanging branch( at or a little higher than height of the deers back) than remove said stick from the area I usually just take it with me when I leave, then this is where alot of controversy ensues!! Some people urinate in said scrape, because after awhile urine is urine no matter who excreted it, and most people buy deer pee or save pee from a mature buck kill and freeze it until needed and use that to freshen or start scrapes and do your best to stay away from it till you have to freshen it and thats about the jist of it and maybe someone else can fill in anything I left off!! Good luck brother and good hunting!!!
 
Sorry I'm a bit late reading this but my honest opinion on what I have learned and witnessed in hunting scrapes on highly pressured public.
In my honest opinion most rut sign at least in my areas are what I call and I quote a person who also labels them in another forum as "fools gold"
scrapes that are revisited during daylight hours in my areas are really rare at least on public only because one little hint of pressure and boom they abandon them .
so with that said a scrape that's hot and revisited is probably gonna be either within bedding or just outside of it in a super secure area.
Not to sound like a know it all or some kind of expert which I am far from, Older bucks just do not run around pressured public and check scrapes
if they do they die
Scrapes to hunt are like i said need to be in locations that will make the buck feel safe to travel to
if the scrape is in a super thick nasty bowl or even on the edge with somewhat open woods around it its probably nighttime sign
location and timing of this fools gold is super key .
hope this helps
 
Last year in late October I found a scrape on public surrounded by little rubs and some decent sized tracks. I took a leak in the scrape and scraped it in with a stick. I set up on the ground about 30 yards away and in about an hour a little fork horn buck came through. When he got to the scrape he went absolutely ballistic with scraping and rubbing trees. He was grunting and roaring. Really cool experience and i pee in about every scrape now
 
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