virginiashadow

I was re-reading John Eberhart's book, Precision Bowhunting when I saw something interesting. He claims that if you can find a large scrape in late August/September that you can be close to sure that it was being maintained by a mature buck. He says you should wait for bad weather such as high wind/rain to speed scout areas looking for this type of mature buck sign.

Anyone have any thoughts/experiences with finding large scrapes just prior to the season beginning, then hunting near those scrapes the first week of season? Thanks all for any information.

Brett

Schultzy

Nope. I use to see scrapes (small little ones) about the 2nd week of September, thats the earliest I've seen them. Now I don't see them until about October. I wish I knew why it changed.

I've never heard of bucks making big scrapes that early in the year like you mentioned. Interesting.

Siman08/OH

I dont have much knowledge on the subject but i am interested in what people have to say

gbrownlee

I usually find one or two decent sized scrapes (maybe 3-4 feet across) last week of Sept. in to Oct. I put up trail cams and usually get one or 2 mature bucks on it during that time. They do seemed to be used by small bucks as well and also almost exclusivly during the night. I am still not sure if this is just this scrape area (usually under the same tree every year) of if that is when they visit these particular scrapes. I do know that for every scrape i find, no matter whether it is in the middle of the deepest hollow that I only get a handfull of daytime photos on them.

virginiashadow

Here are some of his quotes:

"The great thing about finding scrapes in September is that you can be almost certain that they were made by a buck with at least one breeding season behind him, yearling bucks usually do not start scraping until the rut phases"

"On several occassions in September, we haev found some early subtle activity at pimary scrape ares. This scrape acitvity is the mark of a mature buck"

He goes on to say that findng large scrapes are very difficult in the early season but if you do find them, to hunt them the first few days of the season, especially if they are along a runway to and from a food source.

rybohunter

He is full of BS. I've watched yearling bucks make scrapes in September.

We get scrapes along field edges every year in september. Generally by mid october they are all abandoned. Buck travel the field edges and just get the urge to scrape now and again. Sometimes these scrapes will get fairly large, but like I said, come later in the season, these scrapes have been abandoned for ones that turn into the more active "typical" ones thebucks frequent more often.

MECHDOC

I think you can take John Eberhart's advice to the bank.This guy knows his s***.Do a search on him and look at all the bucks this guy has taken.Most of his bucks are taken on heavily hunted MI public land.You have to learn everything about therehabitsto consistantly take monsters like he does.

http://www.deer-john.net/index.html

virginiashadow

"He is full of BS. I've watched yearling bucks make scrapes in September. "

I think he is talking about fairly large scrapes and ones that appear in "pressured" areas. He is saying that scrapes early in the season are rare in pressured areas and should be closely examined and hunted if they are large.

MECHDOC

As you all know the only thing predictable about deer is they are unpredictable in pressured areas.There are way to many factors that determine a deers activity from area to area region to region.Of course there are exceptions.You probably dont have the monsters in your area thats why you dont see this activity.

virginiashadow

"You probably dont have the monsters in your area thats why you dont see this activity."

I think that is kind of the point he is trying to make....If you find the scrapes he is talking about in areas with alot of pressure and areas without alot of monsters, then you should look at it very carefully if you do find it because not alot of other bucks could be making those types scrapes, other than 2.5+ year old bucks. And in pressured areas and areas that do not typically have big bucks, finding a 2.5+ year old is at least a step toward increasing your odds of killing a nice buck...it just kind of narrows the field down.