have you had luck over scrapes
10-27-2003, 02:44 PM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Southern Indiana
Posts: 950
have you had luck over scrapes
If i can get a good south or southwest wind this weekend, i will be sitting 20 yards away from a nice well-used hub scrape, it is a scrape that is used every year. have any of you had luck over scrapes?
10-27-2003, 04:52 PM
#4
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Cary, IL
Posts: 356
RE: have you had luck over scrapes
It' s a funny thing - I' ve never had much luck hunting scrapes. From what my camtrackers tell me, most of their activity is at night. I think I' ve seen 2 or 3 deer work a scrape during the daylight in 10 years of bowhunting now.
BUT - I shot my biggest buck to date as he was approaching a scrape just after it got light one morning. I didn' t know the scrape was there at the time until I got over to where I shot him and noticed it not 3 feet away from where he' d been standing.
From everything I' ve read, it seems like people have the most luck when hunting downwind of a scrape line. Say 80-100 yards. Most mature bucks won' t check and freshen a scrape during the daytime unless it' s been touched by a doe. The way they check is by walking downwind of the scrapes in order to keep a little bit more secluded and cover ground efficiently. So in theory you find a good spot to set up 80-100 yards downwind and you just might be a crack at the resident big boy in the area. You just never know.
BUT - I shot my biggest buck to date as he was approaching a scrape just after it got light one morning. I didn' t know the scrape was there at the time until I got over to where I shot him and noticed it not 3 feet away from where he' d been standing.
From everything I' ve read, it seems like people have the most luck when hunting downwind of a scrape line. Say 80-100 yards. Most mature bucks won' t check and freshen a scrape during the daytime unless it' s been touched by a doe. The way they check is by walking downwind of the scrapes in order to keep a little bit more secluded and cover ground efficiently. So in theory you find a good spot to set up 80-100 yards downwind and you just might be a crack at the resident big boy in the area. You just never know.
10-27-2003, 10:16 PM
#6
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Saskatchewan Canada
Posts: 6,921
RE: have you had luck over scrapes
Scrapes for me are nice to see but have never produced great results. I also have camtrakker them and found the activity to be at night. Now on the flip side of this is rublines where I have had succes over. I generally setup on the route that leads to the rubline from bedding or food, not right on top of the rubline. You can determine when the buck is making the rubs by the side he is hitting, if he is hitting it from bed to food, then sitting their in the evening is your bet, vice versa for the opposite side. However the trick to knowing which is which is scouting and finding where they call home
...good luck!
...good luck!
10-28-2003, 04:59 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 3,784
RE: have you had luck over scrapes
The only time a scrape has ever been productive for me was the one time I caught a 8pt making one in broad daylight. He was so pre-occupied he never saw it coming. 
10-28-2003, 06:36 AM
#8
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Bemidji.Minnesota
Posts: 170
RE: have you had luck over scrapes
We had our first accumulating snow fall yesterday(3" ), left work to get to stand by 2:30 which I had along a scrape line along my alfalfa field. Dropped some estrus scent along the way and put some scrape scent in several scrapes also. Anyway, lots of does around with the nasty weather, bout 30 min. before dark, a nice 6 pointer came in with head down following my scent line, went to the scrapes I scented, and then right to the spot I wanted him to. Drew back, 30 yd shot, dble lunged him, ran 60 yds and dropped. The snow made tracking a breeze(he blew blood from both sides). Scape hunting this time of year is the best. Happy Hunting! Steve
10-28-2003, 10:48 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Harford Co Maryland USA
Posts: 4,966
RE: have you had luck over scrapes
Most of the time, scrape hunting has not been the productive technique I had hoped it to be. However, I have killed several bucks after watch them make very early season scrapes-the kind which never get revisited.