Why Are Some Scrapes Made in the Same Location?

[Bucks & Beards]

Why are some scrapes made in the same location every year?
Same buck(s)?
Scent on licking branch or on the ground from previous year?
Geography?
Optimal travel corridor?

 

[ClubHead]

It is a perfect overhanging branch that they just like,perfect height in the right area.

 

[travle]

Ok ClubHead or someone else maybe you can answer this for me....I've always heard what you said to be true. bucks make scrapes under low overhanging branches. Why is that?? I've seen it several times. one time in particular, I remember well. I was hunting a field opposite side that the deer always came out of the timber into the field, and a small buck stopped at the edge of the field and licked/rubbed an overhanging branch. low and behold there was a small scrape there.

 

[DirtyBear0311]

They have a lot of glands on their foreheads that they like to rub on the branches. Same as makin a scrape only with a different gland and done on a branch.

 

[bowriter]

The whole thing is communications. Deer leaving and receiving messages. Kind of like the bulletin board down at the grocery. It is a handy place for coming and going traffic.

 

[BSK]

The reason "traditional" scrapes occur--scrapes that appear in the same spot year after year--is the over-head licking branch. As Bowriter pointed out, licking branches are used to chemically communicate year-round. The scrape that appears during the fall under the licking branch is only a seasonal aspect of this communication and obviously involves breeding/dominance status information.

But the reason the particular branch is used as a licking branch is location. The branch is a perfectly positioned branch in a high deer traffic area.

 

[shopson]

We saw a scrape in the mountains for 3 years in a row in the same place, roughly 4'x6'. It was big every year. My brother killed a very nice mature buck in there on a Thanksgiving day and there has not been a scrape there since.

 

[Hollar Hunter]

I have one place that a scrape has been made every year for 7 or 8 years now. The thing that gets me is the "licking branch" is just an old black branch that forks and it looks dead but it's still hard as a rock. No leaves or little limbs to speak of just a dead stiff fork. I'm not sure what types of trees these are but there branches look dead old and rotten but you can't hardly break the dang things and when you do it sounds like a shotgun going off. It's in a good location on a saddle in the corner where 2 shelves come together on the edge of the saddle. I've killed 2 very nice bucks in that spot.

 

[Mike Belt]

I've seen scrapes made in the same location year to year before and once they're made multiple bucks hit them. Then out the blue one year they're not there and aren't used again. The only thing I can come up with is that a certain buck may start those scrapes yearly and maybe he died and is not there to start them up and for whatever reason no other bucks restart the scrape in the same location. The places I've seen traditional scrape sights yearly have been under beech trees, both inside and outside corners, and narrow ridgetops.

 

[BSK]

The places I've seen traditional scrape sights yearly have been under beech trees, both inside and outside corners, and narrow ridgetops.

My best traditional scrapes are under beech trees.

I started this scrape as a mock scrape under a beech tree along a narrow ridge-line in 2003. It turned into the hottest traditional scrape on my property:

As of last Thursday, bucks are still using it 9 years later. And I no longer have to restart it each year. I hate to think of the number of bucks I've photographed using this scrape in 9 years. I would guess at least 100.

 

[Mike Belt]

BSK---Out of all the properties I've hunted I've always found scrapes under beech trees and some of those yearly tradtional scrapes were found there. I can't really say that location was the main factor because it sometimes seemed the deer had to sidetrack somewhat to include those trees in their travels. The one thing the beeches have that others may not is the multitudes of overhanging branches. Now when I'm scouting just as I head to cedars looking for rubs when I see a beech tree I go looking for scrapes.

 

[BSK]

Now when I'm scouting just as I head to cedars looking for rubs when I see a beech tree I go looking for scrapes.

I think it's the way beeches grow. They are very shade tolerant and grow with low-hanging limbs. The same with Maples. Like you, I go out of my way to check any cedar for rubs, and any beech or maple for scrapes.

 

[travle]

BSK another point you brought up about rubs on a cedar tree. I have also seen several rubs on cedars. once I had a buck that did a big rub line in a small patch of cedars 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Why do they choose to rub on cedars more often??

 

[DirtyBear0311]

I did a pretty intense scouting operation today at my location and found a ton of new scrapes rubs, and a rub line. To be honest though, I dont know nearly enough about trees to be able to identify a beech or maple out in the field. However, I do believe that i'm gonna start some research into these and the other types. Out of curiosity, which would be better to hunt: a series of fresh scrapes in very close proximity on a deer trail between food and bedding or a a rub line on a trail in the middle of the thick stuff?

 

[Mike Belt]

DB---That depends on what time of the year it is. Prior to the pre-rut the rubline might offer better odds. The scrapeline would probably offer you better odds a couple of weeks prior to breeding. Once breeding starts all bets are off on everything. After the initial peak breeding the scrapelines would still probably be your best bet. Late in the season when most breeding is over the rubline, depending on where it went, might be best. All that being said I wouldn't put alot of store in sitting over scrapes. It's great to have them in your immediate area but you're going to waste alot of time hunting directly over them.

 

[BrokenArrow]

I have found Maple young maple trees to be a favorite around here as well as cedar.
Any particular reason they seem to favor theses kind of trees?
I also noticed sumac and a tree my grandfather called "Stinking Jim"? Looked kinda like sumac of some kind.

 

[dr]

BSK another point you brought up about rubs on a cedar tree. I have also seen several rubs on cedars. once I had a buck that did a big rub line in a small patch of cedars 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Why do they choose to rub on cedars more often??

I'm not BSK, BUT... Bucks prefer to rub on aromatic tress like cedar,pine, and dogwood. I'm always checking those particular tress for rubs, especially cedar.

 

[travle]

Well i guess every likes the fresh scent of a pine or cedar every now and then

 

[BSK]

BSK another point you brought up about rubs on a cedar tree. I have also seen several rubs on cedars. once I had a buck that did a big rub line in a small patch of cedars 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Why do they choose to rub on cedars more often??

In each geographic region, bucks will have certain species of tree they prefer to make their biggest rubs on. Exactly why this is is unknown, but rubbing tree species preference is fairly well documented. In the Gulf coastal Deep South, bucks prefer Cypress for their large rubs. In Atlantic coastal regions of the Deep South, bucks preferr sassafras. In the Midsouth, bucks prefer eastern red cedar. North of the Ohio River, bucks prefer basswood. In the far north, Aspen. Some have theorized bucks prefer to rub on trees that are aromatic when the bark is broken, but that doesn't explain basswood and aspen, which are not aromatic. I suspect it is probably a matter of exposed inner bark "brightness," so that the rub visually stands out.

During the decade-long research project I conducted into rub densities and distributions in western Middle TN, I kept track of the size of every rubbed tree documented, as well as the tree species. Analysis showed that for rubs on small-diameter trees, the species chosen was just a function of the most common saplings available in the environment. However, as rubbed tree diameter increased, the number of species used declined fairly dramatically (considering the number of tree species available). For the very largest rubbed trees (at the center of the rub, the tree exceeded 15" in circumference--we're talking REALLY big rubs!), only 5 species of tree were used by bucks, and by preference, those species were: cedar, pine, beech, poplar, and maple.

 

[BigD_625]

Good info.

 

[bowriter]

I never payed it a lot of attention but it just seemd to me, they preferred trees of softer wood. That og course, does not explain why they rub on signposts and telephone poles.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

The places I've seen traditional scrape sights yearly have been under beech trees, both inside and outside corners, and narrow ridgetops.

My best traditional scrapes are under beech trees.

I started this scrape as a mock scrape under a beech tree along a narrow ridge-line in 2003. It turned into the hottest traditional scrape on my property:

As of last Thursday, bucks are still using it 9 years later. And I no longer have to restart it each year. I hate to think of the number of bucks I've photographed using this scrape in 9 years. I would guess at least 100.

Same here Mike and Bryan. I have noticed the same thing in past years. These are just pics from last year. This beech tree happens to have a traditional scrape AND a much worked licking branch - 2 birds with 1 stone!

Another thing that comes to mind is my most Memorial Day hunting was a morning when my dad and I both killed mature bucks the same morning within 2 hours. Between us was a beech tree with a big traditional scrape that we could both see.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

The whole thing is communications. Deer leaving and receiving messages. Kind of like the bulletin board down at the grocery. It is a handy place for coming and going traffic.

Right on!