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Monday, November 28, 2011

Guest Post - How to: Mock Scrape

David Boggs is 43 years old and has been hunting whitetail deer for many years. He does not profess to be an expert. However, he has had a great deal of success throughout his hunting career.
He would call himself a family man. He and his wife are celebrating 20 years this year (today as a matter of fact). He has a son who is now his hunting partner and has been now for the last couple of years.
David resides in south Texas and hopefully this is where he will continue to hunt. You can visit his blog, which has many more great hunting tips like this one, at www.yihunt.com.



As hunters we know we are always looking to enhance our tactics when it comes to hunting whitetail deer. So, this bit of information should help you elevate your game a little bit. One of the tactics that I use is to set up a mock scrape in advance of the upcoming rut.

With that being said, it requires some time in the field in advance of you trying this tactic. Scouting is the first thing I do. I start out scouting an area and then select my mock scrape site with several factors in mind.

The very first thing that I am looking for are active trails that converge with one another. I look for trails that X or Y. The reason I want this is quite simple. It means I have deer activity in the area.

The next thing I look for is cover not only for me to hide in, but also for the deer to be comfortable in. Young deer a lot of times meander around in the wide-open. However, mature whitetail deer most of the time seek an area that has adequate cover and an easy escape route.

The tools you need
So, with this being said, after some scouting and finding a suitable location, the next thing I will want to take into consideration is how the trails lay in relation to which direction the wind blows and whether or not I can use this area as a set up. No need to go through all the trouble if it won’t work out. By the way, I do sometimes pick an area that is only suitable for a north wind. The rational behind this is our rut is typically real late in December where I hunt so a north wind is not unusual during this time of year. If it works out and I have suitable cover for me to hide in during a north or south wind then great for me. But remember respect the deer for their nose. If you do this you will be more successful.


Find a tree
Now to the real business at hand: how to make a mock scrape. After all the aforementioned scouting and trail selection this is the easy stuff. Find a suitable scrape kit. I use several products, but I start with the “Hot-Scrape” by wild life research center. Then as the rut starts to approach I start adding other scents to the scrape; Doe urine, Buck urine, then when I think it is going to happen (the rut) Doe in estrous. Only use the estrous scent when it is viable. If not, you defeat the purpose of the scrape.

Shape the scrape
Finally, after you have gotten all of your stuff together go make a scrape. It is easy. Take a small garden rake go out to that trail find a small tree with low hanging limbs. For me I like the limbs about eye level (this is for the deer to lick and rub their face on).

Activate the scrape
Take your rake and scrape a V shape area clean of debris, I keep this area about the size of a large plate and it is directly under the limbs the deer will rub their face on. Take your scrape conditioner and liberally apply it to the area that you have cleaned then take the scrape activator and apply a liberal amount to the scraped area. I will then leave the area alone for a while, at least a week, then I will return and add a small amount of doe urine (NOT ESTROUS). After all of this, monitor your scrape activity via a trail camera. I usually make at least 3 mock scrapes sometimes more depending on the trail activity I can scout up prior to the rut. Also, my peak time to scout is the middle of the day. The rational behind this is so I don’t push deer out of their normal routine. Good luck and I hope this works for you.

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