pigiron

I've always wanted to try this in the off season, but never have.

Have any of you had any success with summer mock scrapes or even mock scrapes in general?

My goal is to get a daylight photo of a particular big woods large buck that I have been following for a couple of years..... pinpoint him, and kill him in the early bow season before he makes up his mind to be a ghost. He's been a fairly large eight for two years. I would have shot him last year if the opportunity presented itself, only he's completely nocturnal now. I have plenty pics of him in the night, and frankly I'm over it.

I know he's gonna be nice this season, only these big woods bucks are hard to follow. They bed down in the day, and travel from bait pile to bait pile during the night(that's how I got the pictures).

I doubt anyone wil kill this buck over a bait pile.

Run hunting is almost impossible here. There are no bottlenecks, funnels, etc. Just overhunted deep, thick timber with dozens of baitpiles per square mile. All of the bait hunters push most of the mature buck movement to the weee hours of the night. In spite of all of the parasites(as I call them) ..there are some decent bucks here by South Jersey standards.

I've found an area I want to hunt where I think he might go during the day, and believe it or not...free of human activity. The problem is to get there requires crossing a 100 yard vein of knee and waist deep swamp. Not that I mind that, it's just I don't want to bump any bucks out of their bed.

In any case...opinions on mock scrapes would be appreciated.

davidmil

This is MY OPINION.... you'd be stinking up the woods. We strive to invade the woods with as light a footprint as we can. Why would you think going in there year round pouring all sorts of artificial smells around would help. It's been proven time and again with surveys that the best time to kill a buck is the first or second time ever into a stand. Everytime you enter an area you lessen your chances. If you know where he's staying and moving... that's your best bet. Stay out of it until you're ready to kill him. I personnally feel mock scapes are simply a tool to get you to waste money on gimmicks that are best left on the store shelves. Go stinky free as possible. It's called hunting.

pigiron

..and there lies the problem Dave.

I guess I can throw up a camera without the scrapes or any type of scent to see if he's traveling that vein. It's just such a hard piece of woods to hunt. Any good run will ultimately lead to a bait pile...that's a fact. So I would never set up anywhere near these runs because that means nitetime movement in my book. The places that are out of range of piles and hunters are solid swamp and marsh, and very noisy to walk through. I guess I figured if I got in an area that looked like it had some buck sign from previous years and made a mock scrape, old mossy horn might just come to investigate.

I don't really know if he's there though, and I 100% agree not to disturb the area. I just want to see what this guy does in the daylight. Will he even come to a scrape in the daylight? I have a feeling any mature buck in this piece is curled up under a cedar or a birch all day just listening to his surroundings.

Your voice of reason confirms what I already know...it's just that this place drives me insane.

Pops423

I'd get in and do your scouting now (almost too late). Winter time with snow would have been a good way to figure out bedding areas and travel routes.
Find early season food sources deep in the woods close to bedding areas and you may get lucky.

If he's an old dominate buck, come the rut, find the does and you should be able to find him out making a mistake.

pigiron

Here he is in 2007





...and in the late season 2010




He grew pretty damn good ehh? Hopefully this year those mains will be as wide as my toyota hood.

pigiron

I wanted to get in there so bad after the season only there was too much snow. You would need a deuce and a half just to get down some of the roads and break through the ice. Once the thaw came, farm work came as well.

he's not quite that old yet, but this year he'll no doubt show some dominance.