it depends on; where you live, hunting pressure, what the food availability looks like, weather... Stage of the rut, what type of scrape your referring to; breeding scrape, casual traveling scrape, community scrape...? I've wrote a little on the subject in the past. I'll see if I can dig it out and post it for you? The scraping stage of the pre rut. Scrapes/rubs start to show up in earnest in October. You guys have seen them dotting the sides of pasture fields and logging roads. They seem romantic to us because we know that the animal causing these marks on the ground and on the trees are made by the animal we are after. Scrapes can tell us many things about the deer that made them. We can observe scrapes/rubs and tell which way the deer was standing or traveling when he made the sign. A buck will generally make scrapes as he travels along a certain route early in the season on the way to food or water sources which means just about anywhere. A buck almost always signs every scrape with one lone front foot stomp. Look closely and you'll see this print near the center of just about every scrape. This print can give you an idea of the physical size of the buck that made the track. A large hoof print of greater than 3" long from the tip of the hoof to the back of the rounded portion of the track is generally the track of larger bodied buck. The dirt will be thrown in the opposite way he is going and usually he'll make rubs on sapling as well. If you notice closely the rubs will be generally facing the way the dirt is thrown. I have a theory about hill country bucks that I haven't read much about in reference to rubs in the early season. I feel that the biggest buck in a given area will take over the highest point in regards to rubs. I'm not referring to hills like Ohio or Illinois; I'm referring to the Allegheny's. Rubs are a way for deer to communicate with all members of the herd as well as strengthening the neck in anticipation of battle. Bucks will walk up to a tree and scrape up and down on the tree with his antlers intermittently rubbing his forehead on the tree and sometimes licking it. You can get an idea about the size and rack characteristic by observing these rubs. Generally speaking all bucks rub small trees and occasionally a small buck will rub a big tree. However the damage done to a large tree by a small buck is marginal at best. What your looking for to find a large buck is a group of big trees (3+", preferably 6+”) that are really damaged. A large racked buck will rub higher on the tree than smaller bucks. Most of the larger bucks that I have pursued or taken were rubbing about knee to chest level high on me and I'm about 5' 10". The depth of the tine marks gives you an idea of the physical size of the buck that made the rub. To get an idea of how large the rack is one must try to decipher the brow guard marks and the tine marks. The two side by side marks going up and down the tree in the center are usually made by the brow guards/tines. They usually start low around the mid shin level and go up to about your waste. There should be marks on the side of the tree above these center/brow tine marks. These marks are usually made by the G2-4's (top tines). I try to find the highest brow tine mark (center of the rub) and the highest top tine mark (side of the tree) and measure the distance between the two. This gives you much valuable information such as how tall the rack is and how long the points are. The presence of shredding of the bark suggests sticker points usually around the bases. A few trees can be misleading. The presence of large rubs on aromatic staining trees such as Sumac or hemlock can be the work of 110 class bucks. It seems just about every deer in the woodlot has got to work over these trees. However, beware if they are deeply gouged or rubbed real high a small buck doesn't do that. I hunted a large buck in Ohio that tormented me for years until I finally got him. I saw him standing by the road about 4am on the way into my hunting site. He was a good 165 class 10 point in his prime. I scouted that area and found his rubs high on the ridge above where I saw him. He probably rubbed 40 pines 12-18" in diameter and pretty well tore them up. I caught him several years later late getting back to his bed in the swamp. He had gone down hill but still was very impressive for an old deer. So what have we covered?? I've suggested that you look for scrapes signed with a hoof print 3+" long. I made the remark that most of my big bucks have rubbed from knee to chest high. Don't trust a sumac or hemlock to judge a buck rack size unless it's gouged deeply. I've also told you how to measure the height of a deer rack by looking at a rub. I suggest that if you live in hill country go to the highest point and look for giant rubs. My Ohio rub line buck is below. OK that was a piece of the writing, let me find the part your referring to.
Continued with the pre rut scraping/rubbing stage In my last post I really didn't cover scrapes very much because I got off track and focused on rubs. I did say that you can tell the direction of travel by looking at a group of scrapes and which direction the soil was tossed. You also can tell the body size of the buck that last visited scrape by his signature front hoof stomp. A front hoof track of greater than 3", in the North, usually means a mature whitetail buck. Scrapes do provide a hunter with some valuable, usable information but they are not all they are cracked up to be. Many guys will set up on scrape lines and set for days on end without seeing the deer their after. Recent research has suggested that the majority of scrapes are made at night. This information correlates with what my hunting experience has been. In the early fall deer are focused on packing on pounds for the upcoming winter. They will shift their bedding and feeding areas based upon food availability. That is why the woods are full of scrapes in October of varying ages of use. A buck will make scrapes on the way to and from a food source. If you have a set food source that they are using like a food plot you can probably use this information but it will be tough since most of the activity takes place at night. However, if you have varied food sources the scrapes will be all over the place and are not pattern able. In other words they are made at random at night when a buck is going to a certain area to feed and that food source may be gone in a few days causing the buck to change travels again thus an entire different set of scrapes. A bucks bedding area can change at this time of the year creating more confusion. Deer don't like to move much during the daylight because normally this time of the year it's still pretty warm and they have on their winter coats. They will generally bed where it is cool and near water and the preferred food source. So if your starting to get frustrated with what I'm suggesting you should. Hunting scrapes can often be futile. However, occasionally their will be a year with mast failure and you have the deer locked into a steady source of food the scrapes can be used. You more or less must backtrack the scrapes from the food source a hundred or so yards and set up in ambush on the down wind side. You’re counting on the buck leaving his bed early and walking by your stand before it gets to dark to shoot. There is one scrape that you definitely can use the week before the scrapes leaf over in November in my hunting area. This scrape I refer to as a breeding scrape. The closer it gets to November the scrapes go from little scratches on the ground to some serious foot stomping and dirt throwing. The big boys will hit these scrapes sometimes in the daylight but again mostly at night. However, the big boys start cruising between known doe groups. You would initially think they would tear these scrapes up as they travel. It has been my experience that they don't hit these scrapes during the daylight but (get on your thinking caps) skirt them down wind and scent checks them. That is obviously good information on planning your attack. Don't set up on the scrape line, setup down wind. You might ask how far down wind? I'd get down wind from 40 to 150 yards and look for trails with big rubs if you’re after a big buck. Set up down wind of these scrapes because the big boy won't hit them during the daylight but will scent check them from the down wind side as he cruises between doe groups. The little guys go nuts this time of the year and will stupidly hit the scrapes during the daylight. If you’re not able to get in the woods to follow the scrapes all you have to do is to start observing the roadways for the first signs of an increase in the number of road killed bucks. That tells you they are starting to cruise. There is one type of scrape if you’re lucky enough to find immediately before the full blown rut starts that a mature buck will visit and work over in the daylight. These scrapes I refer to as breeding scrapes. I usually find one or two breeding scrapes every year and if it wasn't for me scouting on foot the majority of the day I would only have found several in my life. They are located in the thickest of cover and can be of very large size. I have seen them 15' across with tons of various sized tracks in them and torn to pieces. The problem presents that they are in extremely thick cover which arrows don't like. I once found one in the bottom of a valley where 5 different ravines channeled into one. You couldn't hunt it because the scrape was covered up by mountain laurel. So I have discussed scrapes from the early season where bucks make them from and to feeding areas to bedding areas. You can only effectively hunt them if you have a set food source. I have suggested that if you’re in the cruising stage of the pre rut you can hunt scrape lines down wind on large rub lines if your after a mature buck and probably along the scrape line on younger bucks during that two week period immediately prior to the scrapes leafing over. I'd like to discuss my most effective and exciting hunting method with my next post; calling in bucks immediately before the rut. I know I still haven't covered all the stages of the rut but this is exciting stuff and fits right in with the timeframe immediately before and after the pre rut comes to an end.
