Grapevine licking branch

armadillophil

5 year old buck +
I set out 6 grapevine licking branches in early October. Five have been heavily used. I set a camera on one and caught the buck I ended up killing using it plus some other visitors

 
I have had good luck with them as well. They have however also taught me that location is VERY important. I was surprised by how much the does use them.
 
Yep but they do dry out. I have some to replace.
 
I did 3 this year and put cams on them.
Every one of them saw good activity with bucks, does and fawns
 
I use vines for licking branches and they work well. From my bow stand I have three that I can easily see. I had 2 small bucks come through together in early November and I watched the larger of the 2 work all 3 licking branches as he walked through. Loved it!
 

My first year trying it as well. Had some decent success. Largest bucks never hit them though. Not sure if it was the location or what. Going to do a better job hiding the string next year. Kind of threw it up in haste. This camera is not very well hidden either. Not a good selection of trees to put it on.
 
I don’t have grape vines in my area but I did a mock like this as well but with an aspen tree in a well used travel area. Stopped pretty much every deer that went by it. I’ll replace it come June and maybe hang it about a foot lower... chest high.
 

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I don’t have grape vines in my area but I did a mock like this as well but with an aspen tree in a well used travel area. Stopped pretty much every deer that went by it. I’ll replace it come June and maybe hang it about a foot lower... chest high.
That's interesting. I've seen them done with leafy branches but never hanging a tree like that. I think I'm going to leave mine up. I hate to take all the scent that's already on them away.
 
That's interesting. I've seen them done with leafy branches but never hanging a tree like that. I think I'm going to leave mine up. I hate to take all the scent that's already on them away.
I figured I’d try something about wrist thickness so that it offered some resistance when they messed with it. It still swung around pretty good.
 
I have a mess of 1” grass rope laying about, I’ve considered using a length of it for one
 
For me a vine is too stiff and will break if they push too hard.

Put out 3/4" - 1.0" manilla hemp rope hanging from a branch over a scrape area back 3-4' from the licking branches. On the rope tie 2 knots one at the end and one up 12" and hang the lower knot so it is at eye level.

The rope placed back allows them to approach the licking branches and get comfortable and the rope lets them rub, lick, etc. rolling all their head, glands, etc. around as they are aroused and want to leave scent.

For me, i want the mature bucks to make this move forward, concerned with the little guys tingling the licking branches.
 
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I've been using grape vine for over 10 years. It works great. It started because there was a vine hanging across my tractor road and it always hooked on some part of my tractor. I was about to completely remove it, but then I thought to cut it so it could hang like a licking branch. I scraped out the dirt, took a leak in it, and hung a camera. Deer instantly started using it.
That original vine got ripped down a long time ago so I just replace it with a new vine every 4 years or so.
About 3 years ago I decided to experiment with hemp rope hanging a few feet away from the vine. I wanted to see which one they preferred.
They use them both almost equally. The rope might get used slightly more.
I will post some pics.....
 
This scrape has been in use for a long time. Vines have been replaced several times. The rope is more durable so I will probably go with just rope when the vine degrades.
But even the rope is coming unraveled. I originally had zip ties to hold the rope together but they broke off. I need new ones on there.
I pee in it a couple times per month.
I've had easily over 100,000 pics on this scrape. Very common to get over 400 in a week.
Bucks and does of all ages use it. I've had pics of raccoons, squirrels, hawks and owls on it.
Its a great camera site, but its not suitable to hunt.
Location, location, location.
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A few years ago, I had some turkeys using it as a dusting site. Not sure if it helped or hurt the scrape. I can't seem to find the pics of that.
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