Transferring a scrape. Thoughts.

[Lowg08]

So I’ve been looking it up and researching if this is something that has been done successfully.

I’m thinking of in my area not transferring state lines or anything like that just from one area to another. With the distance being greater than what a normal bucks circle or area would be.

I’m thinking of using later gloves and zip lock bags to dig up the dirt from an active scrape. Then taking the licking branch. Transferring it into a close proximity to an active scrape area. Using that dirt to create a new scrape. Also taking the licking branch and zip tying it to the tree over hanging it.

Has anyone attempted this before.

 

[knale87]

Probably. Sounds like unnecessary work though. I started one a few years ago that still gets used to this day. Snapped down a licking branch, kicked away the leaves to expose the dirt, and pissed on it.

 

[Lowg08]

Probably. Sounds like unnecessary work though. I started one a few years ago that still gets used to this day. Snapped down a licking branch, kicked away the leaves to expose the dirt, and pissed on it.

I’ve done that also but I’m trying to get some to show up in daylight. I’ve had one daylight picture of this one deer in 3 years. I’ve moved cameras all over. I’ve stayed mobile, I’ve stayed put. I’ve spread people out, I’ve done everything I can think of.

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Probably. Sounds like unnecessary work though. I started one a few years ago that still gets used to this day. Snapped down a licking branch, kicked away the leaves to expose the dirt, and pissed on it.

Ditto

I make about 6-8 man made scrapes every October and they get hit just as much as the ones made by the bucks. I know it sounds weird, but I get more action when I take Complex B pills a couple weeks before and then pee in the scrape, whether it is man made or natural. Don't ask why....

Sounds like too much work to dig them up and move them.

Cheers

SS

 

[Macintosh]

One way to find out.

My guess is that no amount of moving or creating the perfect scrape is going to cause any deer to walk somewhere it doesnt want to. Maybe he checks it out once or twice, but likely not after that unless youre talking about a small shift of a few feet—he’s still got no reason to be there if youre “never” seeing him. To me the only answer is to be where he already wants to be, and then try to find a way to align your timing. If hes there but never in daylight, hes probably a long ways off and never gets to your neighborhood inntime. You either have to find a way to get him to spend more time in your neighborhood, or you have to find him and go to him.

 

[fatlander]

I’d be shocked if it worked. I’d be even more surprised if you got an abnormal amount of daylight activity on the scrape. Study after study, along with my own anecdotal experiences, show the vast majority of scrape activity is done at night.

Less is more with mature whitetails; that’s why they’re so dang hard to kill. The less pressure you put on him, the more likely you are to kill him if you strike when the time is right.


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[Lowg08]

I’m not expecting it to change allot if I do it. It’s just thought. I’ve been squeezing in on him, moving running multiple cameras. Taking weeks off to try and stay on him but this sucker is smart. One day time picture in 3 years. I’ve seen him once in at almost grey light. I seriously thought about trying it but it felt like an unethical option

 

[fatlander]

From the outside looking in, it sounds like you’re hunting him too much. A really good cold front and hot doe are probably your best options.

What part of the country can you still hunt antlered bucks in anyway?


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[Rich M]

You seem to be trying to get deer to come to you. That aint gonna work.

Find his bed and hunt his exit trail. Wait for when he's using that bed and the wind is just off - sneak in like a ninja and kill him.

Hunting Beast 101 stuff.

 

[Lowg08]

You seem to be trying to get deer to come to you. That aint gonna work.

Find his bed and hunt his exit trail. Wait for when he's using that bed and the wind is just off - sneak in like a ninja and kill him.

Hunting Beast 101 stuff.

I already hunt the bedding area and keep trying to get into his core area. These mountain deer don’t come to you at all. I’m just trying to introduce something. Probably won’t help at all. The problem is we have such a lower deer density he may make a 7-10 day loop looking for does. I only hunt bedding areas. It’s produced more success than any other thing I’ve tried.

From the outside looking in, it sounds like you’re hunting him too much. A really good cold front and hot doe are probably your best options.

What part of the country can you still hunt antlered bucks in anyway?


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I’m not hunting now. I’m just looking to this upcoming deer season. When season closes here I go right back to work scouting and such. I live in western North Carolina on the border of TN and NC. We have .46 bucks per square mile so it takes allot of work. I kill smaller deer nearly every year but this joker keeps showing up. Same time of year all in the dark but one time.

 

[fatlander]

I already hunt the bedding area and keep trying to get into his core area. These mountain deer don’t come to you at all. I’m just trying to introduce something. Probably won’t help at all. The problem is we have such a lower deer density he may make a 7-10 day loop looking for does. I only hunt bedding areas. It’s produced more success than any other thing I’ve tried.

I’m not hunting now. I’m just looking to this upcoming deer season. When season closes here I go right back to work scouting and such. I live in western North Carolina on the border of TN and NC. We have .46 bucks per square mile so it takes allot of work. I kill smaller deer nearly every year but this joker keeps showing up. Same time of year all in the dark but one time. View attachment 679597

Take this advice for what it is, free.

I wouldn’t even go anywhere near that deer until the first cold front after the 20th of October. Hunt him hard DURING every cold front up until the 7th or so of November. If you can’t hunt the front, don’t hunt. All day sits on the downwind side of downwind trails of doe bedding areas from the 7th till thanksgiving.

Less is more. The first sit is always the best sit.

Good luck.


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[dtrkyman]

Don't waste your time with the dirt, just take active licking branches and place them where you want.

I was managing 5k acres for a while and had "decoy" trees in all my food plots, I would just take an active branch from an put of the way fence row or something and transfer it, never bothered with gloves either.

Deer would hit the branches immediately.

I would just bury a a large limb I found dead into the ground, run a speed bore bit through the it and secure the licking branch with a deck screw, stay away from pine or cedar for your trunk unless you really bury it good, they will tear it down!

On many of the plots I trimmed the perimeter to eliminate other scrapes as well, we were regularly killing bucks on the scrapes.

Really good way to inventory the bucks using an area as well.

I even attached to exiting fence posts as well.

My old laptop died or I would attach some photos!

 

[fatlander]

Something else you can ponder on, some bucks just aren’t that killable. If you’re in western NC you have tons of public land to explore. I’d bet a whole lot of money there are bigger deer that are more killable than him. Branching out and hunting some new country may be the best thing for you. It’ll also give the country you’ve been hunting a much needed break.


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[Macintosh]

Lowg08 check out some of beau martonik’s stuff. Hes a young guy from PA who seems to do well in conditions like that. I find most of the advice I see and get doesnt feel like it transfers well to those conditions. Around me most folks wait for snow and track a buck like that, otherwise it is usually like watching paint dry. If snow is an option for you even post season Id do that—find his track and follow it to see where he goes. Nothing else is quite a substitute for that.

 

[Lowg08]

Lowg08 check out some of beau martonik’s stuff. Hes a young guy from PA who seems to do well in conditions like that. I find most of the advice I see and get doesnt feel like it transfers well to those conditions. Around me most folks wait for snow and track a buck like that, otherwise it is usually like watching paint dry. If snow is an option for you even post season Id do that—find his track and follow it to see where he goes. Nothing else is quite a substitute for that.

I actually watch those. Especially with Nathan killen.

Something else you can ponder on, some bucks just aren’t that killable. If you’re in western NC you have tons of public land to explore. I’d bet a whole lot of money there are bigger deer that are more killable than him. Branching out and hunting some new country may be the best thing for you. It’ll also give the country you’ve been hunting a much needed break.


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I have actually been thinking of leaving that place alone this year. Ran a camera in a whole different place this fall just to see. Had 11 different bucks. One bruiser.

 

[ncstatehunter]

If that buck shows up the same time frame every year, which is during the rut, IMO that means his core area is no where near there. I know you and I have talked about this particular buck before, his core could be over where I hunt or even way over into the wilderness. He’s making the same rutting loop every year it seems so tracing out possible loop routes on a topo is what I would do and then work my way around them come the rut focusing on saddles, pinch points, ridge hubs and benches below those features. Another thing is come the rut I don’t worry about bedding as much per se unless it’s doe bedding. I want travel corridors and setups taking into account how a buck might visual and scent check a field, a trail, a terrain feature dictating travel, etc. As for the transfer of a scrape, I don’t think there is no need for that. A mock will work just fine.

 

[Swamp Fox]

So I’ve been looking it up and researching if this is something that has been done successfully.

[...]

Has anyone attempted this before.

This was a thing in the 90's or very early 2000's.


When I say it was a thing, I mean that there were more than two or three articles written about it in the bigger deer hunting publications (North American Whitetail; the Big Three hook-and-bullets).

Can't say I remember anybody I know ever going to the trouble.

There are a lot more mock-scrape products these days and they're so much better than what we had to work with at that time that I suggest you just roll your own if you're going down this road.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Some bucks and some areas are just nocturnal.

Do you have the later rut that a lot of the NC mountains do?


I like the advice above of trying to identify his big loop (but good luck, LOL) and I'd be trying to find him when he's most on his feet, which might be later than you've been pressuring, and which also might be tied to looming nasty weather, as @fatlander stated.

 

[Lowg08]

Some bucks and some areas are just nocturnal.

Do you have the later rut that a lot of the NC mountains do?


I like the advice above of trying to identify his big loop (but good luck, LOL) and I'd be trying to find him when he's most on his feet, which might be later than you've been pressuring, and which also might be tied to looming nasty weather, as @fatlander stated.

We do have a later rut sometimes. This year is about normal for us. Between the 13-27 of November. I’ve been squeezing down on him for three years. Just seems he only moves at night. As another commenter said. He may be unkillable. I hope not. Just seems it’s always at night minus one picture. I pee in scrapes all the time. Seems it’s just the same as moving one. My understanding is pee is pee

 

[Maverick1]

Seems like you are grasping at straws to kill a certain mature buck. Digging up dirt from a different scrape, with the thought that it is going to pull a certain buck past your stand during daylight hours for a shot (?!?!?) is unlikely to work. Work to find out where that deer beds, on a regular basis, and where his core area is. Work backwards from there and get closer in subsequent hunts. Window is small, and sometimes less is more.

If you want to go the “gimmick” (LOL) route, hang up a vine and disturb the ground underneath it. That is an effective way of taking inventory of deer on any given property. This is helpful to identify deer in a certain area, and their travel directions and patterns, if they are using a certain trail, but it doesn’t not significantly change those patterns.

Said differently, a hanging vine is not going to make a buck travel a mile just to leave his scent there, but if he’s close and using a certain trail he may stop and see what else has visited the vine.

Good luck!