Mock Scrapes - Use Them?

[HB_Hunter]

Does anybody have luck with mock scrapes? If so, what do you do? I’d like to do something to have a better chance at getting pics of cruising bucks during the rut.

I heard a podcast that featured a guy from the Midwest (can’t remember his name) and he talked about hanging a rope parallel to the ground and hanging several ropes from it to make mock scrapes. I’d like to try something like this next year.

 

[Jack Terpack]

One of our younger hunters tried this for the past two years.

He did this in PA on our private property. We set cameras up on it both years and found that every buck we knew of came in to it every night. The youngster killed two very nice bucks off of it by setting his stand about 80 yards downwind of the set-up. Our pictures showed him that the deer would approach it from downwind every time and the biggest bucks would hang in the area. They only came in at night though until the rut was in full swing. He would freshen the scrape by urinating in it every time he visited the set. If the wind was wrong, he would hunt on the ground downwind.

Seemed strange to me at the time, but I can't argue his success.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Yes, I maintain about 12 of them at areas I want the deer to stop

Very easy. I use a trappers set- has a piece of metal attached to a wire with a loop. Pound it in the ground then use military rope to pull down the tree I want as licking branch

I don’t use any scent. Just take a shovel and make a patch of dirt- the deer do the rest

Great place to inventory your bucks with a camera

 

[HB_Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback and the video link!

How far are they apart Bull? Any ideas on spacing?

I was thinking about having one in each 100 acre section and making them like the one shown in the video.

 

[Frosted brassica]

Yes, I maintain about 12 of them at areas I want the deer to stop

Very easy. I use a trappers set- has a piece of metal attached to a wire with a loop. Pound it in the ground then use military rope to pull down the tree I want as licking branch

I don’t use any scent. Just take a shovel and make a patch of dirt- the deer do the rest

Great place to inventory your bucks with a camera

Please share a picture of what a mock scrape looks like tied down. Sounds interesting. And do you put them inside field corners and at trail crossings just back in from the field? Or where do you get the best use?


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[Someday Isle]

I did my first couple this year. One of them was near one of my water holes. I had a couple pictures of fawns checking it out in early September but then it fizzled. The other one on the edge of a food lot trail got taken over but the deer and became a regular scrape where I watched a young buck work it over during our November firearms season. I’ll certainly keep that one open this year and maybe try another on on the edge of an adjoining food plot. It sure seemed to keep that young buck distracted for quite a while. I didn’t use any scent at all.. i just open them up with a garden rake.

 

[j-bird]

I tried both the wire (I saw from Jim Ward) and also by hanging grape vines. I have had better results with the grape wines and think location is far more important.

 

[Chainsaw]

As we have released apple trees over the last thirty years many of them had grape vines on them. We always cut our grape vines in two places, one cut at around ground level and the other cut just above waist high. Hundreds of times over the years there have been ground scrapes under the grapevines cut at waist plus height. We never took it further to put them where we wanted them.

 

[farmhunter]

1. Mock scrapes are my go to Trail Cam set up in Late August - through all of September. Come October they can still be good - but if a natural community scrape is found I'll go there more often.

Some of my mock scrapes have become great natural scrapes later on - I usually make mine when I brushhog trails in summer - and make sure I leave good overhanging branches (not to many) -in good camera spots. I'll start doctoring them up anytime in August.

 

[j-bird]

Here is a sample of a mock scrape I put up that got use this summer. I simply cut a 3 foot section of grape vine (about the diameter of a broom handle) and hung it from a limb with 550 cord and cleared some dirt under it and took a leak on the bare spot. This location is on a logging road where the deer cross from a bedding area and a inside corner of a soybean field. I placed a trail cam set on video and I had deer coming over from 30 yards off the trail (bucks and does) to check it out. The vine originally had some sap on it but other than that I added nothing. I plan on adding a few others this summer to help narrow down and capture buck patterns. This sequence is in order.....this buck came off the trail to investigate the vine......just like the sequence shows. The buck then returned to the trail and headed off to the bean field. This site was visited by several bucks (the one pictured was the best) as well as does over a month of use or more.



I placed a string of different scrape opportunities along the logging road and this was the only one that received significant use. Some I simply tied tree limbs down, others I added the wire like in the posted video above..... Those that see use I will keep and I will continue to experiment with others in other locations to help me narrow down and target the deer I am after. I feel these may help me get a decent inventory on resident bucks.....and I can hunt these locations vs say a mineral sight (which I can't hunt per our regulations).

 

[Frosted brassica]

Here is a sample of a mock scrape I put up that got use this summer. I simply cut a 3 foot section of grape vine (about the diameter of a broom handle) and hung it from a limb with 550 cord and cleared some dirt under it and took a leak on the bare spot. This location is on a logging road where the deer cross from a bedding area and a inside corner of a soybean field. I placed a trail cam set on video and I had deer coming over from 30 yards off the trail (bucks and does) to check it out. The vine originally had some sap on it but other than that I added nothing. I plan on adding a few others this summer to help narrow down and capture buck patterns. This sequence is in order.....this buck came off the trail to investigate the vine......just like the sequence shows. The buck then returned to the trail and headed off to the bean field. This site was visited by several bucks (the one pictured was the best) as well as does over a month of use or more.
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I placed a string of different scrape opportunities along the logging road and this was the only one that received significant use. Some I simply tied tree limbs down, others I added the wire like in the posted video above..... Those that see use I will keep and I will continue to experiment with others in other locations to help me narrow down and target the deer I am after. I feel these may help me get a decent inventory on resident bucks.....and I can hunt these locations vs say a mineral sight (which I can't hunt per our regulations).

Everyone sharing these creative ideas is why this site is great. I have seen vine used by deer as a licking branch once and never thought to replicate it. Thanks for the tips.

 

[j-bird]

Everyone sharing these creative ideas is why this site is great. I have seen vine used by deer as a licking branch once and never thought to replicate it. Thanks for the tips.

I wish I could give the proper credit to where I saw this first, but I don't recall. All I will say is that this isn't my creative idea I just use it and have had some success and want to encourage others to try it.

 

[OkieKubota]

Mock scrape...find an area in the woods that deer use as a travel corridor...find an overhanging limb and rake the ground to bare dirt, urinate in it, place a camera and walk away...

And refresh every once in awhile...

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