Mock Scrapes

[Esox]

Anyone here play around with mock scrapes? Just wondering if anyone has any tips, etc for them? How early (or late) is too early to set one up?

[calgarychef]

You can set use up anytime but I usually wait until the bucks start.
Scrape a patch of leaves off the ground right down to thr dirt and take a leak in it. Done. They’ll take it over.

[Big Lou]

I have a few mocks that are used year round. There’s not much scraping of the dirt at all outside of fall but, the licking branches have pretty frequent use year round. Obviously, things pick up in the fall for activity but, they certainly stay active. I’ve gone away from any type of purchased scent added. Give them vertical limb, scratch up the ground and take a leak. They’ll do the rest. I don’t believe there is any product you can use that competes with the real thing, once deer start using them.

[Smoky buck]

Played with mock scrapes a bit but for myself the results were not worth the effort

Personally I find it way more effective to hunt the real thing especially communal scrapes. Rut scrapes are not near as valuable as communal scraps. Rut scrapes an excited buck(especially young bucks) will make a bunch and never return. If you locate communal scraps all deer visit them all year. They may not tear up the ground but the check the licking branch and add scent from their orbital glands. Because of this mature bucks will go out of their way to check them during the rut because it tells them what bucks and does have visited the area

My opinion forget the mock scrape and put in the effort to scout for communal scrapes. Yes you can locate them outside the rut you just need to pay attention more

[Fwee6]

I'm into them, with details...

- I start them later in August to get an idea of the bucks in the area. Has helped inventory bucks over the years. It took me a lot of trial and error over the years to figure out when and where to make mock scrapes. The internet is your friend if you have no idea where to start.
- Come mid-October when I have a good idea of what's going on in my few buck hot spots, I'll make a couple new mock scrapes along shooting lanes around my stands. Can really help get a buck to stop, especially if you hunt timber.

[Bushrat]

Always figured there were two different kinds of scrapes, the ones made randomly here, there and everywhere and the ones that get used repetitively year after year by pretty much all the deer in the area.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Bushrat

Always figured there were two different kinds of scrapes, the ones made randomly here, there and everywhere and the ones that get used repetitively year after year by pretty much all the deer in the area.

100% that is the way it works

The communal scrape they visit all year are almost always on a heavy travel route with intersecting trails. They always have a licking branch. Often have a tree that you can see has been rubbed for multiple years right near it. Even during the peak of vegetation growth in the summer the vegetation will be sparse or not existent. During the rut in areas with good buck numbers they are bigger than other scraps or even multiple big scrapes basically touching. I know of some that probably 15ft long during the rut

Probably the most valuable sign to find in my opinion

[Curtsyneil]

I’ve seen lots of different stuff with bucks when it come to scrapes. Usually the last week of October they really start to show but lots of guys get tricked cause those are the scrapes that all the dink bucks are making usually but I have seen a scrape on a spruce made by a dink buck turn into the primary scrape for the rut and the more mature bucks taking it over on an 80acre piece. If you have a camera on it and you see the doe’s coming to it and nose touching the licking branch that’s the one to hunt. Most mature bucks wrk scrapes in the dark or just before day break so it is hard killing them on a scrape during november just what I’ve experienced so others might have different opinion on that. It really comes down to the buck. But I have seen more daytime scrape activity in the last 4 days of November and I believe that there so desperate on finding that last hot doe they slip up more and more when the testosterone is cranked to the ultimate max. So I really pay attention to those scrapes during that time of the rut. Then again that’s in my general hunting area so others might see different. As for mock scrapes they wrk good and a good way to see what walking around in your area.

[antler1]

In my area spruce branches are used most often as licking branches. If you have spruce trees on your hunting ground you will likely find the spots where the deer have been licking and chewing the ends of a drooping branch above the scrape.
So what if you only have poplar trees on your ground?
Make your own licking branch at an advantageous spot near your blind or treestand by cutting a 6 foot pine or spruce branch and screwing it onto the side of a poplar tree at a 45 degree downward angle. Then its up to you what to do underneath that branch. This thread contains some ideas for that.
The needles will dry and fall off if you put it out too early.
Works for me every year. Point a cell cam at it to see who is coming to visit.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Esox

Anyone here play around with mock scrapes? Just wondering if anyone has any tips, etc for them? How early (or late) is too early to set one up?

In the search tab just type in mock scrapes, there has been a few threads from the past on this, a good read.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...t=mock+scrapes

Bottom line is that they work, Sept/Oct I will put out a few in areas, I do this for areas I know real well and just areas I am curious about, kinda like to see sign to from previous years like rubs but have been know to get that feeling and put out a few just to find a gooder lurking around.

This is one thing I have in my bag of tricks to figure out what's happening in an area. Always learning and adapting every season which is just good fun.

Good luck.