What do you do?

[Plank Road Farm]

I know to be a consistant successful deer hunter preparation is the key.

What do you do when you find a scrap and a rub?

What does the buck use this for?

To mark his territory, attack does, etc.?

Does he pee in it and keep checking it daily?

Am I supposed to avoid it by not stepping in it, or even going near it?

Should I set up a stand near by, how far away?

Just started hunting last year and haven't had much success.

Hope you old deer hunters could give me some of your tricks.

TIA

 

[joshk-k]

I can't speak to most of the specific questions asked.

I would encourage you to look for more physical evidence in the nearby area. Is there a bed? Is there a trail? Is there evidence of other animals?

I think being able to read the relative freshness of the sign is important. Was this deer here a month ago? A week ago? This morning?

Trying to understand a particular sign within the broader geographic context might be helpful too. Where is this in relation to water? Where else have I seen similar sign in the area? Etc.

Hope this is at least moderately helpful.

Josh

 

[redbullitt]

If I find good consistent sign, I try to stay away from it and set up somewhere with a good view of it.

I have the best luck when I find food plots or things like that. Look for acorn trees, nice grassy patches on the edge of cover.

What kind of place are you hunting in? Field, woods, a bit of both?

 

[jbkebert]

A scrap is used for many things both to mark territory and possibly to attract a mate. A buck will will urinate onto the tarsal glads located on his legs and then it dribbles down onto the scrape. Typically there is a low hanging branch that a buck will chew and rub across his head to leave a scent. A scrape may be visited and refreshed daily or sometimes a few days in between. Who is to say that it will even be visited during shooting hours. To strictly set up over one specific scrape when there could be dozens left by the same deer is more luck than anything to connect.

I try and stick to trails or just off of trails leading from a bedding area to food source. Possibly even to water depending on weather. A natural funnel where the woods or a draw narrows and kinda forces things to travel through it to stay within cover. An area such as this close to a field edge is pretty deadly. Deer will move into these areas and hole up until they feel its safe to enter a field. If you are a rifle hunter who cares set up off of a bean field and shoot acrossed it. But since I am a bowhunter and only rifle hunt if I manage to fail to connect with a arrow. Find thier beds and find their food. Then set up somewhere inbetween the two in a bottle neck and you will have venision.

 

[Mr_Pale_Horse]

There are two types of scrapes, secondary territorial scrapes and primary breeding scrapes.

Secondary scrapes will be found along or parallel to main trails and with rub lines and sparring trees near or over them.

Primary breeding scrapes are often more isolated in thicker cover or by a terrain feature, but still are adjacent to travel routes. They are often near a nexus of transit between terrain features (ie, where a bottom, hillside, food source and open pasture connect).

Primary scrapes will be visited by does in estrous, and dominant bucks will check the scrape to pick up her scent or hold up downwind trail her.

Hunting scrapes is key to patterning a hunting area for bucks. It will take several years find them if you are new to an area or new to looking for scrapes, but deer will perennially place primary scrapes, and overtime, you can find them with GPS markers or good ole dead reckoning and landmarks if you spend enough time in a place.

Hunting them requires understanding the surrounding terrain and deer travel routes, so you can be near enough to take advantage of the scrapes attraction, but not so close or upwind that you spoil the scrape.

Lastly, does scrape also, making oblong scrapes with unidirectional hoof motion. A buck scrape will be deeper and more round, and indicate multidirectional hoof strokes and be damp with urine if active. Deer will often deficate in scrapes.

 

[Art Eatman]

Once the velvet is rubbed off the antlers, a rubbed tree is of no further interest to a buck. Sure, it means there's a buck in the general area, but that tree is not a place he visits.

 

[Mr_Pale_Horse]

For example, in deer season 2010 the scrape below yielded the buck pictured below it:


And this buck was taken hunting over the scrape below it:



Another scrape buck from the same farm: