Posted: 1/4/2025 10:34:45 PM EDT
| Have a 5 acre patch of old hardwood I started hunting this season. Been trying to figure out a way to get the bucks to come through it more frequently. Have plenty of does and they have an interstate beat down going through it to my feeder. Found a scrape about 50 yards on the other side of the property line while tracking a blood trail. After the beginning of November I have only caught them on camera at night and they don’t get any further than 50 yards from the property line. Thinking maybe using one of the hemp ropes for a mock scrape. To try and get them to come further in. Anyone have any actual experience making a mock scrape or using a hemp rope to do it? Also do deer really continue to use the scrapes throughout the year and not just pre rut and rut. Trying not to get sucked into the being new to deer hunting and believing everything I read especially when it’s connected to trying to sell something. |
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Scrapes, although they do 'technically' use them year round, they don't use them much outside of pre-rut and rut. You can, with scent, get a scrape going but you're not going to have much luck this time of year. Get back after it in mid-October next year. 5 acres is going to be tough tough, that's not a lot of room to work with. |
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Originally Posted By eclark53520: Scrapes, although they do 'technically' use them year round, they don't use them much outside of pre-rut and rut. You can, with scent, get a scrape going but you're not going to have much luck this time of year. Get back after it in mid-October next year. 5 acres is going to be tough tough, that's not a lot of room to work with. Meant to put in the original reply that I’m more gearing towards next season. This is my first season actually getting to hunt. Realized quickly there were a lot of things I should have done before the season started. Been putting a plan together of what needs to happen before next year. One of the things was how can I get the bucks to come through more often. Wish I could post a screenshot of the place on OnX showing everything. The 5 acres is between me and my neighbor and have a 6th acre attached to it. That’s a field I started working on in the summer. To get it where I could run a mower on it. Seeded it heavily with red clover in September and it shows. Before season it wasn’t anything to walk out on the front porch in the evening and see 4-16 deer in it. Only saw 2 different bucks in velvet come through there with my eyes a handful of times. Pretty much just trying to figure out ways to increase my chance of keeping them coming through more regularly throughout the year. |
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Yeah, a good scrape and a rub tree out in the plot will force bucks that want to claim the area or let others know he is there to expose themselves in the field to hit the zone. If I were on a small plot, that's what I would focus on, a really good food plot with something they don't find elsewhere and a scrape/rub tree in it strategically placed so that you can hunt it from two different stands to cover most wind conditions. You don't really have the room to provide both bedding and destination food. So I think focusing on food is the best choice UNLESS your parcel is the best bedding in the area already. Then I would work it from that angle...but that seems unlikely. |