As the leaves begin to fall, bucks start gearing up for the upcoming rut. Vulnerable would be an understatement when it comes to explaining the position bucks put themselves in at this time.
The first signs of winter are upon us, and deer are preparing for the rut. Bucks start their ritual of marking and patrolling their territory as winter approaches. Hunters can take advantage of this additional movement by locating scrapes and creating your own, you can make harvesting a buck this year a little easier.
What is a scrape anyway? A scrape is much like a mailbox for deer. It shows all the other deer who is living there, it marks territory, and is a spot for other deer to leave a message. Deer use urine rather than numbers on a mailbox to identify individual ownership. They check the scrape nearly every day as we do our mail. They leave and receive information about others, while designating territory. For this reason, a scrape can be a gold mine to the experienced hunter.
I saw scrapes for years before I realized their true potential. I viewed them as nothing more than a territorial marker. I felt the only information you can get out of them is that a buck is in the area. How wrong I was! Not only bucks, but does leave scent in the scrapes as well. I didn't know this until I actually saw it happen.
I was sitting along a ridge a few years back and a doe made its way toward me. It was stopping every 100 yards or so and peeing. As it got closer to me, it approached a scrape on the corner of the wood line, it stopped, and urinated in the scrape. Not long after, I spotted a buck coming down the same trail that she had, and it was stopping everywhere that she did. He would paw at the ground, pee and rub his antlers on nearby trees. I realized that he was running a scrape line, and she had done the same thing. As he approached, I grunted a few times. He bristled up and came right to me in an attempt to chase off the supposed intruder. At 15 yards, he passed behind a tree and gave me the chance to draw my bow. I made good on the opportunity and made a perfect shot on the buck.
