Mock Scrapes and Lure?

[lyle_destroys]

Hi guys, getting back into whitetail hunting after a little bit of a hiatus to pursue other things. Looking for ideas to pull bucks from broader travel corridors into my trail cams. What does your mock scrape setup look like and when do you start putting them out? Specific lures or techniques you like to use? The lure and rope from Hodag looks interesting.

 

[knale87]

I just snap and bend a branch down into a licking branch, kick some leaves out of the way, and piss on the dirt. I only make them in an area I know they’re using or right off a trail. I’ll freshen it up whenever I’m back in that area.

 

[EdP]

The rope and lure thing was completely ignored when I tried it. Cameras on travel paths, food plots, and mineral licks have been very effective at capturing pics of the deer in my area. It seems to me that attempts to get bucks to come to a particular location and make a scrape would have a low probability of success. Mock scrapes along existing travel paths like knale87 described is worth a try. Moving the camera to the deer is more likely to show you what you want than trying to move the deer to the camera.

 

[Skerhunter]

You can try to force it, but it is much more productive for me to use known locations.

Using it in a pinch point, community branch or scrape, buck bedding, or general travel corridor (field edge/tree row) can help pull them in to get better and more consistent pics (more time in front of camera).

I only use stuff like this if I can’t find or ID a deer during normal scouting or if it’s a new area. It costs money/time and I would rather limit my scent/time in the woods until bucks are killable.

 

[WCB]

I just hung a rope from a overhanging branch in a general corridor and scrapped up the ground a little...no scent added. had deer start using it that day. Longer it was there more deer used it and bucks would no doubt veer off nearby trails, hit the scrape, then go back to the original trail they were on. This was fairly easy to confirm as there are 4-5 paralleling trails through a stand of pines...deer would sometimes pop in and out to the edge where the camera was. Once the scrape was there. Everyday deer would pop out hit the scrape then tuck right back into the trees and show up in the food plot all the trails lead to.

Had a camera on the same spot for a couple years and the activity definitely increased with that set up. More noticeably the buck presence. I put it up late July last year.

I would put the scrapes out sparingly and only in places you can put a stand to kill them over.