I do a mock scrape every year. I mount my trail camera right by it, and have my tree-stand only 30-40 yards off the trail here with a clear shooting lane. Every year, they return and start using it after I open it up. I started doing it below a low lying branch on a tree – over the years, while wiping their scent onto the branch – it got broke off. Activity slowed down without the branch, so I actually zip tie a branch from a nearby tree to this broken branch every year now. I make sure it hangs over my mock scrape so they’ve got something to rub their scent on… and it works. I always make the scrape itself a little smaller (smaller 9x9” or so of bare dirt) – like a smaller buck’s traveling scrape. Every year, a buck comes through and opens it up to a larger scrape. I also find a nearby fallen tree branch and use that to scrape it up – this leaves lines in the dirt as if it was deer hooves(if they even care?), and keeps my scent out of the dirt.
Here’s a video of a buck visiting the mock scrape, and opening it up….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL7q-Yt6Xs8
Here’s nice buck visiting that same spot….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcBLrXdBNrw
A super nice 11-point buck visited, and rubbed his scent all over my fake hanging branch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73gvVtcOMT4
I'm not saying I do this all "right" - but this method works for me.
