CommanderDave
New Member
I have a question about creating a buck scrape since I'm a novice at it. I live on 30 acres in Western Iowa with 20 acres in CRP, a 1 acre pond, and 8 acres in Forest reserve. I built a blind on top of the ponds dam which looks downhill toward the forested area and a steep gully with a creek. There are two cedar trees stands in the 8 acre corners where deer spend the night and then transit through my CRP to feeding areas. I normally hunt only in the Iowa gun season. I have a game camera setup on a well used deer trail that comes up out of the creek where I see deer every day transiting that also frequent my lick. I have harvested a few nice bucks but nothing I would consider a wall hanger; I have captured some really nice big bucks on my game camera but they are normally passing through during the rut. I'd like to set up a deer scrape underneath the low hanging branches in the photo below, if you look closely you will see my game camera on the tree behind. My question is what is the best way to create a scrape, just with my foot or rake or whatever, and should I put any scent around the area or on the overhanging branches to bring in and possibly hold the bigger bucks in the area, and also the best time of year to do this. The lowest overhanging branch is about 3 ft off the ground. Thanks for all your suggestions.
