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Early scraping

Saw several last weekend. Typical edges of bean and corn fields. I don't trex into the woodlots but would bet the community scrapes are being hit now also.
 
I've got bucks hammering licking branches over old scrapes as far back as July 28th this year. They aren't actually scraping the ground and the scrapes still have leaves on them but make no mistake they are definitely visiting them regularly.









 
BSK said:
Haven't actually looked for any new scrapes, but something tells me some bucks have already started scraping. While running in Percy Warner Park in Nashville this morning, I nearly physically ran into a nice 9-point buck. As I passed him at about 6 feet, I could clearly smell him. He already had a slight rutty smell. He isn't going to smell like that unless he's already peeing in scrapes.

Anyone found any scrapes already?
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Saw a small tree with fresh scrapping yesterday on top of a high ridge.
 
Mature buck in scrape this morning. SW TN.

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Checked my cams on traditional scrapes Saturday and nothing yet. But I did find that does are starting to visit the licking branches more frequently.
 
Ski said:
Seems the early, heavy rub lines are generally old experienced bucks. They almost always "T" off of a well established doe trail. Nothing else I know of tips off a big boy's location better.
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Thanks guys for this kind of info! Very helpful! I have never really understood a rubbing pattern. Thought a little bit of it was random?
 
Jaahspike said:
Thanks guys for this kind of info! Very helpful! I have never really understood a rubbing pattern. Thought a little bit of it was random?
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A lot of it is random, just bucks thrashing trees to show off or because they're frustrated. When you see a single rub or a small cluster of rubs, they generally mean nothing. I've seen a single buck make half a dozen rubs in just a couple minutes because he was showing his dominance to the smaller bucks who were all chasing one doe.

Rub lines are what I search for. They're generally made by a singular buck and in my experience they mark his trail from bedding to a major travel corridor, like lights lining a driveway.

Then there are sign post rubs, most generally a larger than normal rub on a larger than normal tree. Any and every deer uses it, not just bucks.
 
I did a quick loop on my local public yesterday and absolutely none of the historical scrapes have been opened up yet. But I popped some cameras up so ill know when they are.

Question: do yall ever open up a historical scrape yourselves to kind of help it along? Don't see how that would be much different from opening up a mock scrape, it just happens to be a real one that needed some help? I tried it yesterday and have only had does so far on camera. guess we will see!
 
First two pics below are of a short rub line. I'm standing on a major trail in the hardwoods, looking up toward a knob. There's a big rub you can't miss right next to the trail, and a broken rub in top left corner that is 10yds away, then the rub in the second pic is another 15yds beyond the broken one, at the edge of a 6yr old clear cut. The rub line connects the clear cut to the major trail, telling me and every other deer in the forest that a big buck lives in there.

The last pic is of my son leaning against a sign post rub. That poor tree got hit all season long by multiple deer.
 

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Here's a perennial sign post. It gets hammered year after year and serves both as rub and scrape. The last pic shows a doe raising her tail trying to grab the attention of that little buck in the left of the screen, and it's almost February. That spot is where deer cross the river to enter the ag field you can't see to the immediate right of the screen. Even when the rub/scrape is ignored, deer are always there.
 

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philsanchez76 said:
I did a quick loop on my local public yesterday and absolutely none of the historical scrapes have been opened up yet. But I popped some cameras up so ill know when they are.

Question: do yall ever open up a historical scrape yourselves to kind of help it along? Don't see how that would be much different from opening up a mock scrape, it just happens to be a real one that needed some help? I tried it yesterday and have only had does so far on camera. guess we will see!
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Sometimes but I don't think it really helps much, or at least not that I've noticed. I do it anyway just in case it might eventually work lol.
 
philsanchez76 said:
Question: do yall ever open up a historical scrape yourselves to kind of help it along? Don't see how that would be much different from opening up a mock scrape, it just happens to be a real one that needed some help? I tried it yesterday and have only had does so far on camera. guess we will see!
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Used to do it every year. Does it help? I think it gets bucks working that scrape a little earlier, but for traditional scrapes, they will work it eventually, whether you speed up the process or not.
 
Ski said:
Here's a perennial sign post. It gets hammered year after year and serves both as rub and scrape
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And by biological definition, a big rub has to be used in more than one year to be considered a true signpost. That said, we all know what a signpost looks like and I will call them a signpost even if it is the first year it is being worked.
 

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