Today I was in my local archery shop picking up some corn and I got to talking to another gentleman who was doing the same. After about 15 minutes of convo, he asked me if I had been seeing any buck sign in my area. I told him yes, that I found a big scrape late last year and big tracks all around but that I never have actually saw the buck in the area. I told him that I hadn't seen any scrapes or rubs yet this year, but that I have seen tracks this year that appear to be the same buck as last year. He then asked me if I had made, or even heard of a "mock scrape sequence." He said that a few years ago, he went to a whitetail hunting convention at Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park in West Virginia, where he met a member of Team Primos, who was one of the guys conducting the convention. I can't remember the guys name, but he said that this is what he suggested that he do, if he wants to draw in big bucks to his area during the rut. The guy said that he has taken the advice, and that he has killed a 100 class buck consistantly each of the last three years. I'll break it down step by step.
1) In the third week of October make 3 to 4 consecutive mock scrapes in a perfect straight line over the course of about 100 yards or so. Try to get them parallel to a trail that you know deer are traveling pretty regularly.
2) When you make them, use a scent drag soaked in doe scent (NO ESTRUS). After you make each individual one, put buck urine in it, to cast out the scent of bucks making the scrapes, with doe scent in between. Freshen them up once a week with the buck urine.
3) During the first week of November, a week or so before the rut starts, change the urine from buck urine to doe (No ESTRUS) urine. Freshin each one of them up once a week.
4) During the 2/3 or 3rd week of November, switch from doe urine to doe-in-estrus urine. Douch them in it.
By the end of the third week to the beginning to the 4th week of November, bucks will be hitting these scrapes HARD and Consistantly. Go with the natural cycle of buck, doe, doe-in-estrus. By this time, bucks will take over the scrapes on their own and you won't have to touch them again. He said that the guy from the convention said that multiple bucks will visit these scrapes atleast once to multiple times a day.
The man said that it takes time and effort, but that he has done this each of the last three years and that he's seen many, many bucks and as I said, killed atleast 1 100 class deer eachyear.
Has anyone else ever heard of this? He called it a "Mock Scrape Sequence" and said that he'll do it every year from now on until the day that he dies.
That sounds like a logical way of doing it. But being there that many times to freshen everything up runs the risk of leaving your scent also. Definately worth a shot trying though.
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Everything comes to he who waits, If he waits til it comes.
That is interesting. I'venever done a sequence like that but have done plenty of mock scrapes with decent results. Wouldn't hurt to give it a try - or at least incorporate some of his routine.
One side note is that people that are further north will want to get a start on things sooner than the time table he listed. From my expierences, deer start frequenting my mock scrapes in mid October already. In fact I just got mine going yesterday....
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"It's always the darkest before the dawn.."
Ive used mock scrapes in the past with success and actually have 2 going right now. They dont seem to be getting much activity yet, but it will start soon. After reading this though, im going to go make a few more and make them in a line to see if it helps at all.
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"Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure."
A Mock Scrape Sequence
