Mock Rubs and Scrapes:
Whitetail Deer
Now that I have something over 24-vacuum packs of crappie fillets in the freezer, I can get back to fooling around in the woods a little. Probably cut back to two days of bass fishing and two of crappie fishing. That leaves me 2.75 days to fool around with deer. Got some new land, the end of last season, Best way I know of to see what is what is to cover it with mock rubs and scrapes and see which ones get "picked up". I have always done my mock scrapes in May and that seems to work best, here. A few, maybe 10-15% will get picked up quickly, others, not until mid-Oct. The rubs are a different story. Those who tink a buck must have hard antlers to rub are sadly mistaken. Deer-both bucks and does-"rub" all year. You just don't see them until the bucks have hard antlers and can peel bark. I have come to believe, some rubs, are the number one information tool of deer. I know some are meaningless and some deal almost totally with domination. It is just in the last 10-years that I have learned how to tell the difference and decode, to a slight extent, four things: (1) Why they are where they are. (2) What they mean. (3) Are they buck exclusive or communal. And of most importance, (4) How to use the information in terms of stand placement and time of day to hunt. Now. Before you start sending me pm"s, let me say this. The article I have written dealing with all this is over 5,000 wds. and is in two parts. When it runs, I'll tell you where you can read it. Nuff said? This picture was this morning. My fishing partner, "Hiz Honor", mostly a turkey hunter, Found a smallmouth to play with. He is ruined. He may have to go back to being a judge.
I have game camera pictures of deer using scrapes in every month of the year. Both bucks and does. I have found some of what I call community scrapes. It seem deer go out of there way to go check/use them.
I have been making/running 3 "scrape lines" of 8-15 scrapes the last several years. I have had success. Every main scape is used, most without any scents added. I make all of them in the spring. I touch them up in September-October if they are not being used. I do my best to stay out of my hunting area, especially after mid July. All my stands are set and trimmed by then.
Thanks to you........I am more interested in rubs now. I have see does rub and smell trees before. Now I may be making some more rubs. Last fall I put out 2 licking ropes/rub posts. I chose a location near a good trail with view. I buried (like a post) a 4-5" white pine trunk (9-10' tall) leaving 1 branch on it about near the top. I hung a Manila rope from it to 4' off the ground. Once I saw my first rub of the fall I took a hatched and made a highly visible scrape in the trunk. Had 50% success. One was used, the other not. I thought it was good for my first experiment.
Looking forward to your article.
You are dead on. I usually use live trees-mostly cedar- but have some just regular posts I have "planted" near big trails or field entrances or exits. I usually start them with my own urine or sometimes Dr. Pepper or Root beer. Seriously.
Very hard to see but there is a small tree in about the center that is one I started. It was taken over and eventually rubbed until it killed it. Looking at the picture, it is just to the left of the obvious trail, next to a tree they totally ignored. Go figure?
Been making my own scrapes for a long time with my own urine, find a scrape in the woods and make a bigger one beside it with my urine. never have done any in the spring, sounds good though. Forrest
Looking forward to reading your article. Forrest
"or sometimes Dr. Pepper or Root beer. Seriously. "
Hmmm..... First time ever heard that...Thanks John, will have to give it a try...
BTW, fishing is for sissys...8^)
Want to see buck ACTIVITY? Then you should try Mt. Dew. There's enough caffeine in that stuff to have them bouncing off trees!
