mock scrape?

[Coldfeet]

I've been bowhunting and one of the areas that I've been focusing on lately has a monster buck roaming around. I've been doing some scouting and setting up in areas where I think I'd be likely to see him come by, but I haven't seen him yet. I have found some sign that he is in the area. This past Sunday I found a series of scrapes and judging by the size of the tracks, I think this is the one that I'm after. A friend of mine suggested that I make a "mock" scrape close to my stand and try to draw him in with that. The only problem is, he didn't have any suggestions as to how to go about doing that. I have a couple of questions. First, has anyone here made a mock scrape in the past and had success with it? What type of scents do you apply to it and where do you apply them? (buck scent vs doe estrous, on the ground vs hanging from a branch above) This sounds like an intriguing idea and I think it might improve my chances, but I have no experience at such a tactic. I'm the type of guy who finds a good spot and just sits in the stand until something comes by. My success in the past has been based solely on picking my spots. I'm also thinking of getting a grunt call and/or doe bleat, but again I have not used these in the past and do not really know what to do with them. If anyone has any techniques for using calls that they find effective I would also like to hear about those. I've never felt the need to use anything such as a mock scrape or grunt call to bring the deer in closer to me, but now that I know that there is a potential wall hanger in the vicinity, I'm willing to try anything to improve my chances.

[Buck12]

Buy a scent dripper at most sporting good stores. A well known scent company makes a scent called Active Scrape. Follow the directions. A couple of hints: be as scent free as possible, use a small hand held garden rake and rake a likely area as a deer would, make sure there is a hanging branch above the scrape you are making, use latex hospital type of gloves, pour a little active scrape on the branch and hang your dripper. I also like to freshen mine up when I hunt with some doe-in-heat and tarsal gland scent if I'm targeting the big boy. The concept is that the dripper will drip only in the daytime so the buck will check it out also during the day. I have had fairly good results at having bucks visit the mock scrape. I've also heard of others that had no takers. I think the big thing is being scent free and hunting the right wind. Limited calling with a doe bleat mixed in with a tending grunt call increases your odds. Good luck.

[jigglestick]

coldfeet, i was wondering some of the same things as you, and had a specific question that was just bugging me.
so i decided to ask someone in the know. a person who has a deer heard, and collects urine for scents. i just wanted this one question answered, logicaly.
my question is if deer come into estrus in and near the first of november give or take a few weeks, how can a company claim to have "urine collected from a white tailed doe in peak estrus" weeks or even months before november deer season.
i was not trying to trip anyone up. i was merely trying to answer this question.
this is the nice letter written back to me. though it did not exactly answer my question, it did enlighten me to a few little known facts, at least to me they were little known facts. i will paste it here for all to read. feel free to comment.

80% of our scent is collected from Oct. 15th through the end of Nov. We never claim to carry estrus in our scent for the fact that does are only in heat for 52 hours and 16 of those are the crucial breeding time. BUT! a doe will pee in the bucks scrapes, or make her own scrape 5 day before she comes into heat. She only knows when she will be coming into heat, a doe will not pee into scrapes unless she is getting ready to be bred, she does not want to be harassed by the bucks. Scent containing estrus is not as important as knowing HOW to correctly use scent. My anaolgy is this, if you are getting our scent now and in the recent future it is like the lottery, the bottle you buy may or may not have estrus in it, but how you use it is the key. One VERY important fact is that if you buy scent and it smells like ammonia IT IS OLD!! And you will be busted, scent does not break down and decompose like in the fall like it does in the summer. In the fall, during the rut, which is in between Oct. and Nov. tempatures may get up to the 50's (for a high) and mid teens at night so it does not break down and decay like it would in the summer. Our deer in our pens will lick the urine while they are urinating. They will not lick or eat old pee. They Identify the smell and tastte of the urine to the deer urinating into the scrape. All a scrape is, is a bulletin board in which each deer will place there calling card.

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summer is just the dog days of winter jigglestick I.B.O.T.#5 have you clamped today???

[Mayfly]

I was going to buy some doe scent from a farm that gets their pee directly from the deer almost the same day as you purchase it, but.....After reading that I don't think that i'm going to. Why buy plain old doe [PoorWordUsage] when I can buy Doe in estrous scent from the store. It's obvious that the cruising bucks this time of year are looking for estrous does. So why put out plain old doe [PoorWordUsage]? I'm sticking with the outdoor research brand..I've seen it work.

[leechlake]

Buck12 has some good ideas, I'd use a stick rather than bringing a rake out but same thoughts, nonetheless. The scent drippers work well, they drip scent as the weather warms, which is usually during the day. As the bottle gets warm the air expands in the dripper bottle thus "pushing" the scent out in drops. If it's too cold the scent will freeze thought and that could be happening soon so keep an eye on that. Frozen pee in a scent dripper doesnt drip.

If I were you I'd concentrate on picking your spots and supplement your spot picking with some different techniques. Good luck.

[jigglestick]

mayfly, i guess that was kind of my point. how do we know what we are getting from the scents at the store? how do they have fresh doe in estrus scent in september, or even in october for that matter?
i guess we all have had good, bad, or no visible results from scents purchased in the past. good results would be fairly easy to determine. bad results may not. if a buck caught wind of some bad scent, we may never even know he was fifty yards behind us on the trail.
i guess it all boils down to what we feel comfortable with when we go afield. confidence.
a couple of years ago, one afternoon after a morning hunt, my brother and myself stopped over by my inlaws place. while we were conversing, the family chesapeake sort of took a shine to my brother. tried to do the wild thing on his leg. very persistant. wouldn't leave him alone! i figured the phermones in the scent must smell similar to doggy love potion. but then i also got to wondering if maybe there wasn't something else in that bottle???
i probably will never know, but it did get my wheels turning.
anybody want to buy a wherewolf pup?

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summer is just the dog days of winter jigglestick I.B.O.T.#5 have you clamped today???

[This message has been edited by jigglestick (edited 10-29-2003).]

[fonz58]

My mock scrape formula: Go to another woods and find a grouping of scrapes, or one nice scrape. Being careful to remain scent free use a shovel to dig up and remove the top 2" of dirt from the scrape and put it into a bucket, or large baggies. Take your material back to your woods and create your mock scrape with this material. Again, be as scent free as possible, and of course choose a scrape location that is within shooting range, and has good character (eg. overhanging branches-which you can break/tear up,etc) Good Luck

[huskminn]

Jigglestick,

Thank you for providing the hilarious image of a Chesapeake taking a "shine" to someone. I needed that chuckle this morning.

Now, on to the matter at hand. I have heard that some deer farms will utilize hormones to bring does into "heat" earlier than normal. Their urine is then harvested for sale. I do not know if that is true...it is only something that I either read or heard someone talking about.

I personally have never SEEN any deer respond to the scents I have used, so I have little confidence in scents. But, I still use them....I think "Golden Estrus" is the brand I tend to buy and I can't tell you why I chose that brand.

As far as mock scrapes, I have read that you should try to accomplish one or both of the following: trigger a buck's desire to breed or his desire to be dominant.

Never done this, but this is what I know: Near a dominant buck's existing scrape line, create a mock scrape with your boot heel (scent free of course) or with a stick. Choose a spot underneath an overhanging branch, just like you see at a real scrape. Go back to the trail the buck travels on his own scrape line and dribble tarsal gland scent across the trail, then continue the dribbling all the way back to your mock scrape. Dribble tarsal gland scent in the mock scrape, as well as on the overhanging branch. You should also put a liberal amount of doe in heat scent or even buck urine in the mock scrape. You can use a scent dripper to achieve this, as well.

The theory is that the buck will be checking his scrapes, come across the tarsal gland scent (Warning! New buck in my territory!) and follow it to your mock scrape. If that scrape is freshened during the day by the scent dripper, the buck may get in the habit of checking the mock scrape during the day and therefore offering you a shot at it.

The information I have read indicates that a mock scrape is most successfully used on a patterned buck and is only a tool to coax him out of his normal habits and into your view. It is not supposed to be as affective during the height of the rut when a buck abandons his scrape freshening/checking routines and simply goes on the prowl far and wide for does in estrus.

Also, if a buck finds a doe in heat, he will stay with her for as much as several days to breed her. This means that he travels the doe's standard routes, not the routes that he established prior to the height of breeding activity.

Granted, I am simply regurgitating information that I've read and never had the opportunity to practically apply.

Good luck....

[Boar]

Those scent drippers? remember to hang them high enough in the branch so the buck dose'nt eat the curly-Q part, experience from first time user. I was amused at hoping to see some activity at my mock scrape only to find a deer had eaten it. Weird. later Boar

[Mark Christianson]

Try a mock scrape this weekend!
I made one for the heck of it last week, and hung a trail camera over it.
GEEZ!!!
I had only one photo of a buck for the last 3 weeks prior to trying this.

I got 4 different bucks, and several pictures of them inspecting the scrape on one roll of film. The does and fawns were interested in it as well.

Make a scrape and sit back for some entertainment. I had no idea it would work that good!!!

I will be freshening my scrapes Friday morning for sure.