Comments for Carrie's Blog - Deer Scrapes Explained at http://www.bowcast.com , comment 0 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.bowcast.com Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:02:31 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bowcast.com/content/view/592/55/#pc_866 I agree with most of that...But one thing that I differ on is that I do hunt scrapes alot these days and have good luck doing so. For years I hunted scrapes when I lived in Kentucky and the activity was really hit or miss over them. Sometimes you'd catch some bucks working them but 98% of the time you set there looking at the ground all day. I moved to Iowa 2 years ago and these deer are total opposites of southern deer. Iowa bucks will actualy use a scrap line during daylight hours when the rut is coming heating up. I watched bucks this past season cruising for an early doe and he would walk by a scrape, get down wind of it and catch a wiff then head right back to it and work it hard for 10-15 minutes. When he got done with that one he headed to the next one and repeated the process. Most of these scrapes are the big community scrapes and they will be hit by every buck in the area. Scrape hunting is alot like calling whitetails, it can be productive if the buck is in the right frame of mind. I've seen them walk right through a fresh scrape and never pause but then I've seen them thrash the crap out of licking branches and paw the dirt for long periods of time. I think it all depends on the mindset of that certain buck at the time he happens upon the scrape line. As far as tree rubs go, I never put to much stock in hunting them. Now if there's a rub line on a trail that's heavily used that's one thing but I dont purposely setup on a tree rub or rub line. I think it's another one of those things that has to do with the mindset of the buck, especialy in the pre-rut when they have bad attitudes alot of the time and just want to rip something up. They do use them to kinda mark "their" land but I dont think they are worth spending alot of time hunting cause 99.9% of the rubs you happen to find out in the deer woods are a one time thing, they wont revist most of them like they do scrapes. I have found community rubs before too where alot of bucks will rub one tree but the numbers of those arent even close to the number of scrapes you'll find that more than one buck will use. - JDaddy Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:06:32 +0100 http://www.bowcast.com/content/view/592/55/#pc_865 Great topic. Whitetail deer are one of the most common animals in North America but we're still trying to find answers to basic questions. I like your observations on scrapes and rubs. I agree with everything you said. I think one of the most useful tools we have today as hunters is scouting cameras. A scouting camera can help you to determine if a scrape or rub is active or if it is just a random tree thrashing. Something I started doing last year that has really opened my eyes to patterning deer is to keep a daily weather journal and use it in conjunction with your scouting camera. It's super easy. I just print off the hour by hour weather report from www.weather.com. I have found that deer use certain travel corridors to and from bedding and feeding locations based on the weather and wind direction. If you can connect a certain weather pattern to deer movement on your camera your half way home. Certain weather and moon phases can cause deer to use the travel corridors at different time of the day. Knowing these things can help to set up in the right spot at the right time. - Toasteo Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:49:36 +0100