As far as usefulness an being worth spending the money. Would this weekend be TOO late TOO create Mock scrapes an use scrape dripper's?
I think you are better off finding the actual scrapes and hunting the trails leading to them...
I think you are better off finding the actual scrapes and hunting the trails leading to them...
I watched a cam over a community scrape in VC two years in a row.. 2-7 bucks would hit this scrape daily... maybe once or twice in the 2 years that BuckEye cam was there did a deer visit it during the daylight. I think that's why JD is saying hunt the trails.
Where would be a good spot to start looking..Edge of corn?Creek??Closer to bedding ..Or anywhere an everywhere?
Don't waste your money on mock scrape kits or drippers. If you want to make a mock scrape do this. Take a stick and clear out a circle about two to three feet in diameter. Second, wearing clean gloves, break a branch so that it dangles over the scrape (if there isn't a branch low enough then break one off a tree close by and tie it in place. Third take a long piss in the scrape. I will guarantee you that if there are deer in the area they will take it over. I've done this countless times and EVERY time it has worked. The bad thing is that all the deer come at night.
IMO, it's almost never too late to try running mock scrapes. The bucks will be scraping all the way up to the seeking phase of the rut, which IMO is still a week or two away. Mock scrapes are the only thing I've had success with when using commercial deer scents. I like to make them near an intersection of trails, to ensure they see the most traffic. Over the past few years, I've had several bucks come down the trail and stop for a shot opportunity over top of a mock scrape. Last year, while hunting the WNF, I made a mock scrape down in front of me, in a transition zone between two ridges. The one morning I had a 120-125 eight-pointer come strolling through, and he stayed over that mock scrape for a solid 2 minutes.... it stopped him right in his tracks. Yea it wasn't a shooter, but it COULD have been. By the way, this was during the second week of November...
I've got an experiment going right now, actually. A few weeks ago I was helping a buddy scout some new property, and every time I came upon a fresh scrape, I cut off the licking branch and put it in a ziploc baggy. I put it in the freezer when I got home. A week later, I went down to the farm to hunt and took these licking branches with me. After the morning hunt I took them to a spot and tied all the licking branches up to overhanging limbs in a food plot. I then positioned a trailcam to watch over them. I'm really curious to see what kind of activity these have gotten since then. I've read that some experts think the licking branch is the most critical component of a scrape. Hopefully, by introducing the scents of some unfamiliar bucks, I've stirred up the curiosity of a local slunger. We shall see.
A little revist here.............Jim how did the licking branch experiment work out?