I've hunted a lot of scrapes over the years. To be honest, they come up dry more thansuccessful. As you say, pre rut is good. BUT, don't overlook post rut. During the rut the bucks have all the does they want and tend to ignore freshening their scrapes. After the big flurry of the rut with most does bred and pickings slim, the bucks still raring to go start advertising at their scrapes again trying to find that last doe to be bred. Post rut is also great.