When do you hunt your scrapes?

[BSK]

Ive learned a ton from this conversation already. Seems like most of y'all are not hunting scrapes but travel corridors that may happen to contain scrapes since that's where a lot of the deer activity is. I'm wondering if anyones strategy would change specifically if bow hunting only where you'd need to be 30 yards or closer to the deer. Once muzzleloader season starts I can completely get with the idea of hunting more of a general corridor. But for those last 2 weeks of bow what say you?

My MZ/gun stands are set up for 30 yard shots, primarily because seeing/shooting farther in the types of areas I like to hunt the rut don't offer longer shots.

 

[philsanchez76]

My MZ/gun stands are set up for 30 yard shots, primarily because seeing/shooting farther in the types of areas I like to hunt the rut don't offer longer shots.

Interesting. Is this mainly cuz the mature bucks are still being that cautious as to not be in wide open areas even during the rut?

 

[GnashviLLe]

Why do you guys think rain dilutes the scent?

Reason I ask is because dogs can track much better in wet conditions. When the air is heavy and wet, the scent holds longer and is detected easier than when it's dry.

A wet spring kills more turkeys not just because the poults drown, but because the hen setting smells bad when she's wet and is more easily detected by coyotes. (Give your chickens a bath and see what I'm talking about).

Moisture and humidity INTENSIFIES scent, not 'washes' it away

You're somewhat right. Moisture and humidity do not intensify scent. Moisture and humidity increase the sense of smell for deer. Bucks will in fact freshen up their scrapes after a good rain. They will be out checking their scrape lines to make sure it's fresh. Doesn't matter if it's on a corridor path, or just a simple scrape line… either way, they will be out after a good rain and Ive seen it firsthand time and time again

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I don't hunt over scrapes. I hunt in travel corridors and pinch points that may contain scrapes, but I'm not hunting there because a scrape is there.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

As far as scent goes, I tend to think rain WILL wash away a lot of scent. However, when scent is "put out" in humid and wet conditions after a rain, that scent WILL hold much longer than drier conditions.

 

[megalomaniac]

You're somewhat right. Moisture and humidity do not intensify scent. Moisture and humidity increase the sense of smell for deer. Bucks will in fact freshen up their scrapes after a good rain. They will be out checking their scrape lines to make sure it's fresh. Doesn't matter if it's on a corridor path, or just a simple scrape line… either way, they will be out after a good rain and Ive seen it firsthand time and time again

I have no idea whether bucks hit scrapes more frequently after a rain, but I completely disagree with you that scents are not intensified by humidity/ rain. That's just simple science, easily repeatable, easily replicable on molecular level. 'Moisture and humidity increase the sense of smell for deer' is just bull crap. The deers ability to sense smell doesn't change on a whim day to day. While their unchanged ability to detect scent is unaltered by ambient atmospheric conditions, increased humidity causes MORE scent molecules to be available to detected. And humidity causes air to become heavier, sink toward ground level, and thereby makes it easier for animals to detect scents in wet and humid conditions.

Just simple physics.

Maybe deer are hitting scrapes more frequently after a rain NOT because they are 'freshening them up', but are rather attracted to the scrapes because of the increased scent molecules available to be detected with increased humidity, drawing them in.

 

[BSK]

Interesting. Is this mainly cuz the mature bucks are still being that cautious as to not be in wide open areas even during the rut?

In 35 years of hunting my place, I've never once seen a mature buck step into an open area in daylight. Every one we've killed has been in or near thick cover. I've even watched mature bucks herd an estrus doe into thick cover if she starts to get too far away.

I've been running full-season camera censuses for over 20 years on my place, and I can count one one hand the number of trail-cam pics I have of a mature buck moving through a food plot or other large opening in daylight hours. They just don't do it. Now on clients' property's, I get those kind of pictures all the time. I don't know why our bucks are so jumpy, but they are.

 

[BSK]

As for bucks working scrapes after I rain, I think it is more about deer having been laid up during a heavy rain. Once the rain stops, the deer start moving again, hence they're going to run into the scrape lines they normally work. But either way, does it really matter? Bucks will works scrapes in a light rain, but I've never gotten a picture/video of a buck working a scrape in a hard rain. Right after a hard rain? Oh yes, lots of those!

 

[JCDEERMAN]

In 35 years of hunting my place, I've never once seen a mature buck step into an open area in daylight. Every one we've killed has been in or near thick cover. I've even watched mature bucks herd an estrus doe into thick cover if she starts to get too far away.

I've been running full-season camera censuses for over 20 years on my place, and I can count one one hand the number of trail-cam pics I have of a mature buck moving through a food plot or other large opening in daylight hours. They just don't do it. Now on clients' property's, I get those kind of pictures all the time. I don't know why our bucks are so jumpy, but they are.

Ditto - same here! I really don't know why this is.

 

[BSK]

Ditto - same here! I really don't know why this is.

I'm almost a tad jealous of all these hunters who see and shoot mature bucks out of big open fields during the rut. But then, perhaps our mature bucks so easily avoid open areas because we have so few of them. No more than 10% of my place could be considered "open."

 

[philsanchez76]

I'm almost a tad jealous of all these hunters who see and shoot mature bucks out of big open fields during the rut. But then, perhaps our mature bucks so easily avoid open areas because we have so few of them. No more than 10% of my place could be considered "open."

If it makes you feel better, the way my local public land gets pressured, I've never even shot a young doe off a field. Within the first weekend of archery you won't catch a single deer out in the open till after dark.

 

[BSK]

We've had around 5% of the land in food plots for a number of years, and quite a few of the hunters hunt them. They've shot a snot-load of does and a fair number of 2 1/2 year-old bucks off the plots. But a mature buck? Never. Near the plots, yes (bucks skirting the plots to scent-check them for does) and even a chase or two near the plots, but not IN the plots.