Hey y'all,
I was walking in the woods this afternoon and saw 3 scrapes that were fresh since the last rain (5 days ago). They had fresh urine and droppings in them. I also saw several rubs that weren't there when season was in (It went out Jan 2). Is this unusual for upstate South Carolina? I usually see scrapes beginning in mid to late October but none this year until early December. What's going on this year?

Obviously love is still in the air in your area. It is reasons like these that you will ocassionaly see spoted fawns in late fall and early winter. If a doe comes in late there will always be a buck to answer the call.

A few years back I made a mock scrape in Oct. and it was being used into Feb.! I thought just like you did! Probably used as a social scrape especially since so late! At least that is the answer I got when I questioned it!!!

I guess so... Now that I think of it, I did have a few pictures of ayoung doe with twin spotted fawns on my Camtracker in late November. They looked to be about4 months old...weird! I've already found some sheds this year. Can deer breed after their antlers fall off? I thought that their testosterone went downand that causedtheir rack to fall off. I'm confused...

As long as his dinger don't fall off.

Usually after a deer sheds his antlers, he is sterile. The testicles ascend into the body cavity and shut down testosterone production. This is to conserve energy and help the bucks recoup their losses after a vigorous rut. Generally the biggest or most dominant breeding bucks lose their antlers first. Therefore, most late esterus does and fawns are bred by which ever bucks are still wearing their headgear, usually it is younger bucks doing this extra late breeding. When you start to see signs of this ( fawns with spots in September and later ) it is a sign that the buck/doe ratio is out of balance and/or the herd is over populated. You will notice that in a few years, without some kind of herd control, the antler size on 1 1/2 year old bucks will become noticeably smaller. You will see more spikes and forks instead of the basket rack 8 pointers that were the norm before the problem occured.

That's real intresting GregH, I was wondering about the antler drop thing myself. Thanks.

i havent seen no scrapes this time of the year but you got me curious so tomorrow goin to look around in the woods next to me since i'm from the same area as u