DuckSouth.com

What is your experience with hunting over scrapes? I have found that often they are made by little deer. I have never killed a big buck working a scrape line. What are some indications of the size of the deer making the scrape? I have found no way of telling. Does number of scrapes in an area mean bigger or smaller deer. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

Locate the bucks scrape "line". That should tell you where he's been and where he's headed. If there is food(acorns,food plot,etc.) nearby the line then he's probably feeding in that general area. During pre rut times, you can catch them during the middle of the day checking them especially on a full moon.

You can find out how big a deer is sometimes by them pressing their antlers into the ground over the scrape making an imprint of their longest tines. You'll easily be able to tell the width. Oh and check his tracks. Try scents in or near his scrapes(tarsal) and avoid pressuring the area. If you have a camera, you can use that too.

>90% are checked at night per my scouting cams..

So I take it that the cameras don't mess em up? I put one out the other day on a scrape and was hoping it didn't run em off.

Jelly wrote:>90% are checked at night per my scouting cams..

you ever get pictures of RJ peeing on your scrapes????

Not really a line. i found 19 new ones and they are random, has to be more than one buck. Ought to make for some good fights later on.

Smell them, get down there close! Bet they smell like Miller Lite!

it is a misunderstanding, at least in my opinion that only one buck uses a scrape, i have watched three bucks use the same scrape in one hunt before, you can tell the size of the deer using the scrape by the sign around that area, size of tracks, rubs, and how big of a limb they have broken overhead.

jdbuckshot wrote:it is a misunderstanding, at least in my opinion that only one buck uses a scrape, i have watched three bucks use the same scrape in one hunt before, you can tell the size of the deer using the scrape by the sign around that area, size of tracks, rubs, and how big of a limb they have broken overhead.

I have only seen 1 deer working a scrape before. Unfortunatly it was right before daylight and I was sitting on a bucket about 10 feet from the scrape when the buck walked up to it. I could just barely make out is outline against the rising son. As I tried to get my gun up, he got a whiff of me and blew and ran off. To this day I don't know who was more scared him or me..

jdbuckshot wrote:it is a misunderstanding, at least in my opinion that only one buck uses a scrape, i have watched three bucks use the same scrape in one hunt before.

All bucks will check each others scrapes to recognize other bucks using the area, but essentially there is one main buck that occupies the scrape.
During pre-rut and rut, bucks will try to claim other bucks scrapes sometimes. This and doe's are typically what causes fights. This is what I've learned over the years anyway, for what it's worth.

if you will find a span of about three or four days that you can hunt morning and afternoons. freshen the scrapes up for the buck, spray dominant buck lure in the scrape for a couple of days and hunt it religiously. the buck will think someone is trying to take over his ground. on about the fourth day he will show his face in the daylight hours. and it is all up to you to put an arrow through his lovely little lungs. i know this is true because i have killed record book bucks doing this. dont shoot the first buck that comes buy unless you know it is the dominant buck.

hunt the scrape-kill the deer thats when u will know how big he is

hunt scrape line early in am.

pee in the scrapes next time you are in there. My mock scrape has produced alot of pics the last couple weeks.