j-bird
Moderator
I guess I'm going to have an excuse to drink a few beers in the process.....I'll cut the saplings first!:D
Bill
Administrator
J-bird
I never tried a small branch. Maybe I'm over thinking it. But these small trees are used as rubbing posts and licking branches.
On field edges I tie small branches down that are otherwise to high to be scrape branches. The more the better, if a buck on me is wasting his daylight time he's not jumping the fence to the neighbors.
I'll have to try a small branch stuck in the ground.
I never tried a small branch. Maybe I'm over thinking it. But these small trees are used as rubbing posts and licking branches.
On field edges I tie small branches down that are otherwise to high to be scrape branches. The more the better, if a buck on me is wasting his daylight time he's not jumping the fence to the neighbors.
I'll have to try a small branch stuck in the ground.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
this scrape is one of my oldest mock scrapes....at least that i still keep tabs on anyway. I took a maple branch that was out of reach and tied it down to scrape height (the cord has since stretched out a bit and the main branch stem has migrated higher than it used to be), then last year i decided to bend over a hickory sapling that was nearby and tie it down. the deer took to it as well, and now the pawed area under the branches grows to cover the whole area under the both branches. it forms about a 3 ft wide and 8 ft long area that gets scraped up on the ground.
This is about 16 yds from my primary stand site (back and to the right out of frame). Its along the edge of the food plot, and it at the "mouth" of a hinge cut trail i made coming up off the side hill into the bottom corner of the food plot. I have removed all other branches along this field edge that were at scrape height in order to get the "sore thumb" effect. there is an autumn olive bush in the opposite corner of the food plot (about 40 yds directly behind the deer in the pics) that i also have mock scrape under. that bush is also at the "mouth" of a manipulated trail into the food plot from the transitional cover between the plot and doe bedding area up hill about 100 yds. last year i had to tied down one of the autumn olive branches because over the years the main licking branch on that scrape has been hammered so hard that it was finally ripped right off the shrub in 2014.
This is about 16 yds from my primary stand site (back and to the right out of frame). Its along the edge of the food plot, and it at the "mouth" of a hinge cut trail i made coming up off the side hill into the bottom corner of the food plot. I have removed all other branches along this field edge that were at scrape height in order to get the "sore thumb" effect. there is an autumn olive bush in the opposite corner of the food plot (about 40 yds directly behind the deer in the pics) that i also have mock scrape under. that bush is also at the "mouth" of a manipulated trail into the food plot from the transitional cover between the plot and doe bedding area up hill about 100 yds. last year i had to tied down one of the autumn olive branches because over the years the main licking branch on that scrape has been hammered so hard that it was finally ripped right off the shrub in 2014.
John-W-WI
Administrator
It's been my experience that anything smaller than about 3" will be broken off before the rut really gets going.
I've "planted' both live (in the spring) and dead (late summer) and much prefer live as they seem to last longer. But both work.
Here is a season's worth of buck pictures at one of my mock rubbing posts from a couple of years ago:
-John
I've "planted' both live (in the spring) and dead (late summer) and much prefer live as they seem to last longer. But both work.
Here is a season's worth of buck pictures at one of my mock rubbing posts from a couple of years ago:
-John
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
here is a scrape pic from last year that i liked. the date stamp indicates about the time this scrape really starts to turn on with day time activity...and mature deer. September and October are good too....but from like Oct 25th thru the second week of November this scrape sees a huge jump in activity.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
sorry for all the multiple posts....this thread just got me digging back through last years scrape pics.
I had 3 encounters with this buck last year....one of which, 3 days after this pic was taken, resulted in a shot opp...as he moved past this scrape (from right to left in this pic) several yards up hill of the scrape. I grunted and bleated him in from about 55 yds out and he was looking for the buck and doe that he thought made the noises. He stopped at about 20 yds slightly quartering away, I watched in horror, in the first few minutes of legal shooting light, as my lumenock took a sharp drop directly into the dirt just in between the buck's front and back legs and bout 3 ft short of where he was standing....i ended up hitting a small branch on the hickory tree that i had bent over and tied down in place to make a mock scrape...lol. I thought he was far enough up into the plot that i would be shooting over those branches, and it was just dark enough still that i couldnt see the branches at that distance.
I had 3 encounters with this buck last year....one of which, 3 days after this pic was taken, resulted in a shot opp...as he moved past this scrape (from right to left in this pic) several yards up hill of the scrape. I grunted and bleated him in from about 55 yds out and he was looking for the buck and doe that he thought made the noises. He stopped at about 20 yds slightly quartering away, I watched in horror, in the first few minutes of legal shooting light, as my lumenock took a sharp drop directly into the dirt just in between the buck's front and back legs and bout 3 ft short of where he was standing....i ended up hitting a small branch on the hickory tree that i had bent over and tied down in place to make a mock scrape...lol. I thought he was far enough up into the plot that i would be shooting over those branches, and it was just dark enough still that i couldnt see the branches at that distance.
That's what she said! :)Yep.
But I use what's close by as far as the tree goes. I try to get one with a 4" trunk, hand post hole dig about 2 - 3 feet. Get rid of all the low limbs and save a few at scrape height.
If you cut the branches of a cedar they hold up better but it takes longer for them to use it. In my experience.
This was a hybrid poplar I used last year. By November it was leaning. By spring it was on the ground.
This is a cedar with old rope hanging. It's been here for about 5 years. They didn't touch it for a full year. Maybe the rope stunk? It came out of the loft of my old barn. After the first year of being ignored they play with it all the time.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
bueller
Moderator
No need to apologize, great pics and great topic.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Phil - This pic on post #30 is the first time I recall seeing in good light the surroundings at your spot. I love that brushy cover on the sidehill behind the buck. Sorry about the limb deflection of your arrow - he's a good buck in the dark pic on post #31.
I had a similar disaster 2 years ago on a dandy 8 pt. After watching the 8 pt. trash a sapling pine and then come toward my stand and work a scrape ( both natural ), he walked by my stand so close I had to stand up to shoot and when I did release the arrow, my upper bow limb hit a limb of the tree my stand was in. Loud miss !! ( I have this stand situated so that I can shoot thru either opening still sitting down ). My lack of foresight cost me a dandy 8 pt. :( That limb is no longer there !!
Keep us posted on your scrape spots on the hill. I've got to try the " planted " sapling for rubs / scrapes. They look like magnets.
I had a similar disaster 2 years ago on a dandy 8 pt. After watching the 8 pt. trash a sapling pine and then come toward my stand and work a scrape ( both natural ), he walked by my stand so close I had to stand up to shoot and when I did release the arrow, my upper bow limb hit a limb of the tree my stand was in. Loud miss !! ( I have this stand situated so that I can shoot thru either opening still sitting down ). My lack of foresight cost me a dandy 8 pt. :( That limb is no longer there !!
Keep us posted on your scrape spots on the hill. I've got to try the " planted " sapling for rubs / scrapes. They look like magnets.
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
Haha that was a good time!
Only modeling fee is another invite back up to shoot the shit with you sometime! Enjoy the hell out of it!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Bill - Your " evil plan " has me stoked to go put out a couple " installed trees " and see what happens. I've done mock scrapes before, but not placed trees where they hadn't been before. This will be fun to watch.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
I usually slap it around a bit, just to let it know who's boss, after that the deer keep it in line!
j-bird
Moderator
Ok, you know what I mean......anybody artificially create a rub on the tree?
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
The upper 1/3 of the property is old field that is reverting back...I'd say it hasn't been a pasture/field since the 1960's based historical aerial images and what my grandfather told me. Most of the neighboring land is the same, all the old stonewalls and fence rows are visible. The bottom 2/3's is the steep part and it is mature hardwoods.
Here is a look at the autumn olive scrape, and the mowed/sprayed trail coming into that "corner" of the plot.
Here is the look from the little grove of small maples that serve as a little bit of a staging area heading down into the plot. One of the primary doe bedding areas on my side of the hill is back behind me about 90 USA or so.
Sent from 25 ft up a tree
