I have found a big piece of timber, its in a large tract of land, about 2 square miles without roads, and this timber is about 80 acres, in a rectangular shape. This timber has a couple super thick spots, with lots of 2-3 inch diameter trees growing tight together. Now that season is over, I have walked through this area, and found deer are bedding in at least two different spots in this piece of timber. There are also many random scrapes and rubs throughout this timber. Between their two obvious bedding areas, there is a stretch of more open timber, with more mature trees. surrounding this rectangle of timber are some ag fields, pasture, and a swamp. Question is, on the outside edge of one bedding spot, there is scrape line, three scrapes and 6-8 rubs within about 100 yards, and can be accessed with proper wind. Would it be better to hunt, during the rut, on this scrape line, or would it be better to sit between the two bedding areas. I have never hunted the area, and don't normally hunt mature bucks, but looking to try next season.
Scrapes are usually the hottest in the days or weeks leading up to the actual breeding phase of the rut. During the actual breeding phase of the rut thick doe bedding areas are where I want to be near. For mature bucks outside the rut the focus should be transitions (changes in vegetation), the top 1/3 of ridges, and their actual individual beds.
