I hunt a lot of scrapes - both mock and natural, and I've been doing it for at least 10 years now. The only thing I can tell you for sureis that there are no guarantees.

One day, you can set over a scrape and see buck after buck, three days later, that scrapemight be leafed over and the deer aren't in it anymore. Sometimes, you make a mock scrape that deer will continue hitting and using it, other times, you do the same thing, and it just leafs over without so much as a hoofprint.

Sometimes they're nightwork, other times, you can catch bucks in them all day. Sometimes they circle downwind, other times, they boldlymarch right in. I've seen deer paw them, scrape them with their racks, eat the dirt, wipe the hanging branch with their preorbital glands, lick it, sniff it,nibble it, pee in it. I even saw asmall buckroll on his back inone of my mocks, I thought he was having a heart attack or something, but apparently, he just wanted to roll in it like a dog. Does will frequent them as well.

Believe me, if there was a magic trick or a rule of thumb, we'd all know it. I killed my two biggest archery bucks out of my own homemade mock scrapes. Now, I'm not saying that they were lured in by the scent, because I use so little scent that they couldn't have possibly smelled it from afar. They may have just been naturally passing through, but I can say for sure that when they smelled and saw the scrape, they both went straight to it, putting them at 15-20 yards broadside, dead in the center of my shooting lane.

The only product that I ever used was Tinks 69 Powder. I mixed that with distilled water and made a milky liquid that I dribbled into my mocks. During the peak rut, I've had good luck with that same mixture on my scent wicks. Unfortunately Tink's Powder is discontinued, and I'm down to my last 2 bottles.

When you're playing in mock or natural scrapes, you're playing with fire. Deer will be especially sensitive to foreign odors, so make sure you're wearing latex gloves and rubber boots, or you'll get busted.