ORIGINAL: titleist_03
The biggest scrape I see year after year are on field edges. I'm talking ones that are 3+ feet in diameter. We put cameras on them and they get pounded by a handful of different bucks. The biggest bucks we normally get pictures of are on scrapes way back in the woods in secluded places, no matter what the scrape size.
That is pretty much what I have whitnessed also.
Early season scrapes in my area generally mean a 2.5 or older buck. I can tell this through a few personal observations, and also tracks - which give a good general idea. When I find a cluster of scrapes before mid october in and around thicker cover I consider it part of a 'core' area of a 2.5 year old or older deer - the dominate deer in that small locale.
Two years ago I found such a place. On Oct 13 I slipped into a stand on the edge of it extra early one morning. As the sun crested the hills I had a hog bodied 9 point down after a short sparring sequence.