Mock Scrapes

[switchback7]

When do you guys normally start up your mock scrapes and hang your lure drippers?

Before the season starts? before rut? keep 'em out all year long?

 

[stanginthe11s]

hang just before the season, start using and scraping pre rut. probably early oct. by you.

 

[Swamp Fox]

I start deer hunting between mid-August and mid-September. Depending on the area, seeking behavior begins anywhere from very early October to late October. (Later in the mountains.)


My best mock scrapes have always been set up and dripping well ahead of these times. In general, I'd like them all running by mid-September at the latest.

You need to give the deer some time to find and/or become acclimated to them.

 

[zkutz1]

When do you guys normally start up your mock scrapes and hang your lure drippers?

Before the season starts? before rut? keep 'em out all year long?

You’ll have does and bucks hit a community scrape year round. The scent in the dirt really matters the least in the grand scheme of the scrape, up until rut where a doe in estrous is marking it to let a buck know she’s around. Then it kinda becomes a check in spot for bucks when they smell that. It’s really finding a branch that they prefer in that area, type of tree, at the height they prefer, the angle they prefer, and have it being in the right spot as far as travel. Any of the synthetics primarily work better than real scent from what I’ve seen. I’ve been doing mock scrapes for over 20 years and from the get go, noticed night and day difference with the synthetic

 

[Long Cut]

July-September ideally. Have had luck with October scrapes as well but early is better

 

[ForkieLivesMatter]

Any time is better than none. Year round on private land as long as you aren't being to intrusive. Say one on a food plot edge, NOT one in a bedding area. That said, I make them as I find good buck sign throughout the Fall. Like others have said, if it's an area you know well and plan to hunt mid September to mid October then freshen them every time you check a camera or hunt the spot. Also, don't use your boot to dig out the scrape; carry a spade, a fire rake, or use a nearby stick that's stout.