Every hunter loves to see a fresh scrape in the woods, but, understanding the where, when and why of a whitetail buck scrape can certainly improve your woodsmen-ship skills and overall hunting strategy!
True Fact: I have a scrape right outside my guest bedroom window. Surveillance camera pointed right at it has captured deer scraping the dirt, hanging out and bedding down in it, and stopping to check on their way down to the river. Until I got the surveillance system, I was perplexed why I couldn't keep grass growing in that spot. Lol
@Whitetail_Properties I was also GREATLY surprised when we watched one evening while a big mountain lion came to check it out. Wife insists on me giving her an armed escort to and from her car now. Especially when she saw it, LIVE on camera walking behind her car.
No I believe what Kip was saying is that the majority of scraping will happen just before the peak of the rut. Deer will scrape all year round, bucks and does alike. But, just before the peak of breeding in any given area, scrape sites will be the most active.
Right on I am seeing 1 every 15 yards on a transition from pines to mixed hardwoods in western Arkansas this happened 4 days ago. I was just wondering if this was a sigh of early rut
Transitions of habitat and terrain are often great places to find scrapes. But yes, in that area of the country bucks have started laying down sign and will continue to do so more and more as the testosterone continues to rise and does start coming into estrous. I would say you are correct in being a few weeks out from" peak rut" or, when most does in an area are in estrous, for your neck of the woods. Stay on that fresh sign and you'll stay on the bucks!
just curious, never seen this before. last season i found 8 scrapes in about a 60 foot circle . is this unusual? good spot for this year? shot 8 point near these
A cluster of scrapes like that does certainly mean there is a lot of buck/deer activity in that area. However, research shows that nearly 80% of scraping activity happens at night. That doesn't mean that you won't have some activity in that area during daylight hours, but we would use that as a scouting tool and try and figure out where those deer are bedding in relation to the scrapes.
When I first started I found some scrapes and went to the tree to mark it with an orange tie, next day I went out and I've seen 3 doe go up and smell it and they smelt my tracks from yesterday and took off, I'm waiting for the leaves to fall on top of it and see if a buck will come clean it up and mark it again
I found a trail of scrapes 3 of them about 1/4 mile. I put a trail cam on the first one, edge of a field. The second one was on a game trail and the 3rd one was just before bedding. My question is pre rut n rut which one is the best for morning and which one is best for evening?? Thank you for your help.
Studies show almost 90% of scrapping activity happens at night. So, our opinion would be as close to bedding as possible. Pre rut those bucks will probably hang tight to bedding until after dark. During the rut, a scrape is probably a shot in the dark as far as if/when a buck will hit it. Pre rut morning and evenings can both be a good time to catch a buck hitting a scrape close to bedding.
