After starting the rope scrape thread I got to conversing with another member about all sorts of scrape ideas. I told him I'd get some pics of a few things I do with scrapes, and figured I'd just post them up here for the group. It's nothing new or secret, just a few things I do that makes sense & works. I experiment with A LOT of stuff. No gimmick is off the table lol. I'll try it. Anyway, here's a few things I've tried that actually work very well for scrapes. These pics are all from one property. I'll see if I can't dig up some pics from other properties too. I make LOTS of scrapes.
This first one is my newest scrape experiment. There wasn't a tree anywhere inside this small opening so I trimmed everything off a cedar tree except one branch I left on top, then buried it like a fence post. I then ziptied a red oak branch to the otherwise naked cedar branch on top. Bucks not only started using it right away as a scrape but also as a rubbing post, hence the backwards tilt.
This one here was a good trail that a tree had fallen across. It's at the bottom between two steep hills. To the left of the screen is straight up and to the right is a deep drainage and then straight up the other side. It's a natural pinch point anyway but they quit using it at all when the tree fell. I cut the path open again but narrower and took a tall sapling next to the cutout and bent it over like an arc, tying the top to another tree off screen. Directly above the cut I hung a grape vine that would be in the deer's faces when they walk through, and it works very, very well. I've killed several big ones right there.
This one began as a small hackberry tree I stumped at 6ft high while clearing a small area for a tiny plot. I bored a 1" hole near the top and stuck an oak branch in it, then hung a vine from it. Bucks took to it immediately but pretty quickly destroyed the branch. But no worries as the tree sprouted new growth like a bush at the top and it's not a living scrape tree.
This one is simply a vine hanging from a nylon rope attached high up off a branch but in the wide open, visible. This scrape gets used year round by every deer from spotted fawn to oldest buck. It's a good spot that has ended some good bucks' reign. The stand is in a crooked chestnut oak just off the left side of the pic. It naturally leaves a 20yd broadside shot while the deer is distracted and standing still.
This one doesn't look like much but it's a good one. It's a beech sapling that I used a cambuckle strap to pull it sideways toward another small tree, which caused a branch to droop down within reach and over a trail. Over the years I've had to prune the tree and readjust the strap to keep the branch where it needs to be. I started it in 2019 and it's still an active scrape when rut begins warming up.
Last on this property but not least is my best one. The vine hanging from a rope in the 4th picture down is in the foreground but behind it you see the really big buck face deep in a beech branch. I topped that tree above that branch and cut every branch below, leaving only that one to stretch across the trail. That area is a small shelf about midway down an otherwise fairly steep hillside. It's less than 100yds long and maybe 15yds wide. Years ago I cleared it exact for a few small trees each end of it. I prune that branch yearly and also have a cambuckle strap keeping it pulled down to deer reach. Behind the camera about 50yds is a mineral site. Beyond the clearing just out of sight 50yds the far direction is a water trough. There are three scrapes in the roughly 200yd long stretch of trail between the water and the mineral, and it stays busy year round. Makes for VERY predictable movement patterns for hunting because I know where they're coming from, where they're going, and know they'll be distracted rather than looking up in the trees for me. Actually every scrape I make is in a place that relates to other habitat features like playing connect the dots. That detail matters a lot I think in how much use they get.
This first one is my newest scrape experiment. There wasn't a tree anywhere inside this small opening so I trimmed everything off a cedar tree except one branch I left on top, then buried it like a fence post. I then ziptied a red oak branch to the otherwise naked cedar branch on top. Bucks not only started using it right away as a scrape but also as a rubbing post, hence the backwards tilt.
This one here was a good trail that a tree had fallen across. It's at the bottom between two steep hills. To the left of the screen is straight up and to the right is a deep drainage and then straight up the other side. It's a natural pinch point anyway but they quit using it at all when the tree fell. I cut the path open again but narrower and took a tall sapling next to the cutout and bent it over like an arc, tying the top to another tree off screen. Directly above the cut I hung a grape vine that would be in the deer's faces when they walk through, and it works very, very well. I've killed several big ones right there.
This one began as a small hackberry tree I stumped at 6ft high while clearing a small area for a tiny plot. I bored a 1" hole near the top and stuck an oak branch in it, then hung a vine from it. Bucks took to it immediately but pretty quickly destroyed the branch. But no worries as the tree sprouted new growth like a bush at the top and it's not a living scrape tree.
This one is simply a vine hanging from a nylon rope attached high up off a branch but in the wide open, visible. This scrape gets used year round by every deer from spotted fawn to oldest buck. It's a good spot that has ended some good bucks' reign. The stand is in a crooked chestnut oak just off the left side of the pic. It naturally leaves a 20yd broadside shot while the deer is distracted and standing still.
This one doesn't look like much but it's a good one. It's a beech sapling that I used a cambuckle strap to pull it sideways toward another small tree, which caused a branch to droop down within reach and over a trail. Over the years I've had to prune the tree and readjust the strap to keep the branch where it needs to be. I started it in 2019 and it's still an active scrape when rut begins warming up.
Last on this property but not least is my best one. The vine hanging from a rope in the 4th picture down is in the foreground but behind it you see the really big buck face deep in a beech branch. I topped that tree above that branch and cut every branch below, leaving only that one to stretch across the trail. That area is a small shelf about midway down an otherwise fairly steep hillside. It's less than 100yds long and maybe 15yds wide. Years ago I cleared it exact for a few small trees each end of it. I prune that branch yearly and also have a cambuckle strap keeping it pulled down to deer reach. Behind the camera about 50yds is a mineral site. Beyond the clearing just out of sight 50yds the far direction is a water trough. There are three scrapes in the roughly 200yd long stretch of trail between the water and the mineral, and it stays busy year round. Makes for VERY predictable movement patterns for hunting because I know where they're coming from, where they're going, and know they'll be distracted rather than looking up in the trees for me. Actually every scrape I make is in a place that relates to other habitat features like playing connect the dots. That detail matters a lot I think in how much use they get.
. We actually joke with our guys that if someone pees and nothing shows up, they must be full of estrogen. When one does show up, he must be full of testosterone
