"The Dirt" on Scrapes

Written By: Ryan Reading, Fall Obsession Field Staff

Hunters across North America are getting hyped for the upcoming 2024 whitetail season.  As September and October are on the horizon, Outdoorsmen are checking their gear, scouting, getting their bows in tune and making mock scrapes. 

We’re going to focus on mock scrapes and a few pointers that can change the game. Many hunters rely on what’s taught to them via the internet. Most understand the basic concepts of what a mock scrape is and what they would like to happen from implementing a mock scrape near their set. Many hunters haven’t been fortunate enough to find an actual natural scrape done by deer. These tips will shed some light on what should be done. 

If you’re anything like every other hunter, you find a great location near a buck or doe bedding and find a location to set up. You then place your trail cameras out watching the main entrances. Most will then create a mock scrape in attempts to inventory their possible shooter bucks. Many hunters will find a branch and rake the leaves under it and usually put some type of scent in that scrape. This is the cut and dry version.

There are many other things you as a hunter can do to fool that buck. First, don’t just put this mock scrape anywhere. This scrape needs to be in a location that you pass on your way to your stand, that way you can freshen that scrape every time you head to the stand. That same scrape needs to be on or near one of the buck’s entry or exit trails and within bow shooting distance. 

Next, you will want to make this scrape look and feel as real as possible as if another intruder buck made the scrape. You’ll want good leaf litter and decent dirt under the leaves. If you’ve ever found a large main scrape, in the woods, it will always be torn up into the good dirt. What I mean to say is, you rarely find a scrape right in the pines because the pines ground composition is not as suitable. You will usually find the scrapes on the outside edge of pines where pines meet hardwoods as the substrate is better. You’ll always want a licking branch above that scrape, especially if you want to train the deer that this scrape is a main scrape that they need to visit.

Over the scrape, you’ll want to take the branch that is closest to the center and break the twig facing it towards that scrape, letting it hang around six inches. Almost as if another deer broke it with their mouth and nibbled on it, DO NOT DETACH IT!! This shows realism. Most scrapes found in the wild have a nibbled licking branch. Lastly, you’ll want to add some scent to the scrape depending what time of the year it is, pre-rut, rut or post rut. 

Many believe that’s it; the scrape is done. Well, I am here to tell you there are a few other things as a hunter, you should do and since no one in the industry is talking about this, I will. 

Make sure you add a preorbital scent to the licking branch along with putting down interdigital, estrous or tarsal scent, pending the time of year. One of the most important things I as a hunter have learned is, we must not only use that toe musk or doe estrous in that scrape, you must dripple that scent ten to twenty feet in either direction of that scrape, mainly in the direction the deer tend to walk or the direction we want them to walk. The reason this is so important is because most deer leave scent and dribble as they leave the scrape. Deer will grind their rear hind glands while urinating in the scrape and that scent will get on their legs and hooves. As that deer leaves that scrape, they are leaving a scent trail in the direction they went.  

As a mature buck comes in, he will check out the scrape and attempt to smell the direction that another buck or estrous doe went. As he attempts to locate that smell, he may get spooked because you didn’t leave an additional trail away from that scrape like a real deer would’ve. That mature buck will be confused because you didn’t mimic nature’s real design of how it works. To that buck, the scent you laid was a deer that virtually disappeared with no trail leading way. This is why you will see bucks circle around a scrape or even blow out of a scrape and run away. The deer are used to smelling that trail leading away but all you provided was a disappearing estrous doe which spooked that buck. Now that the mature buck knows that scrape is not of real stature or something is wrong, the chances of him returning to that scrape is far and few between. 

We as hunters must step up our game if we really want a scrape to appear as real as possible. I always relate deer scrapes to our very own homes. In our homes we know who is coming or going. When a relative, friend or stranger is at our home, things may be different or out of place or even smell different. This is exactly what a mature buck pays attention to. It’s all about the little things that make it real for mature bucks. Follow these in-depth steps and watch your mature buck game turn up a notch as your 2024 season approaches.