as already stated,scrapes are visited mostly at night.but the pattern of rubs and scrapes gives you his traveling direction and normally there will be another trail well used parallel to it that most does and younger deer use traveling to and from feeding and bedding areas.just prior to the rut, the bucks will check the scrapes for the first hot doe signs.look for the primary breeding scrapes that have the licking branch and dark spot where bucks are urinating in the scrape.after rut gets in full swing,does are hot everywhere and they don' t have to check the scrapes as often unless there is a low buck to doe ratio.i can' t help staying for hours at a large primary scrape that has fresh droppings,urine,tracks and rubs even though i know i might have to hunt it every day for a week to finally catch a good buck checking the scrape.you will see a lot of deer visiting a hot scrape during the course of a day but they may not be what you want to shoot.the key is to find the right scrape in the right place close enough to his core area .one more thing i have found,you have to take your daypack and be prepared to stay all day.