Mock Scrapes

[White Oak]

It depends. Do you want it to inventory the most deer on the farm or a spot to possibly kill a buck? A field edge may be a great spot to get the most pictures but you might get a lot at night (i.e. when you aren't hunting). Every property is different. Maybe you have a funnel or transition or a staging area that a buck might feel secure enough to hit in day light. Hunting immediately after a rain might be a good time or finding a trail or active food nearby might be options.

I have a box blind set up 100 yards across the field facing the sawtooth oak tree with mock scrape , and my Tree plot of Crabapples and pears are to the right of the sawtooth oak. The earliest Crabs and pears were only planted in 2020 so not really a draw yet, although a few of my whitetail crabs had a few fruit this year. The funny thing is last year the first week of rifle season I got a picture of the biggest buck I had on camera that year at this field edge mock scrape at 8:30 am one morning !. The wind wasn't right so I hunted a treestand that day !. So yeah not the best spot , but I'll keep one there...can't hurt anything

 

[Telemark]

What kind of cedar?

 

[Angus 1895]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwji_aLut_b6AhWPJDQIHShZC-UQuAJ6BAgXEAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxczpRc6_yBA&usg=AOvVaw2g6CDJmw0x6KbJblarBbVC

 

[White Oak]

What kind of cedar?

I believe eastern red cedar

 

[White Oak]

Experiment time....my free Code Blue " Rope a dope" arrived today on a Sunday , via Fed Ex from Cabelas. I hung it in the front yard on a Granny Smith apple tree that's still dropping and put a camera on it. I'll put the scent it comes with on this afternoon , and the deer usually start coming up right before dark , so we'll see what happens. Granted I didn't scratch out the ground underneath it , I just want to see if any deer use it. Some people say to put rope scrapes out months in advance to air out . I figure it's not going to hurt anything in the front yard, however if i do get deer using it....and placing their scent on it , the plan is to move it to my field edge scrape in 3 1/2 weeks before rifle season if the cedar branch that's there right now dries out.

 

[PatinPA]

In my neck of the woods, beechnut trees hold their leaves all the way into February. Deer love to scrape under a low hanging beechnut limb here for some reason! I've always had success finding low hanging beechnut limbs and making a scrape under it. My opinion, scrape locations are going to be different per area. Scout for other scrapes and observe what they are using as a licking branch. Can't go wrong with the natural way!

They love to scrape under hemlock trees for me. I've seen some early year scrapes under some poplar (tulip). But the year after year scrapes are almost always under hemlock around me. I just made a mock scrape. I put it in a poplar tree but I cut off a hemlock branch and hung it. Put a camera on it so we'll see what happens. Not in the best travel path but it's right along a food plot.

 

[White Oak]

I hung this Code Blue "rope a dope" yesterday in the front yard from a apple tree and applied the "rack rub" right before dark. The biggest buck that I'm aware of on the property showed up to investigate it overnight anlong with a couple other bucks . Excellent results as far as I'm concerned ....I'll scratch under it this evening and urinate and see if he keeps coming back. I'll leave this Rope a dope here for 2 weeks then place it in a spot where I can actually hunt from. I'm trying to upload the pictures,,,but it says the uploaded image is too large. I'll try to figure it out. Had to do a screen shot and crop it ...couldn't crop like I normally do to get it to fit.

 

[BrushyPines]

They love to scrape under hemlock trees for me. I've seen some early year scrapes under some poplar (tulip). But the year after year scrapes are almost always under hemlock around me. I just made a mock scrape. I put it in a poplar tree but I cut off a hemlock branch and hung it. Put a camera on it so we'll see what happens. Not in the best travel path but it's right along a food plot.

I've got about a month before they'll start using scrapes more often for my area!

 

[PatinPA]

I've got about a month before they'll start using scrapes more often for my area!

I've seen some early season scrapes but they seem to be really hitting them more often this year for whatever reason. The scrape that gets hit on my property yearly just showed it's first action too.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

The large scrape in my front yard was opened up a little bit this week, so I helped it along by using a hand tool to scrape some more vegetation away, then added my own fresh scent to it.
More often than not I have seen scrapes get torn up after I have added some of my own make to them....
Last year on one night in November 7 different bucks visited this scrape, so at least I know they are nearby...