A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

Last night I was doing some stump shooting and came across not one but two 3 ft. in diameter fresh scrapes complete with the chewed overhanging limbs and all. I honestly have never seen this before and I'm literally in the woods 365 days a year. Anybody else ever seen this?

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

scrapes in the spring? I see them all the time in the fall....as do most guys during/near the rut.....

Have you done much deer hunting in the last 45years? near the rut? do you scout much at all?

I suppose if you have very few bucks in an area it would be possible to not see them, but I'm surprised by that one.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I've seen them in february but never this late.I have read they use them year round to some degree.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I live to hunt and hunt to live! I'm in the woods year round for the sole purpose of keeping track of the local deer herd and movements. The bow I killed this year was only 50 yds. from the place I found these scrapes and I shot him in the rut working over a scrape. I honestly don't get this one. I too have seen a flurry of scrape activity in the month of Feb. but this is a strange one.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

ah gotcha, so you have seen scrapes before....haha, I was a tad worried about ya.

I think they use them year round...some anyway.....

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I read that in some states the deer will make scrapes through out the year. These are not territorial scrapes thought they are used to identify their home range and trails. I have never found a scrape this early in the year in Wi. But have heard people finding some fresh ones. I think youll be suprised most of the early season scrapes like this one is probably being made by a doe. Thats what I read in one of the Bow Hunter magazines......I think it was Bow Hunter.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

wow thats weird

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I saw a lot of scrapes in late March during turkey season in south Bama, but havn't been back up there since then to look around.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I found 2 different scrapes last week while Turkey hunting! Fresh as can be hoof prints and all! I can go into a spot and count on a scrape being there all year long. I don't know what to make of it just a marking post of some sorts I guess!

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

Sure these arent dusting bowls from the turkeys and the deer just happen to be walking through them or digging for mineral in them....i have a bunch of them scattered around my field edges....

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I was thnking the same thing, maybe dusting and deer then just checking them out. I am no expert and they could be scrapes, I do not think that I have seen them in the spring.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

This is funny because I started a thread about this topic a while back because I am trying a couple of new(to me)tactics during the off season.
This is the thread I initially put the link to the article below in.

RE: Any Buck Hunters....?


Here isan article from J. Ozaga. The research was 20 years ago andthe area/climate are certainly different than mine but I still find theresults to be promising.


Springtime Signposts
[/align]Scientific research proves that deer work scrapes year-round.


read more...

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

interesting???

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I have never heard of that before. Maybe he is getting a head start.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I have never seen it but I have seen other threads like this do evidently they do used them. It must be more of a territoral thing this time of year

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

Sorry but the link to the article won't work anymore. It was titled Springtime Signposts and when I googled it again it gave me a link to D&DH magazines website butthat linkgoes to the home page and not the article so I don't know what gives.

RE: A First in over 45 yrs. of hunting
 

I'm 100% certain what I found are not turkey dusting's. These even have the overhead limb chewed up! I've never seen this before or read about it or heard anybody else that had seen this. I thought I'd throw it out there with a bunch of people that obviously like to deer hunt.