Opening Morning

[Guest]

How many of you on opening morning or day for that matter choose to Rattle or grunt, or do you stay as quiet as possible?

[Gissert]

I stay still and quiet and let the restless folks on adjoining properties move the deer to me. We will do some small drives to each other frome time to time as well if we know where the deer are holed up.

This is even more true where my wife sits. She sits in a ravine in her dad's farm where three pieces of property come together in a natural funnel. The people that hunt across the fences are famous for not sitting still past 8am. She usually hase a deer down about 8:30.

[Mark Christianson]

I just posted this under the topic "mock scrape?" Give this a try, and sit quiet.

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.

[Hoyter]

blb,

Can you give a quick run down on how you made your mock scrape? I've read how in the past but never made one. I'm not sure if I could find an article before opener. Thanks.

[Mark Christianson]

Sure thing!
Used my boot to shove all the leaves out of the way in about a 2 foot diameter circle.
Laid a couple pieces of cotton balls on the ground and poured doe urine on the cotton.
Walked away.
That was it. Seriously.
A buck made a scrape within 10 feet of my man-made one, so I wonder if he is challenging me???
I was absolutely shocked when I looked at the pictures from the trail camera. 4 different bucks in less than 5 days visited my scrape.
I turned the camera to watch the "real" scrape on Sunday. I'll be going up Thursday night to take the camera down.

[Hoyter]

Hopefully you will get a chance to settle that challenge on Saturday! Good Luck! I think I will give the mock scrape thing a try also. Did the bucks that visited yours come during the day or night?

[Mark Christianson]

Morning, middle of day, evening and night.
I think I have 7 or 8 pictures of the bucks on the one roll. The big guy was just after dark.

Believe me. I will be freshening the scrapes, and if that buck is up for the "challenge", I will clench my knife in my teeth and it will be him and I. One on One!!!!!!

[huskminn]

I will be completely quiet until it is light enough to see well--make sure that stump I've been staring at really isn't a deer, etc.

If there's been no activity, around sunrise, I'll use the grunt call and mix in a sporadic doe bleat. I'll repeat that every 20 minutes or so as long as I'm in the stand.

I've found that being quiet and just sitting there for a while allows me to "return" to the woods and become a little more in tune to my surroundings.

Good luck everyone!

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies so far, just curious. I too have made mock scrapes they do work.

Good Luck Hunting!!!

Chadzo

[BuckslayerBob]

I will probably stay quiet until I can't take it anymore. Then I'll whip out the grunt call. If that doesn't produce anything by 2pm, the rattle bag is coming out.