So I had saw something about deer having "community" scrapes deep in the woods where many trails meet. I was walking on 400 acres of woods that borders my property where I hunt and came across a very large scrape. It appeared that a bunch of trails all led to it and that it was recently used, the dirt was pawed up on top of the snow. Does anyone have a similar find or know anything about scrapes like this?
If in cover or a place they feel safe, they're really the only kind of scrapes I'll hunt because they're frequented often and usually by many different deer. I have one of such scrapes on a property I hunt and while I never got great bucks to come this year, in year's past we've had some doozies use it during daylight.
I had hear about community scrapes but never really knew anything about them. I just finished reading the STICKY somewhere on this forum about community scrapes and making mock scrapes. Soon as the season ends, I am going find one of these mysteries in my area.
A true communal scrape don't exist everywhere but when they do exist they're very hard to actually get access to hunt them without erupting the woods. If you locate one recon is key and I always try to find the favored routes that come to it and hunt those instead of the scrape itself...if you have a trail approaching from higher ground that's the money one as most mature bucks like to approach scrapes from higher ground if possible.
Thats some really good advice. This is a low spot where a stream starts. Its a few minute walk from my food plot, and i cant hunt on the land where I found it. I do hunt on the uphill from the scrape though. I was shocked when i saw it. It was about 6 or 7 feet long and 4 or 5 feet wide. All of the trails led to it and there were rubs around it and leading up to it. I have caught a glimpse of several big ten pointers back there in the summer, but never while in the stand. The hardest part is waiting for a big buck to come out of that huge chunk of land and cross through my 3/4 acre food plot.
