I read an interesting article in Outdoor Life magazine recently.
For years we were taught that bucks use their scrape lines in a specific way. That, during the rut, does will urinate in these scrapes as well as leave their footprint to let bucks know that they are in the neighborhood.
We also learned that finding a good scrape line, and hunting over a scrape, would be a productive way to harvest a buck.
A lengthly study, using trail cams and time capture information, has showed that:
- Almost all scrape activity was conducted after dark
- Very rarely did they witness a doe leaving her calling card
- Most of the activity, at a scrape, was licking of the branches above the scrape. This was done by both bucks and does.
The conclusion of the article was that:
- Hunting over a scrape is not a productive daytime activity.
- The scrape is used mainly as a social gathering point to let other deer know that a particular deer is in the area.
- The reason for the nocturnal use of the scrape is because deer have a hard time seeing each other in the dark. This is their way, by leaving their scent and gathering at a scrape, of keeping track of each other.
I found this quite interesting and will make adjustments to my hunting pattern this season. |