I live in NC i am hunting 25 acres or so surrounded by cut overs that is where the deer are bedding the 25 acres is wooded witha field in the middle with apple trees and clovers and such. I am seeing alot of rubs but not any scrapes. Was wondering if any body had any words of wisdom. Have seen some monsters out there so I know they are there>
Time will tell. Thats all I can say eventually If there are big boys in your area they will scrape, check back in a couple weeks and tell me what you see. -Andrew
I usually see rubs start popping up right away as the buck shed their velvet, but scrapes don't open up until about a month after that. During that month it's not uncommon for a buck to relocated his core area away from where he's been all summer, moving closer to where the does are at in preparation for the rut. So from time to time you'll find a concentration of rubs that were created right after velvet shed, and then nothing after that. To me, it means the bucks have moved off and are spending most of their time elsewhere. Although that's not always the case, it's what I've seen a few times.
Ok Justin thanks. Saw real fresh rubs this last week sow a big a eight and ten that same week but no scrapes so should i just keep waiting for some to pop up?
If the bucks are there, then why does it matter if the scrapes aren't? Are you deer hunting or scrape hunting? When do you normally start seeing an increase in scrapes in your area? I feel like I have to shout your username when I read it, because it has not one, but two exclamation points.
If you're seeing bucks, it's possible that the bucks in your area just don't like to scrape. I've seen that a time or two before as well. How is the deer population in your area? Are there a lot of deer? How about does? The overall number of deer plus the buck:doe ratio will play a factor in scraping activity as well.
It makes me want to change my username to JUSTIN!!! - three exclamations and all caps. Gotta recognize.
My mind is blown at the awesomeness of this idea. All caps AND exclamation points. Brillant. Thats why you're the boss.
There are alot of deer in the area... i mean a ton. they say on average 35 to 45 per sqare mile in my area! Just wont to smoke a big one this year and just recently moved here and want to slay something. Alot of does by the way>
Agreed. With that high of a concentration of deer there's not much need for scrapes. Remember, scrapes are primarily a communication tool for the local deer herd. If there's so many deer that they are in constant contact with each other, and the bucks don't need to travel anywhere to look for does, then there's no reason for them to scrape. In your particular situation things like rattling, grunting and decoying may not work very well either. You'll want to focus primarily on hunting travel corridors and funnels to catch bucks moving around looking for hot does.
There is a few scrapes where i am (5-6) and alot of rubs on some big trees...We are getting closer and closer to the rut and they normally will start showing up alot more on cameras in the next week or two.......But thats my part of the woods
