Tried something new....licking branch

[BuckSutherland]

I have never hung a vertical vine on the hunting land up north. I hung two of them on Monday. One near my waterhole where I have a nice funnel made, and another one on the edge of an old food plot. That one had a few scrapes on the oak branches last year on the edge of it. I also took some rope and pulled down some oak branches right to the perfect height. Have a few more of those to do. I put cameras on the mock vines. One of them is a new browning dark ops to replace my stolen cam from last year. I got home and see Sturgis had a new video on this very thing. I hung mine so the bottom of the branch is right at my nipples. Might need to move them a little lower. We will see if the deer even play with them.

 

[j-bird]

I have used cut grapevine with pretty decent success. The deer seem to be drawn to it because of the sap in it to get it started and then the deer scent will bring in others. The trick I found was simply finding the right spot for it. The deer on my place seem to prefer the trails and previous scrape locations. I replace the vine every year OR I end up having to add some sort of attractant to re-start it's use.

I use them as a means to narrow down traffic areas...where the deer are moving. I find that deer like to cross my logging trails vs walk along them. I like to put a string of vines every 100 yards or so and this can help identify these locations. I then keep those that see activity (and hang a cam) and then take down the others. Below is actually a screen capture of a video where this buck actually was walking past this location in the distance and specifically came over to check out the vine.



I have also tied limbs down like you show with some success as well. Many times I do it to keep a scrape active as the deer tend to damage the limb pretty good over time....


Bucks using this scrape and my "pulled down" branch....


I know some others have had good success with this as well.

 

[ghilliehunter]

Buck, I have had really good luck making a scrape with a rake, working up the dirt really well and tying down a branch over it. Take a leak in the new scrape and the deer do the rest. This pic is one that I started 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I had awesome activity on my mock scrapes last year with an oak branch. Hope the vine is just as good. It really picked up after OCT 15. On Labor day weekend I will move all 5 of my cameras real close to a stand so I can just pull cams on the way in/out and stay out of the woods the rest of the fall until rifle season. Found a spot on state land last fall/winter with a huge multi-year scrape. I dont want to go near it, but will hunt within shooting distance of that sucker.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I'll be interested to hear if the vine works better than the branch tied down. I've had great luck getting bucks to walk into specific spots using mock scrape branches either tied down or weighted down using a big branch . The buck I killed last fall in MN was tending a scrape branch I made when the slug went through him.

 

[Tap]

A vine in the right spot is awesome.
I have had one in a funnel between where 3 plots join. I will get literally thousands of pics per year...and year round use, too.

 

[Rit]

Two weeks ago I put in a small water hole and mock scrape. I have tied down natural branches before and they get used. This would be my first water hole.

I never tried a vine but decided to give it a go. This location is already a transition area between two bedding areas and a natural travel pattern to the big field but I wanted to make it better. It’s a 20 yard shot from the stand. After a few weeks I’d say it was a hit. I had 8 or so bucks on camera using the vine and the water hole. Every deer that travels past the vine gives it a once over. Even the fawns. I had almost 700 photos in 2 weeks. Time will tell if this thing continues to work into the hunting season. My only issue is camera placement. I am a little far away from the scrape for decent night photos.

 

[Bill]

Last fall I took a branch from a natural scrape that was right along the road and wired it to a mock grape vine licking branch I put in that same day. They haven’t given that vine a rest since...

 

[BuckSutherland]

The deer on my land wont acknowledge the vine at all. It was up for 2 weeks and I didnt get any pictures of deer using it. Next time I go up I am gonna try a vine out on some state land. Vines seem rare up by me, but I know if I put oak branches out they will hammer them. By Sept 1, I will have all my cams moved to mock scrape locations close to the stands and then I just stay out of the woods until hunting. Should get a good test then. I have been stomping all over my hunting land this spring/summer doing work so I would assume that is a big part of the problem.

 

[j-bird]

What I tend to see with the vines is that they need to be fresh - the sap contained in them will drip out and the deer smell it and like the taste....this typically is done by the does. Once the does get their scent on it....then the bucks show up. It can also be a matter of location....and literally 100 feet can be a big difference from what I have seen. I tend to combine the 2 (limb and vine) if I have an opportunity....I just lash the vine to the limb with some 550 cord or the like.

 

[Tap]

I've posted this pic (and dozens more) of this vine mock scrape. It's been used literally many, many thousands of times over the last several years, to the point that the vine has had to be replaced a couple times due to deer abuse.
This year, around the beginning of July, I hung a rope right next to the vine to see if deer preferred one or the other. I went away on vacation for most of the month and just got back and checked the camera yesterday.
From July 3rd to July 30th, the camera took 2,329 pics. I had the cam on a 2-shot setting and not all pics were of deer, but there were easily over 1,000 pics. I will post pics when I get a chance, but the rope seems to be more preferred than the vine.
I'll try to post some pics later today. I'm jammed up on time...been away for a month and I have a million things to do.

 

[Early Bird]

I made two mock scrapes last year using the vertical vine method. I got them in a little late (sept). Set up trail cams, it took a few weeks for them to start using them consistently but when they did literally every deer that passed stopped at the scrapes, including a few shooters. I was actually amazed, the deer used them from basically October through February non stop, both buck's and doe's. Most of the time between 10am and 5 pm. I now have them in 3 different locations.

 

[Tap]

I made two mock scrapes last year using the vertical vine method. I got them in a little late (sept). Set up trail cams, it took a few weeks for them to start using them consistently but when they did literally every deer that passed stopped at the scrapes, including a few shooters. I was actually amazed, the deer used them from basically October through February non stop, both buck's and doe's. Most of the time between 10am and 5 pm. I now have them in 3 different locations.

There are peaks and valleys, but they use mine 365, which is a good clue on deer study. "Real" licking branches are out there for us to find but they aren't easy to find until the ground work kicks-in. I believe there are licking branches out there that don't get much ground activity which would make them really hard to find, but they exist. These critters are driven by olfactory. Everything they do relates to their noses.