I remember talking about the "October lull" last year and DukeMichaels talked about finding and hunting primary scrape areas at this time of year. I believe I found a few of those areas last year while scouting and I am heading in hours early tomorrow afternoon to see if they are up and running again. Do you guys feel hunting a buck(s) primary scrape area is effective this time of year?
Where I hunt, not really. Older bucks are just to darn nocturnal this time of year. Out of hundreds of trail cam pics over scrapes the last five or six years, I might have a dozen daylight pictures and they are all young bucks. If you hunt an area that hasn't seen much pressure, it may be worth a shot. Good luck!
It all depends on the scrape. IMO it is too early for a mature buck to be working a scrape but you never know. What I would do is check the size of the track in the scrape that will tell you the size of the deer.
It's getting to be that time If you ask me Brett. I think It really depends too on how far away his bedding area Is from these scrapes. I've gotten a good number of trail cam pics of mature bucks over my mock scrapes In daylight hours this year and last year at this time. I put another cam on a regular scrape made by a buck, plan on checking that Wednesday. The middle to 3rd week of October Is getting to be my favorite time of the year.
Steve, I do not have the ability to use a trail cam nor really visually scout these bucks prior to the season given the place I hunt. All I am going on is boot leather scouting. I connected some dots here or there and I am trying to get a good set-up each and every hunt based on what I think is happening in the deer woods. I have two scrape areas that I can set-up on based on an East wind(tomorrows wind). Not too sure how far they are from where some of these bucks are bedding. My general thoughts are anywhere between 75-300 yards away.
If the scrapes are close to where the buck is bedded, then yes I would hunt it. If they are a good distance away, I think it is to early for the mature bucks to be tending them in daylight hours.
Thanks for the thoughts gentlemen. I am going to head in real early today, cruise around slowly and see what is going on in some of my spots. I have an idea in mind based on an east wind and for some reason I think a good buck will be bedded near by based on the sign I found last winter/early spring. We shall see.
I killed a good buck in Kentucky 25 years ago that was cleaning an old one out for the first time that season, I think it was on the 21 st. Moving into the last week of Oct, it's time!
Sliver. I hunted the spot tonight with a great wind. About one hour before sundown I had a 2.5 year old six point come by at 18 yards. Both of the scrapes I found last winter were opened back up. It was pretty cool to walk a mile back into the woods to find scrapes I found last January cleared out. That buck walked down a little rub line lightly thrashing trees but did not get anywhere around those scrapes even though he walked 10 yards from them...?
