Good point, bucks tend some scapes year round. They may not be aggressively pawing the ground and urinating in itbut they do a lot of scent marking through the glands around their eyes/foreheads(orbital glands) on overhanging branches. J. Ozaga wrote an article called Springtime Signposts which included research on year round buck scraping activity and it was very interesting. They actually made "ideal" scraping areas after the season and during the spring by manipulating branches near travel areas and had something like 60% activity once the season rolled around and these were completely man manipulated scrape areas. I can't find the link but if anyonecan it was a pretty cool read.

I'm doing some expeimenting of my own right now with the same theory.

You're making hunting much more difficult than it should be. Might be, he has nothing left to give. Might be he's afraid of the dark. Might be, he's read this thread. Just go hunting. Animals do things normal... normally... but not always. Your task is to just go kill something. [8D]

You appear to have seen an awful lot of bucks working scrapes... and at the same time ... in the short time you've been hunting. It's not rocket science and critters are like people or dogs, sometimes you feel like it and sometimes you don't.

They will do that all year round, Id advise going against a mock scrape right now, deer know when its time to make scrpaes. But I wont stop ya and Id like to know the results.

I've seen early season scrapes that get payed real close attention to by other deer....
I've made some fake ones just by kicking dirt around and if any deer just happens to notice it, they'll stick their nose in it.
Once the pissing begins, the scrape will get noticeably wider if the deer is still using it.

Yeah David....I know you're right. I just love to hear why people think they're doing what they do. To ME....I think they're so random....they're unpredictable. I don't hunt scrapes, anymore.....but I have been fortunate enough to see some worked that I didn't even know were there. That's what usually happens when I'm hunting and see them.

How do you know he didn't piss into it? They usually piss all over their leg so it runs down over their tarsal glands, you might not notice this from your vantage point. It's not usually a stream like us!

I suppose you "might be right.....but I was 9 yds from the one I saw the 4 work, that morning....and I think I'd have seen it (could be wrong).

I've also been fortunate enough to witness a doe peeing on her tarsals.....and a "stream" it was. It was the goofiest thing I've seen a deer do, in person. She was at it for quite a while.