Multiple scrapes

[Bill Loser]

I took a walk this morning to check on progress of a couple kill plots I put in this year.
1 of them is 25 yards in front of my box blind, in the middle of this plot stands 1 probably 10 year old box elder thats "bushed" out, meaning its got dozens of main leads. Around this tree and are 5 seperate scrapes. All are active and the licking branches are beat to hell.
I have never seen that many scrapes on my whole property before much less around 1 tree.
Questions i have are:
Has anyone seen multiple scrapes on one tree before? These are literally 5 to 10 feet apart.
What is this an indication of? Are these like "sign in" scrapes for communication?
I will go down later and snap some pics if i have time.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I took a walk this morning to check on progress of a couple kill plots I put in this year.
1 of them is 25 yards in front of my box blind, in the middle of this plot stands 1 probably 10 year old box elder thats "bushed" out, meaning its got dozens of main leads. Around this tree and are 5 seperate scrapes. All are active and the licking branches are beat to hell.
I have never seen that many scrapes on my whole property before much less around 1 tree.
Questions i have are:
Has anyone seen multiple scrapes on one tree before? These are literally 5 to 10 feet apart.
What is this an indication of? Are these like "sign in" scrapes for communication?
I will go down later and snap some pics if i have time.

We try to leave a single shingle oak in each of our plots (they grow like weeds around us in Northern MO). There are multiple scrapes on these trees every year. I think of them as communication scrapes that are used by both bucks and does. Most people probably give too much importance to them when they are in or on the edge of a food plot, at least in relation to other types of scrapes like hub scrapes outside of bedding areas. If you can get a trail camera near it, that is normally a good way of getting an inventory of the bucks in the area.

The first minute and a half of this video you can see a couple of deer working multiple scrapes on a shingle oak inside a food plot.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I have a couple spots where it is common to have multiple scrapes in a small area. Those two spots is where I get all of my fall buck inventory from.

 

[Bill Loser]

I will have to sit there this weekend then.
Im not running cameras this year. My hunting land is right out my back door and i don't have the will power to not check cameras every day or every other day when they are out there. Lol
Im saving up for some cell cameras.. maybe next year!

None of them are overly large, the biggest is maybe 4 square feet the rest much smaller.
I was hoping someone would tell me it is a major hub of buck activity!! Lol

 

[jsasker007]

It's a major hub of buck activity.

 

[Bill Loser]

It's a major hub of buck activity.

SWEET!!

 

[Bill]

This is exactly why I like to put a cedar in the ground and hang branches from it. When it’s in a field like that they just can’t not check it out. Both does and bucks.

If you have a scrape and licking beach somewhere of no use to you, cut the licking branch and move it to a field edge. They’ll find it.

 

[Bill Loser]

This is exactly why I like to put a cedar in the ground and hang branches from it. When it’s in a field like that they just can’t not check it out. Both does and bucks.

If you have a scrape and licking beach somewhere of no use to you, cut the licking branch and move it to a field edge. They’ll find it.

The pole I've heard of and tried once.
I never heard of the licking brnch trick though. I may play with one of the ones i found today. Thanks for the tip!!

 

[Native Hunter]

I have a big pin oak that hangs out over a food plot. It is a major whitetail draw every year. Does lick the branches and every buck in the area will be there biting branches and scraping. The scrapes soon run together and is becomes a continuous C shaped scrape that is about 20 feet long around the outside of the tree. I think you have found a spot that will be a major communications hub and your scrapes may run together like my pin oak location does.

 

[Bill]

The pole I've heard of and tried once.
I never heard of the licking brnch trick though. I may play with one of the ones i found today. Thanks for the tip!!

We wear rubber boots and surgical gloves. Drive up in a side by side and snip of the licking branch toss it in the back.

Zip tie at the new spot the same way. It’s a great way to get those rubbing poles in front of your stand a little more attention.

 

[Bill Loser]

Thanks for the tip! Im going to try that. I already have the spot picked out.

 

[Bill]

Not to beat a dead horse. But after posting I logged on to my cameras. First pic was a doe messing with a year old zipped tied on relocated licking branch.

I don’t get any scrape activity on these. But everyone has to come smell them. We’ll freshen it up with a new one soon.

Forgot the pic, here it is.

 

[TreeDaddy]

^^^^^^^^

the ol "turd in a punch bowl" Bartylla trick

bill