Hey guys, We are getting to that time of year when we are putting in our mock scrapes. I've used several different mock scrape scents with different results. I've used Tinks power scrape, Wildlife research center, and Denver Deer Scents. I'm sure they all seem to do a good job giving the right circumstances, but do you guys prefer natural or synthetic? Out of the 3 I've used, I will admit that Tinks gave me the best results. Let me know!
It's a good to start one. After they start using it stop. Works for me. The most important thing is the right spot. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
The licking branch is the key. The pee means nothing. Its all about the branch. Put a branch where you want the deer to stop and apply a licking branch scent and don't bother at all with pee. My father has been perfecting and making this scent for about a decade.
Licking branch scent - Code Blue Rack Rub. Scrape scent- Trails End 307 pre rut, then Active Scrape. I have found over the last 12-15 years of making scrapes it doesn't take much scent. I run 3 "scrape lines" of 8-13 scrapes each. I make them in the spring and touch them up Labor Day-ish. One line I never scented the last 2 years except licking branch. Every scrape used. The last 3 years I have been making "rub poles" (3-4" white pine buried like a post with a branch 8' off the ground to hang a rope) with a licking rope. 50/50 success.
Draw-n-Hold Scent. here is a video from a user in Ohio. He exchanged a bottle of scent for footage a couple years ago. This video has audio.
One of the 2016 videos. We bring in a new branch and lash it into place each year since they beat the hell out of it and tear it down over time. Don't waste your time on the dirt or with pee. Provide them with a branch that works to your advantage and put it where it works best for you, apply licking branch scent and you will be way ahead of the dirt and pee guys.
We have always sold it for $10 (plus$3 postage) for a 1 Oz bottle. This year's tincture has been steeping for months. We have always sold it via Ebay (except for the one year another outlet bought our entire stock to sell under their name). We normally announce when it is available for purchase on our Draw_n_hold Facebook page. Last year's batch was 50 bottles and we contact prior customers who generally re-purchase the following years inventory so we don't generally advertise due to repeat business. Our challenge is the amount of work we are currently undertaking and getting around to the bottling process. We have ramped up our archery target segment as well as our broadhead sharpeneing guides and hands free bow holders and trad archery arrow rests and we are in the process of designing a new drop away arrow rest leaving not enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Even if you don’t use Draw_n_hold scent on your licking branches, get any good quality licking branch scent that has proof you are not just buying a bottle of junk and wasting your money. There are makers/sellers of licking branch scent that can produce no evidence that what they are selling you will work or is effective. They put licking branch scent on the bottle and produce no proof or actual data to support it actually works. Regardless, of what you buy, don’t waste your time on messing with the dirt below the branch, don’t buy a scent or pee for the ground. The ground matter little. Every visit to your branch produces interdigital scent left behind by the visiting deer. That gald between the hooves is a scent marker that allows visiting deer to not know know which deer were there before them but also how long ago as it’s the intergigital gland scent that bucks follow to lead them to a hot doe. When you see his nose glues to the ground, he is not smelling for urine. Back at the branch he was able to identify a doe in heat and can identify her from her interdigital gland scent and that’s how he can trail her. She is not peeing with every step. The forehead and tear gland scent gets them to the branch and they work the hell out of it. Their hooves leave the interdigital scent but deer don’t always pee when visiting a branch. They don’t hold it waiting for a branch visit. Deer pee everywhere. The woods is full of pee. A mock scrape is incorrectly named as it makes you think the scrape is important.
If you can find a suitable licking branch that is in the perfect location for your ambush site, great but most likely you will have to relocate one. We do this every year. Be smart, wear rubber glove and rubber boots and leave as little human scent as possible. You are trying to attract deer via a scent marker, don't make it be your own scent. Find a live sapling that is strong and will remain flexible for as long as possible rather than one that goes brittle after dying for you will be replacing it in short order. Lash that sapling to the host tree so the limb tip are no more that 40" off the ground. (deer are far shorter than most people think), Apply a licking branch scent and get the hell out of their after you set your camera.
I'm not starting my mock scrapes till about early august but hands down Buck Fever Synthetics is awesome stuff. It got me my buck last year and gave me some cool encounters as well.
This is what I might try this year. I like that they offer the forehead gland scent for the licking branch.
I used the Buck Fever synthetics forehead gland scent last year on a rubbing tree/licking branch I made and it didn't get much attention. Few doe and a young buck. Going to try it again in a different spot this year though. Deer didn't seem to avoid it on purpose. Would always just walk right past it.
I see Buck fever has a few new products. One called Buck Pix branch action and another called Buck Pix Dirt Fusion. Not sure what the difference between the forehead gland and branch action scent would be?
