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Scrape, what would you do?

sep0667

Land of the Whitetail
Ok, I have a few stands up on my uncles farm down by Leighton, which is inbetween Pella and Oskaloosa. Since I go to ISU I have only been able to make it down there twice so far. We put up the stands in early September. I found a good spot on his property that had a few trails coming out. I put up a stand that is on the south end of and oval shaped cornfield with woods forming the oval shape and a good chunck of woods behind me with a creek going through the woods about 50 yards farther south. The oval shape make a funnel with the woods that form each side of the oval meeting the larger chunk behind me, so any deer going to or from the woods to either side of the oval or corn field will have to go by me. I made it out the opening weekend and there has a nice rubbing about 30 yards out in front of my stand that had not been there when we put it up. Then this past weekend we went out and the rubbing had been severely worked and there is a huge scrap at about 25 yards out that wasn't there last time, they are really hitting it hard.
My question is what would you do? Should I just leave it and let it be or i was thinking that once the rut is getting closer maybe set up a decoy near the scrap. I have never tried using a decoy or messed with scraps in any way or know much abou them. How many bucks typically will work a scrape? Thanks for for suggestions.
 
I'd say with as good as that funnel sounds a decoy would be useless. If they continue to work the scrape it should do just as good a job as a decoy to slow down any buck coming through. If it appears they stop using it, do something to try and keep it active, a scent dripper, etc... Hard to say how many are using that scrape, but if it's huge it may be a scrape that is used by several bucks. One thing to keep in mind is with an area that's really heavily rubbed, it often times can indicate a bedding area, and bedding areas are one place I try to avoid when placing a stand...

Good luck and let us know how it all turns out!
 
The way you made the funnel setup sound makes a decoy sound useless. Sounds like your in a prime location the way it is to intercept any cruising deer. Going to or from the corn and arond the corn into the larger chunk of woods.
As far as the scrape goes. If the scrape is bigger than a 5gal bucket, its probably getting worked by multiple deer. I also agree with DannyBoy on the rubbing. I use rub lines to indicate travel routes to and from bedding and in the bedding areas. Also it maybe benificial to do some reading on Mock Scrapes and keeping them active. Possibly a dripper or just freshening it with buck urine when you hunt it may keep local deer attending that particular scrape more than they normally would.
 
I would leave the stand where it is for a while. A good funnel, fresh scrape....sounds prime to me. Good Luck.
 
Several bucks will work the same scrape, I would not use a decoy and just sit and wait. I would hunt it sparingly until the chase really kicks in cause it sounds like a dynamite spot, but now is the time to catch them on a scrape so I would hunt it some.
 
Id get in it next week, once november gets here the scrapes are going to dry up. Id hunt that thing as often as possible and only when the wind allows between next week and the first full weekend of Nov. things are about to bust loose scrape wise, now is a good time to hunt them in my opinion.....

Good Luck!
 
I agree with THA4. Get in there now because the scrape will get worked good the next 10 days. I would continue to hunt the stand during the rut because it is a funnel not because of the scrapes.
 
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