huntingson

There is no reason to add scent if the scrape is being hit.The deer will do more good leaving scent than your dripper will. There are a few different types of scrapes. One is a boundary scrape used to mark territory which is not all that great for hunting over. Another is a random scrape which is self-explanatory and again not so good to hunt over. The third is a primary scrape which is definitely worth hunting. The other two are not checked that often. If the area is not over pressured in the day, then the bucks may hit the scrape during daylight. Since the scrape turns up every year in the same spot (I think that is what you were stating) then it is more than likely a primary scrape used by a number of bucks as they pass through. I would go in as scent free as possible and hunt it, but the wind must be right.

mauser06

thanx alot guys. ill see if i cant find me a dripper. if i cant ill just hunt it anyway. id be glad to nail a doe or 2 out of it if nothing else. later in the season ill play around with scents. that corner has always produced deer so ill hunt the area regaurdless. the scrapes and rubs been there every year so long as i can remember..so i wont be surprised to find them there again. i really want to find a few drippers though. one for up here at school and one for at home. figure it cant hurt right?

the spot is pretty hard to find deer because they can and do bed anywhere(ive kicked them out of that corner alot though) and the browse is unlimited. along with grapes and oaks scattered through the hardwood stands. i think the scrapes im going to hunt may be prettttty active because they are hidden and in/on the edge of a thicket..i think hunting the scrapes may be a good tactic for the area..

thank you all for the advice and tips..ill keep em all in mind.

icedern

I made a mock scrape last year for the first time and put a dripper over it. I had a camera set up on it too. I had several pictures of does visiting and couple small bucks and one good sized buck with a half rack. All those pictures were taken at night. I passed up several small bucks during the season in that same location though. Gonna do it again this year and hope that I have good luck.

NCYankee

If youhaven't started either making mock scrapes or "spiking" real ones...start now!I've already seen scrapes here in NC, and my buddy in WNY has been seeing them up there for about 3 weeks. I use Kishel's Mock Scrape Kit and then I freshen it every6 or7 days, and put a littledoe (non-estrous)and buck urine in them every 2 or 3 days. Once the pre-rut gets here I use buck-in-rut urine, and a week after that I switch from doe to estrous doe. When I hunt near these scrapes I use a little Buck Thrasher II (Kishel's) in a hanging scent dispenser. This routine works great for me! If you put the urine in at midday, the bucks checking it out will start visiting during daylight hours once things get heated up!

http://www.kishelscents.com

Killer_Primate

I agree with no scent yet. If you can stop by the scrape reg. you can put up some threads in the surrounding areas for him to bust when he goes through. Not too close though and keep it simple. Make a triangle if possible. And if the wind isn't too bad the broken ends of the thread will show you the direction that he's traveling.
Good luck!

quiksilver

Here's a time tested tip, Mauser. Start off by finding a few scrapes that you're thinking about hunting over.

On your way into your stand, stop by eachscrape (with your rubber boots on) and using a pair of rubber gloves, find two small sticks. Now,using them like chopsticks, pick up a few leaves from the ground and scatter them in the scrape itself. Obviously, you don't want to be tromping all over the forest from scrape to scrape, pushing deer everywhere - just hit the ones that you're passing en-route to your stand.

Now, on your way out, just cruise past them and see if the leaves that you "planted"are kicked off.

This way, you'll learn whether a buck is hitting the scrape while you're hunting elsewhere. It's an easy way to gain that extra little piece of information that may be the difference between you getting your buck or sitting in the wrong stand at the wrong time, wondering where all the deer are.

Using this tactic, you can easily gain info regarding when and if deer are frequenting a particular scrape without necessarily wasting an evening sitting over it or hanging a trailcamera.