Should I hunt this scrape?

SlowBow wrote:I have found over the years that bucks will often scrape on doe travel routes and wander in bedding areas and scrape there to advertise their presence. I also agree that this is probably a doe bedding area.

If I were to hunt this general area, I would pick a deer trail on the downwind side just inside the edge of the thicker cover and hunt it during the peak rut to try and catch a buck trolling downwind scent checking for does bedded in the cover

Canis Latrans wrote:Wow thanks for the in depth answer! I'll try to be as organized as I can in my response.

Starting with the red 'x' with an arrow. Wouldn't this be about as close to the bedding area as you can get? You can see it is within 50-100 yards of at least 2 deer beds, and those are just the ones I know of, and it is not on the outskirt but in between them. Why is this not going to spook them?

That's the area I would save for the rut. My bet is that's the contour route wandering bucks would use through the doe beds.

Also, you say to have a westerly wind from this position in the PM. If the deer are bed down as they are on the map, hunting near the red arrow would mean wind would blow over at least two or three of the known bedding areas. Why would this wind be best?

I think you are looking at this wrong. I think the whole area is a bedding area, and the deer just bed willy nilly wherever they want on the higher elevations with the wind at their backs. It matters not where you hunt, you'll always have deer downwind of you on most hunts. Your trying to intercept deer that are upwind of your position as they move to feed, and if your guess about the acorns is right, you'll need a westerly in the evening as they head to the oaks. The trick is to not alarm the others by crossing their travel route as little as possible.

The wind here comes from the Southwest maybe 70% of the time. Why would I not simply hunt in the area I marked to hunt? That would blow my scent in the opposite direction of all deer beds, trails and sign I have seen. Why do you feel waiting for the opposite wind (very rare) is the thing to do? By the way, you are right, there is a good trail running wast to east on that ridge line, right to two of the deer beds.

I was suggesting an east wind in the am, as I feel the deer will be moving from the oaks to the ridge. Yes, you could very easily intercept a doe using that trail on a SW wind, but keep in mind that does are trying to avoid bucks because they pester them this time of year and the doe are not ready to breed. They may very well be avoiding the area of the scrape right now to avoid being chased by young bucks.[i]

The bottom circle, I planned on scouting this bottom clear cut tomorrow actually. I was going to walk around the entire thing looking for major trails in and out of it. Across the road to the Northwest, where you marked 'x' I have scouted twice. There was what I would call a moderately faint trail going up there, and I couldn't see anything on the Southeast side of the road. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being a deer highway, I would say this trail was a 3.

My advice would be to stay out of the thicker areas until after this season has closed. Deer are very forgiving of normal human activity, jogging for instance, but you get off the trail and start poking around in an area where they bed they will quickly alter their patterns.My bet is that the thicker areas are bedding as well, probably core bedding, the reason the ridges are not as sensitive is because it is a larger area without distinctive bedding locations.

The top right area you marked, I also wanted to scout. I thought maybe the deer would cross here and use the draw to get out of sight as fast as possible after being exposed on the road. Is that what you are thinking as well?

Actually, I marked those two areas because that is the way the terrain would seem to want to funnel deer movement. Again, I don't think the deer have the fear of the road that you think they do

The purple road in the middle does have a trail running down through it. It is not a hiking or bike trail, but it may be more from hunters than deer. I found 2 stands to the east of this road on the ridge. That is why I did not want to put a stand on the west side of the road as it intersects the ridge. It is very open there, with no fresh tracks any of the time I have scouted it, and I feel that all the hunters that may be in this section of woods frequent that area.

I agree here. Avoid areas that you know hunters frequent. The purple trail may be a deer route, but with this additional info, I would use it as an access and exit route, use routes that others use as much as possible, they are more used to encountering human scent on trails like this,and it does not alarm them as much as say, a bunch of fresh scent in the middle of the thicket they bed in.

As for seeing deer near roads during the day, I can honestly say I have NEVER seen this. I HAVE seen them on the side of highways, right next to it on the grass, or over the fence in a field etc. But not right next to the road where people drive fast and slow, walk their dogs, ride their bikes etc. I have never seen this during the day. Have you? I can possibly imagine them waiting in the treeline for the road to be totally clear, and then quickly crossing during twilight. You think they do this frequently?

I know they do.All the dead deer along roads are proof.

I'm sorry my posts are so long, thank you so much for helping me out. Don't take my questions as criticisms, I know you are a better, more experienced hunter than I am, so I want to know why you think differently than I do so I can get better.

Canis Latrans wrote:This is an updated map, showing in dark black lines where I want to scout tomorrow. To the West of these likes I also marked another bedding area, where I saw about 8 different beds. I pictured this as a place a buck would bed down, but there were different sized beds, some grouped together so I am guessing I got that wrong and this is a doe area.

Again, I would stay out of that overgrown stuff for the time being. Try to get some time to hunt around the edges of it,climb as high as you can in areas with good visibility, and look at these more as "scouting" hunts, then move in for the kill on a later hunt if you spot a pattern or frequently used trail.

The pink line is a well worn trail, but it leads right out to the grass of the highway. I don't know if they will eat this grass now as it is fall and the acorns are everywhere. I set up on the red dot as it made a great funnel area. I hunted it with a West wind, hoping the deer would come out of the bed area and out to the grass, but maybe they don't care about the grass with acorns around. Haven't seen anything there the 2 times I hunted it in the afternoon.

Yes, the deer are on the acorns hard this time of year. They are aware that a food source like this is seasonal, and exploit it while the opportunity is there. You may just have luck there later in the season, when other food sources are depleted. Don't give up on it yet, but I have a rule, it's the three strike rule. If I have a spot, no matter how good it looks, and I don't see deer using it after 3 hunts, it's out. My guess then is that the sign is being left at night, or I chose the wrong wind to hunt it, and probably put a bunch of deer on full alert near that spot. I'll adjust accordingly from there.

The light blue line is about where the bike and jogging trails run. Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Use that trail as much as possible to access and exit the area.

Canis Latrans wrote:Just to be clear, the area I said I would scout was AROUND the thick stuff, not into it. Do you think it would be wise to go around the thick stuff in the normal woods trying to locate the trail they use to get in and out of the thicket? My thinking is whether or not the deer care about the road, the deer bedding in the thicket within a few hundred yards of the oaks should certainly be going there for food. I was hoping to maybe find the heaviest traveled trail between the oaks and the thicket and set up on it.

At this late stage of the game, I still think you would be better off doing "observation hunts" without getting too invasive. It can take years to learn dependable travel routes on a hunting area, and your just getting started. Will it do harm to scout? Yes, and no. There is no way to find set-ups and info on the game without it.But certain types of scouting are best left to off season. I do lots of in season scouting also. Just be sure to use full scent control, wear your scent proof boots, and it's better to do in season scouting just before or in a light rain. Those thickets are like a corn maze of deer trails, I'll guarantee it, and they are just as likely to use one as the other based on the wind. Once they break into the more open areas, they will take a familiar travel route, the path of least resistance most often traveled. This is the reason I suggest observation hunts, to determine that route.

When would you think I should start hunting the spot I wanted to originally? I agree that the buck will probably use that slight ridge north of the scrape if he scent-checks the does bedding area. It is downwind of most of the bedding area, and is the only terrain feature round until the road itself.

Hunt it when you feel conditions are right. Like you said, most scrapes are tended at night, and right after a rain. Leaving scent around it could be detrimental, as this is exactly what a deer is looking for at a scrape and in the area of a scrape, scent. Contrary to popular belief, does visit and leave scent at scrapes as well as bucks.

And no I don't believe dead deer on the road is proof of them crossing the road during the day. My brother just hit a deer 3 nights ago actually.. at night. The only time I have ever heard of anyone hitting a deer personally was at night, and the only time I have almost ever hit deer was at night.

I've sat in a stand and watched them do it a hundred times over. A small piece of private land we hunt, that is how they access the property, by crossing a road. It's not a major highway, but does get quite a bit of traffic. They come across there at all times of day, to get into the fields from the ridges and stream valley they travel along on the other side. They don't think twice about it. In fact, I have even seen deer look both ways before crossing more than once. I'm not making this up.

When do the acorns tend to die off? Is there any time of year in particular? This may be my dumbest question yet, as I'm sure it depends on population of acorn eaters as well as how many fell to begin with. Thanks for your help, I will DEFINITELY be looking over everything you said, and I will have to compare your advice with what I see on the ground to make the best decision on what to do. Thank you! Any future suggestions are really welcome.

Canis Latrans wrote:OK, so I did some scouting today, and just stayed in the woods and out of anything thick. Pink lines show major trails.



I finally found some rubs, marked on the map as red dots east of the stream. I was happy to see them, as I haven't seen almost any on this land. Most were on trees about 2 inches in diameter, but there were some on 3" trees and on on a tree over 4", which is way bigger than any rub I have seen before. Maybe it was a decent deer. In the middle of all of these rubs was a scrape, with no overhanging branch. The area is a large finger between two gullies leading into the stream. Lots of oaks everywhere, mostly red oaks.

This sounds like the buck is running that ridge. It's probably his core area,and he's bedding there. He'll probably bust you if you try to hunt it. The only exception to this would be hard pre rut, just before the does come in the first week of November, he might be out late looking for ladies and sneak back up on that ridge just after dawn. More than likely though, he'll be up there rubbing and scraping in frustration and make you coming in.

I found some white oaks across the stream from here, marked as brown dots. To the Northwest of this area I found a spot where it seemed like half the trees in that acre were white oaks. I didn't see any acorns on the ground though. Maybe they are all gone? Maybe this is a good sport for early October hunting next year?

Maybe they didn't drop this year. yes a good area to keep an eye on for next year to see if they do drop.

Does the oak ridge with all of the rubs and the scrape mean that's their main food source now, or not really? I wasn't able to follow a rubline to the bedding area as people often say you can do.

That's because it probably is his core bedding area.

Any advice with the new info? How would you do an observation hunt? Get high on a hill and look for deer at peak times? Anywhere in particular? Should wind blow from the West for this? Thanks.