Scrape soil, does it matter?

[Sziggy2.0]

I was scouting today in some river bottom that has seen flooding in 2012 and 2019. I have not really hunted in this type of terrain before. I usually hunt more hill country or typical Midwest farm type areas.
There are large areas that obviously had been flooded and the soils in these areas were loose sandy soils. I found over 2 dozen scrapes and a real good scrape line on area that was slightly higher and had more clay type soils. I did not find any in the sandy soils. This observation lead me to ask, why?
Does the soil matter to deer where they make scrapes. Anybody observe this as well and have more insight?

 

[Still Kicking]

I would guess the sand drains fast, therefore not holding scent as long as clay.

 

[Sziggy2.0]

I would guess the sand drains fast, therefore not holding scent as long as clay.

Thats what I was thinking, and a good reason. Interesting that deer would instinctively know this?

 

[Swamp Fox__On The Run]

An area that floods/has flooded doesn't provide the cover or browse that an area above the flood line does. There's no doubt that some types of soil hold scent and some just leach them, but scrape lines have more to do with travel patterns than soil types.

 

[kbetts]

It makes no difference. Marsh deer make them in the mud. Beach deer make them in the sand.

 

[Jammintree]

Deer will make scrapes anywhere they feel the urge to. But a scrape made in earth that doesn’t hold smell very well is highly unlikely to be reused, revisited or become a community scrape. There are many different types of scrapes that serve different purposes.

 

[Weldabeast]

Around here all we got is sand....
I would also think that sand would absorb pee pee and hold a scent longer than a less porous soil were it kinda sits on top and can evaporate more quickly?

 

[kbetts]

Deer will make scrapes anywhere they feel the urge to. But a scrape made in earth that doesn’t hold smell very well is highly unlikely to be reused, revisited or become a community scrape. There are many different types of scrapes that serve different purposes.

Not at all. One of the primary scrapes on the property I hunt now is in the sandiest of the soils. It's right along a sand bank that borders a marsh creek and a field. Perennially has action all year and is one of my most consistent producers of pics.

 

[woodsdog2]

The licking branch is what matters the most.

 

[Jammintree]

The licking branch is what matters the most.

Sure but the licking branch can’t be smelled from 1/4 mile away. Nor can the tarsal musk in the ground for that matter. The smell that carry’s over great distance is the smell of freshly disturbed earth.

 

[Swampwalker]

Sure but the licking branch can’t be smelled from 1/4 mile away. Nor can the tarsal musk in the ground for that matter. The smell that carry’s over great distance is the smell of freshly disturbed earth.

Both play an important role. Who says they can't smell that licking branch? No offense intended.

 

[kbetts]

Sure but the licking branch can’t be smelled from 1/4 mile away. Nor can the tarsal musk in the ground for that matter. The smell that carry’s over great distance is the smell of freshly disturbed earth.

Are you positive? I'd bet that it can. A quarter mile is only a little over 400 yards.

 

[BTaylor]

No idea on how far they can smell them but some of the most consistent and biggest scrapes I know of are in really sandy ground. Location I think is key for community scrapes. There are just spots where deer are going to walk. Some of those spots will have big scrapes and others you cant hardly tell a deer has ever walked through. My best cam in the new mountain ground this year was a spot I hung a cam on a hunch not because there was any historical sign. Geographically it kinda made sense that it might be an elevation transition. 70% of the pics there were 180 degrees off what I expected the travel to be. There is almost no discernable sign there and the only buck sign was a couple of small rubs 100+ yards away in line with where I expected travel not where the majority actually was. Looking at the map after pulling the card, the travel makes sense, it just wasnt what I expected.

To get back to the scrape question, I suspect terrain has more to do with how much deer try to scent check scrapes and the location of them rather than the soil at the location. In the flat ground river bottoms I hunt most travel is related to either hard or soft edges and the scrapes will be along those. Deer arent generally going to or cant circle those to scent check them, at least in my experience. In the hills and more so in the mountains, deer can use terrain and air movement to their advantage to scent check scrapes without going to them.

 

[DroptineKrazy]

I was scouting today in some river bottom that has seen flooding in 2012 and 2019. I have not really hunted in this type of terrain before. I usually hunt more hill country or typical Midwest farm type areas.
There are large areas that obviously had been flooded and the soils in these areas were loose sandy soils. I found over 2 dozen scrapes and a real good scrape line on area that was slightly higher and had more clay type soils. I did not find any in the sandy soils. This observation lead me to ask, why?
Does the soil matter to deer where they make scrapes. Anybody observe this as well and have more insight?

I personally have never seen a scrape around here in sandy soil ever.

 

[rhagenw]

Never and always, two words that don't fit in with whitetails world. Also we can not comprehend deer smelling abilities. So yes, maybe or maybe not. Sometimes but not always.

 

[ricky racer]

Here's a fact. If you make a clear spot of dirt, I don't care what type of soil it is, if a deer sees it, they will walk over and check it out. Try it sometime for yourself and see if you don't find deer tracks in it next time you check it.

Here's a post I made a few years ago where I discuss using scrapes to position deer so they will stop right where you want them to for a shot.

Shooting Scrapes?

I don't know if anyone else does this or not so I thought I'd share it in case it might help others. Often times if I'm setting up a spot, I look at the where I'm going to set up my ambush spot and take note of the area that I expect deer to travel through. Once I've determined where I think the...

saddlehunter.com

 

[Weldabeast]

Here's a fact. If you make a clear spot of dirt, I don't care what type of soil it is, if a deer sees it, they will walk over and check it out. Try it sometime for yourself and see if you don't find deer tracks in it next time you check it.

Here's a post I made a few years ago where I discuss using scrapes to position deer so they will stop right where you want them to for a shot.

Shooting Scrapes?

I don't know if anyone else does this or not so I thought I'd share it in case it might help others. Often times if I'm setting up a spot, I look at the where I'm going to set up my ambush spot and take note of the area that I expect deer to travel through. Once I've determined where I think the...

saddlehunter.com

I think most of our woodland critters are that way... The smell of disturbed dirt is an attractant to coons, squirrels, pigs, coyotes, etc. u can see this in ur backyard if u got squirrels...my wife knows first hand...anything she plants squirrels have to investigate. We even try to mask it..after Halloween we planted a bunch of pumpkin seeds and then purposely covered the disturbed soil with a layer of pine needles to were u wouldn't know just by visually looking and the tree rats dug up every single seed

 

[Jammintree]

Are you positive? I'd bet that it can. A quarter mile is only a little over 400 yards.

No I’m not sure about the distance… but no matter how sensitive a deers nose is, we can assume that at a distance, extremely subtle smells will be overwhelmed by more powerful smells - isn’t that one of the reasons that licking branches are always accompanied by scrapes?

If I’m downwind of a freshly tended scrape I can smell the pawed earth from about 20 yards. Then when I walk up to it, I can smell the tarsal musk when I’m within a yard or two. If I stick my nose right up to the licking branch it’s rare I can smell anything unless the tree has been freshly beat up, in which case I can catch a mild amount of the tree scent. While we can’t know what’s up with deer, these observations can give us some pretty significant insight. While we don’t know how far the scent is carried we can assume that the scent of the licking branch doesn’t travel nearly as far as the scrape. And it’s reasonable to deduce that the scrape is there to help identify and announce the licking branch so that the communication travels greater distances.

 

[BTaylor]

isn’t that one of the reasons that licking branches are always accompanied by scrapes?

Licking branches are not always accompanied by a scrape. I havent seen many times that was the case but I have seen a few. Licking branches arent always an over hanging limb either. They can be a single or cluster of small saplings. I wouldnt have thought that until I watched it happen. Literally impossible sign to read because there is no damage to the saplings. In one case, 8 different deer worked the same cluster one afternoon. At dark when I got down, I went straight over to it and you could smell it but there was no visible sign. It made me think about the times I have gotten into a spot and smelled deer but there was no visible rubs, scrapes, or beds there and so I blew it off and kept moving. Might should have climbed but never have. Gonna try to remember that for the next time I run into that situation.

 

[davidallenjoy]

Licking branches are not always accompanied by a scrape. I havent seen many times that was the case but I have seen a few. Licking branches arent always an over hanging limb either. They can be a single or cluster of small saplings. I wouldnt have thought that until I watched it happen. Literally impossible sign to read because there is no damage to the saplings. In one case, 8 different deer worked the same cluster one afternoon. At dark when I got down, I went straight over to it and you could smell it but there was no visible sign. It made me think about the times I have gotten into a spot and smelled deer but there was no visible rubs, scrapes, or beds there and so I blew it off and kept moving. Might should have climbed but never have. Gonna try to remember that for the next time I run into that situation.

I second this. Licking branches are not always accompanied by a scrape, AND the research has shown the licking branches being used throughout the year even when the scrape has gone dry and is not being actively hit. Most the recent research seems to point to the licking branch being of greater importance.

The other thing about this entire conversation is the comparisons that keep going back to our sense of smell. Our sense of smell versus a deer’s is quite simply incomparable. I’ve heard it explained like this before with dogs: you open a box of crackers and you smell crackers but that dog smells the ingredient list. The dog smells wheat flour and vegetable oils and rice starch and salt and sugar and spices and everything else that went into that cracker. Humans have about 5 million olfactory receptors to process smell, and a dog may have 220 million—but a deer has almost 300 million. So even though you’re out there snorting licking branches and scratch and sniffing scrape dirt, you have no understanding of what a deer is picking up from any of those sites or how far they can smell them.

Back to the OP’s original question, YES, the type of dirt matters just as the type of tree for licking branches shows preference in certain areas. Good Beyond The Echo podcast recently with Troy Pottenger who has lived and died by scrapes for decades. He talks very specifically about studying preferential soil types and tree species in a given area. Search some podcasts with his name and you’ll likely get a ton of info on this. There was also a really good NDA podcast last summer with a biologist named Miranda Huang that was a deep dive into the science of scrapes. Also worth a listen.


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