i hunt public land, and recently i noticed two scrapes about 10 foot from eachother. they look very realistic and are in an area that not many people go to, and there are no stands near it. the scrapes had straight lines in them. is this a deer or human? i know its hard to tell me with out seeing the scrape, but the lines were distinct and seemed to be single lines not two beside eachother, would a deer do this? above the scrapes there was a small tree branch or two, broke off, and one was broke just enough to dangle over the scrape. at first i thought for sure it was human made, but what do you guys think?
I would look for tracks in the scrape. Whether or not its human made, if deer have taken it over then I wouldnt worry about it.
Sounds real enough to me... I've literally watched bucks make scrapes and still haven't found two lines like you're alluding to in them; often, it looks like a single tree branch was used to make the lines -- and that's after I've watched them do it.
The real key to being able to identify them as human-made is when there's a scrape dripper tied to a branch above them... :D
see the straight lines made me think it was a stick. but i wasnt sure. would a deer or multiple deer make two scrapes within 10 feet of eachother? should i hunt ove the scrapes this time of year? im in northern missouri
Yep, they'll make multiples real close to each other at times. Depends on their mood. I enjoy hunting scrapes but you don't need to be hunting right over them to be successful. Hunting downwind of a scrape works too as bucks don't always go to the scrape to check It but rather Instead they just wind It from a distance.
I'd hunt 20 - 30 yards downwind of it preferably -- depending on terrain and other factors (sign, etc) That way, you can still shoot to the scrape if he comes to it from a direction you didn't anticipate but if he merely strolls downwind of it to check it you may still have a shot... All this would be dependent on where it was and if I thought the area deemed a stand at all in the first place. The mere presence of scrapes is not enough by themselves to make me want to hunt it, but it's a starting point if that makes sense.
this is good to know, i wish i could put a camera on the scrapes, but it would get stolen in a heartbeat. public land sucks
Hunting over scrapes can be mostly a waste of time. I have hundreds of pictures of bucks at scrapes this season. Very, very ,very, very few are in daylight. And none of the daylight pictures are of mature bucks. Not saying you cant kill a deer over a scrape, but most all visits are under the cover of darkness.
From my experiences I think It depends more on where these scrapes are and what type of scrapes they are. My experiences have been 50/50 with daylight/nighttime pics of mature bucks via trail cams before the big chase began. I watched 3 different mature bucks (all 3.5's) hit a scrape one afternoon from stand. I had some great hunting this year.
Like others have said.. sounds like a deer. Typically... the lines that you are seeing are caused by the soil the bucks have chosen to scrape in. Softer soil.. the lines usually just are not visible. Harder soil.. the lines can be very noticable. Of course.. dry spells will amplify these remarks. Yes.. I believe you found yourself some scrapes. If they were relatively close to each other and within good cover.. thats a GOOD thing.
