Scrape help needed

[Livesintrees]

I would say it depends on that scrapes location. And by that I mean it’s location, in the bigger picture. Is it between a bedding area? Maybe it’s near a food source. Near or in a staging or transition area. To me where a scrape is gives me an idea as to why or when or how many deer are likely To come across it. I always study the ins and outs of a scrape that was made by a deer. I’ll walk the area looking for more scrapes or a rub line. Then I look at the aerial map and piece together why it would “make sense” (in my mind anyway) for the scrape to be where it is. I think a community scrape is be easiest for us to recreate based on a habitat feature. Whether that be a watering hole, or a food plot. And that’s bc we know a higher number of animals will naturally be in the area and therefore exposed to the scrape. I’ve made them with best results in the summer. After a lot of reading and years of tying different ways I’ve settled on and seen the best results using a grape vine. I set it so that it hangs somewhere between waist and chest height. And if I can entangle it amongst other limbs and leaves that will move and make noise when deer are using it that’s even better. If not I take a couple beech tree limbs and zip tie them to the vines Above head height. I’ll ideally take some form of rope (the cheap fuzzy brown crap) and snake it from the bottom of the vine up a couple feet. This helps hold some of the scent from the animals that use it (in my mind anyway. I won’t use any scent in it at all. I just set the vine, gouge the ground up then spray with ground clear to keep it open all year, and walk away. The deer will keep it active year round

 

[Tap]

I would say it depends on that scrapes location. And by that I mean it’s location, in the bigger picture. Is it between a bedding area? Maybe it’s near a food source. Near or in a staging or transition area. To me where a scrape is gives me an idea as to why or when or how many deer are likely To come across it. I always study the ins and outs of a scrape that was made by a deer. I’ll walk the area looking for more scrapes or a rub line. Then I look at the aerial map and piece together why it would “make sense” (in my mind anyway) for the scrape to be where it is. I think a community scrape is be easiest for us to recreate based on a habitat feature. Whether that be a watering hole, or a food plot. And that’s bc we know a higher number of animals will naturally be in the area and therefore exposed to the scrape. I’ve made them with best results in the summer. After a lot of reading and years of tying different ways I’ve settled on and seen the best results using a grape vine. I set it so that it hangs somewhere between waist and chest height. And if I can entangle it amongst other limbs and leaves that will move and make noise when deer are using it that’s even better. If not I take a couple beech tree limbs and zip tie them to the vines Above head height. I’ll ideally take some form of rope (the cheap fuzzy brown crap) and snake it from the bottom of the vine up a couple feet. This helps hold some of the scent from the animals that use it (in my mind anyway. I won’t use any scent in it at all. I just set the vine, gouge the ground up then spray with ground clear to keep it open all year, and walk away. The deer will keep it active year round

For way too many years, I scouted properties with tunnel vision. I never looked at the big picture as it relates to rutting buck movement. They put on some big miles during certain phases of the rut. Stuff happening a long way from where I'm hunting effects movement patterns. An area 2 or 3 properties away may have something going on that influences how deer travel through my little postage stamp of a property. Rut sign on my place can change due to someone else over hunting their property. A new home being built, logging, gas well development, atv use a mile away can make buck sign suddenly change on my place.

And grape vine is my favorite branch for mock scrapes. But location is the number 1 ingredient.

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[j-bird]

This scrape is in a transitional area... there is a large dense bedding area on the neighbors place and this is a natural funnel (low basin) that is wooded and then reaches out into crop fields. WHY it's there I'm not as lost about... its a decent traffic area. The part I don't understand is the use this late in the year and why it wasn't as attractive earlier in the hunting season. There isn't a scrape line or rub line....I have checked for both. I also agree that location is more a key than anything else as I have seen that with mock scrape creation in the past. Some are a hit and others are never used and they are less than 100 yards apart. I also know its where it is because its low and easier walking and in an area that I don't frequent often. I think I am fairly observant about the terrain and how the deer use the property in a much bigger picture as well...so again...why it's there makes sense. How it is being used is a little more confusing to me.

 

[Suburbhunter]

You may be overthinking it J-bird. You know why its there. (Good Location). At this point in the year I would surmise it's being used for communication more than anything else. I would say it was pretty active leading up to the rut when you didn't have a camera on it. Once the rut gets going scrape activity can/does drops off to near nil. Then with the firearms seasons I'm sure the deers world got messed up for awhile. Now that things are calming back down towards the end of the hunting season the deer are settling down and using it as communication to see who is still around.