Buckmasters Magazine

Scout this winter to find hot stand locations for next fall.

Winter is arguably the best time to scout for the following deer season. Whether you combine late-season hunts with your scouting, or you head afield with the sole intent of finding a buck for next year, trails, rubs and scrapes are fresh enough to tell the story of what took place in your woods during the rut. Better yet, sign is easy to find with the reduced foliage.

Simply finding deer sign is not the hard part of scouting, however.

The key is interpreting its value to future hunts.

While I don’t recommend creating hunting setups based solely on the previous season’s scrapes and rubs, you’d be surprised how many bucks return to the same areas year after year, especially when seeking does.

Hunting over scrapes raises confidence that bucks are in a given area, but not all scrapes are created equal. I like to categorize them as one of three types: primary, secondary or boundary. Knowing what kind you are looking at will help you determine if it’s worth including in your fall hunting plans.

Primary scrapes are the pièce de résistance of buck sign, and you won’t see them on just any old piece of real estate. You’re most likely to find them at corners, on trails between bedding and feeding areas and along ridge lines.

A primary scrape line consists of several scrapes 20 to 40 yards apart. Since they’re found near major thoroughfares, potential exists for several mature bucks to work the same scrape line.

I’ve found primary scrapes particularly active during the two weeks prior to peak breeding. There’s also a good chance to see a buck during daylight, which is one of the biggest unknowns regarding hunting over scrapes.

Most often we see boundary scrapes, made as bucks walk their home range. You’ll find them along fence rows, logging roads and field edges.

While our hearts thump a little faster when we see them, boundary scrapes aren’t as useful to hunters since a majority of them are made at night.

One positive about a boundary scrape is that it’s concrete evidence a buck is using the area. Because bucks revisit boundary scrapes, a strategically placed trail camera can often catch the artist and show you if he’s worthy of your tag.

I like to examine boundary scrapes for footprints that might indicate the size of the buck that made them. Bucks often leave a distinct footprint in the middle of such scrapes. If the print is at least 3 inches wide and 4 inches long (without dew claws), it was likely made by a mature buck.

Last on the list, secondary scrapes are of little use to hunters since bucks almost never visit them a second time.

I believe bucks make secondary scrapes out of pent up energy and frustration that females are not yet receptive. There is no rhyme or reason why a buck makes a secondary scrape where he does.

Chances are if a scrape is isolated and not in one of the locations likely for primary and boundary scrapes, it’s a secondary scrape.

Something to note when hunting near scrapes is to keep the pressure to a minimum. All you will accomplish by overhunting a scrape is educating a buck to your presence. That’s why I like to find four or five primary scrapes to choose from at any given time.

While it cuts down on how far I can see, I prefer to set up near scrapes in thickets. Extra cover helps conceal movement when I’m rattling or grunting, and also if I need to stand to shoot or draw a bow.

For the ultimate in scrape hunting, look for an active primary scrape line intersecting a doe trail. Hang a stand downwind of where the scrape line crosses the doe trail and get your tag ready.

An important note about hunting scrapes is to be even more careful with scent control than usual, if that’s possible. Bucks might seem more carefree during the rut than during the rest of the year, but pay strict attention to wind direction.

Avoid setting up on top of the scrape. I prefer to be at least 20 yards downwind. There’s a good chance a buck will approach from downwind – especially if you’re calling or rattling – so avoid locations that provide shooting opportunities only toward the scrape.

If you’re hunting over a scrape and the wind turns bad, get down and go to another stand.

Resist the temptation to alter existing scrapes. After finding a scrape line, I don’t visit it again until it’s time to hunt.

While I know hunters who have success with mock scrapes and encouraging bucks to take over their artificial scrapes, I don’t freshen active scrapes. My philosophy is to let deer do it naturally.

Make sure you can get to and from your stand without crossing the scrape line. Mature bucks won’t tolerate human activity, especially near active scrapes.

As important as it is to know where to hunt scrapes, your success also depends on when you hunt. Once peak breeding begins, scrape activity virtually stops. Do not waste your time hunting scrapes after peak breeding.

You might kill a mature buck near a scrape during the breeding phase, but I’d bet my favorite hat the buck wasn’t checking scrapes. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Focus on scrapes during the two weeks prior to peak breeding, and don’t be afraid to sit all day.

Like everyone else, I enjoy seeing a big rub. Unfortunately, rubs are like boundary scrapes – good for gathering information, but not much use for hunting setups.

I firmly believe size matters when it comes to rubs. The bigger the diameter of the tree, the bigger the buck that made the rub. Big bucks will rub small trees, but small bucks do not rub big trees. When you find a rub on a tree of at least 6 inches in diameter, chances are it was made by a mature buck.

Like scrape behavior, bucks rub trees in the same area from one year to the next, sometimes returning to the same tree.

As long as the buck that made the rub is still alive, you can sometimes ambush him when decides to renew his rub line.

Rubs start showing up about the same time bucks shed velvet from their antlers in late September and early October.

 don’t pay much attention until around the third week of November, when rub activity picks up again. This happens when bucks are actively seeking hot does immediately following peak breeding.

You can find these new rubs on the downwind side of thick brush where does like to bed, so set up and hunt accordingly.

You can also use rubs to help pinpoint where bucks eat and sleep. If the shiny side of a rub faces a dense thicket, that is likely where breeding takes place. If the shiny side of the rub faces a food plot, clover field or other food source, that is probably where the buck goes to eat.

Use that information with topo maps and aerial photos to get a clearer picture of how a buck spends his time pursuing food and females, his two biggest desires.

Because hunting whitetails can be so frustrating, we often forget that, like us, deer are creatures of habit.

Spend time studying the signs from last season’s activity, and you’ll have a much better picture of what to expect next fall.

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