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John's Journal... Entry 120, Day 2 HOW TO FIND A BUCK AT HIS SCRAPE Why a Scrape is a Productive Site to Hunt EDITOR'S NOTE: The information we don't know about scrape hunting can fill up volumes of textbooks. You can compare the amount of information we do understand about scrape hunting to a BB in a boxcar. Each year wildlife researchers gain more data about deer communication, behavior and signposting. However, the knowledge we learn as deer hunters often becomes twisted, leaving us misinformed. Much of what we know about scrape hunting comes from legends and traditions rather than scientific facts. Let's look at the latest research with Dr. Keith Causey, professor of wildlife science at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama about scrapes and scrape hunting and take advantage of it to harvest more bucks at these naturally occurring whitetail bulletin boards.
To understand scrapes and their effectiveness in luring in a buck during the rut to help you harvest him, view the scrape as a bulletin board where deer leave love letters. Deer come to the scrape to find out who wants to go out with whom, where they'll meet, when they'll meet, who wants to fight and whether any other males want to court does that other bucks already have claimed. Other information left at the scrape may include the dominant buck's letting the subordinate bucks know, "I'm in the area, and I better not catch you trying to go out with any of my does." The subordinate bucks may leave messages for the does at the scrape that say, "Hey, the bully's not around. I'm close. If you come by here, look for me." Many
of us believe if we harvest a buck at a scrape, then we should not consider
hunting that particular scrape again. We think if we take the buck at
the scrape, we have canceled that scrape as a prime hunting spot. However,
Causey says, "If you bag a subordinate buck at a scrape, then only
one less buck will come to that scrape for information. The rest of the
bucks living in that section of land will continue to come to that signpost
for information. The scrape will remain active and viable as a hunting
area where you can take bucks even after you've bagged one or more bucks
from that site." "Many hunters overlook the idea that they can take two dominant bucks from the same scrape site," Causey observes. "During the rut, bucks expand their home ranges and move into territories they may not have frequented during any other time of the year. When dominant bucks expand their territories, they often begin to work the scrapes of other dominant bucks in an area. Two dominant bucks may work the same scrape, trying to attract estrous does in the same region. If you take the dominant buck that normally works a particular scrape, then you later may bag a second dominant buck -- an intruder trying to expand his home range -- at that same scrape. With this information, we now know scrapes often can produce more than one quality buck during a season, if you have a high number of quality bucks on the area you hunt." TOMORROW: WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO HUNT A SCRAPE?
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Check back each day this week for more about Hunting Scrapes... Day 1 - What is a Scrape? |