engie

I was creating fire-breaks on my farm with a leaf blower- I thought about one of last October's scrapes as I blew the leaves off of the logging road underneath the licking branch- I showed up to burn 2 days later and a deer had worked the scrape! What's up with that? I live in Missouri. Last year we shot a picture of a 140 incher with black tarsal glands and a fat neck on April 16th. What's up with that?

FroMan

Don't know...I was gonna suggest that you might be looking at turkey scratches but it seems you know what you're talking about.

I have actually heard of territory scrapes and rub lines...perhaps, just a deer marking his territory?

engie

Yeah this was definitely a deer- the licking branch was unaffected but the scrape was for sure worked over- crazy. I have seen scrapes in august- actually I get some good buck images in Sept on fake scrapes- but never a leaf blown scrape in march.

bowtech die hard

never heard of that before.....that's interesting. Set up a trail cam and see if you can get him on film working that scrape, that'd be SWEET.

nctaxi

I have seen it before and I was told that deer do it year round as a communal marker. Kind of like everyone saying hey. Can't really explain the 140" rutting deer in April, except that bucks can breed year round. May be he had an injury that is keeping his hormones up.

rybohunter

Last thursday I found a fresh new scrape behind the house. Newly snapped off licking branch and everything. I was pretty suprised about it.

Xtremebone

I but it was a year round scrap. Keep you eye on it and see if it stays fresh the rest of the year.

jepcho

Hmm.. I have never heard of that. Yeah set up a trail cam and see if you get a pic.

GregH

You are right, it is a year round communication thing. As far as bucks being able to breed all year round, that is false. Once they shed their antlers ( or about that time ), their testicles ascend up into the body cavity to help them conserve energy and it is too warm of an environment for the testes, so the bucks become sterile. Testoserum production almost shuts down and the bucks put on the feed bag to regain body fat and strength lost during the rut. They also have to grow another set of antlers in a relatively short period of time. In late summer or early fall, the testes decend, testosterum starts to flow and their antlers harden ( among other things ) they shed the velvut and prepare for another breeding season.

shed33

I personally haven't witnessed a buck scraping in March, but I have watched them lip curl and work a licking branch well into the summer. I don't think it's out of the question to have a buck scraping in March, especially if he still hassome level oftestosterone flowing. I saw a buck two days ago still packing his antlers and he wasn't a dink, he was asolid 3.5 years old, his testosteronewas obviously not completely cut off as of yet or he would of been shedded. I have a good friend whom has kept trail cameras posted on some of his mock scrapes year around, he has told me and shared photos of bucks scraping in March and April, so this doesn't surprise me.

Troy