buck scrapes | Buck Manager

Hunt Scrapes After a Rain

White-tailed deer management is about controlling the age, genetics, and nutrition of a deer herd. These components are the nuts and bolts of producing and growing big, healthy deer. Hunters understand that whitetail, like other game animals, are a renewable natural resource that can be used for both recreation and food. This is exactly why we enjoy getting out in the woods and doing a little deer hunting each fall. Although proper doe harvest is essential for maintaining a deer population within the carrying capacity of the habitat, let’s face it, hunters really look forward to hunting for big ole mature bucks.

There are several strategies that can be used to bag a buck, but for the most part hunters are limited to hunting food, water, travel areas, or deer sign. Whitetail bucks often leave visual evidence of where they have been in the form of rubs and scrapes. Of the two, scrapes can predict the location that a buck is likely to return. Despite the fact that many mature bucks check scrapes under the cover of darkness, hunting scrapes after a rain could increase your chances of crossing paths with a big whitetail buck. Continue reading “Hunt Scrapes After a Rain”

Checking Buck Scrapes for Activity

Hunting Buck Scrapes

You’ve been lucky enough to find a buck scrape. Now, is it active? One method to identify an active scrape is to cover it with leaves and later re-check it a day or few later. This is the most basic approach in finding out whether a white-tailed buck is still in the area and visiting his scrapes.

If you find the scrape has been freshened upon returning you are probably going to want to set up to determine the quality of the buck working the scrape. However, it’s not uncommon for a smaller, or larger, bucks to stop by and leave their own scent-stamp directly over another buck’s scrape.

Hunting a Scrape

In this case, you already know a buck is working the scrape, but is he what you want to harvest? You now have two options. First, you could set up downwind of the scrape, as most bucks wont approach directly and prefer to use the wind to check their scrape, and see what stops by.

Or, you can use a game or trail camera set near the scrape to get photos of all the deer moving through the area. If you see a big, mature buck on your photos, then it’s time to move in as quickly as possible and make all of your work pay off!

Finding Whitetail Buck Scrapes

Scouting and finding the scrape or scrape line of a white-tailed buck is a definite plus when gearing up for the hunting season. And truth be known, it’s better to find a scrape or two than a rub-line. Many times it seems that a rub-line is the result of pent up aggression due to growing testosterone in the buck while the scrapes are a definite sign that a buck likes what he has seen in the area.

Scrapes are normally found on higher ground that is dry enough to hold scent and wont be washed out, even if it rains heavily. Areas that repeatedly encounter boggy or swamp-like conditions tend to hold less scrapes than the edges of that same area where the ground is slightly elevated.

Any edge of a field, especially those that contain row crops or food plots are high-percentage areas to find scrapes. Main trails entering swamps, low-lands, creeks, rivers, and draws are also likely places for a scrape or scrape-line. But is finding a scrape reason enough to set up a deer stand and start hunting? Not exactly.

The percentage of scrapes that actually get re-worked is low in most places, but there are a few tactics for increasing the odds and finding out just what scrapes are still active. Trail cameras are great for monitoring scrapes, but be careful not to leave any scent in the area. In addition, you can freshen scrapes with doe or buck urine and see if that causes deer, hopefully the dominant buck in the area, to return. If you detect signs of activity, it may well be time to spend a little time in the stand.