Lots of Scrapes: multiple bucks?

[birdinator]

Here's my situation: I hunt alone, day hunting from home. I have a number of spots that I go to but so far I've been concentrating on one in particular. This is one of my favourites; partly because it's handy and partly for the glory days when there were lots of deer there. The last few years the deer have been pretty thin. It's on a large patch of crown land on very rugged Canadian shield terrain but I stick to a smaller patch about 150 acres or so in between areas where other guys hunt to the north and south. I usually watch mornings and evenings in an area of beech, oak, and maple bounded by a swamp and creek on one side and hardwood ridges on the other 3.

I bow hunted there on the Saturday and Sunday prior to rifle season (central ontario, 2 weeks). There was not a lot of sign; a few recent tracks and a couple of scrapes. I had to work Monday through Wednesday so started my rifle hunt on Thursday. I will typically sit on a watch for a few hours in the morning, go for a bit of a 'still hunting' walk before and after lunch, then sit again for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon until a bit after sunset then take a slow and quiet walk out to get back to the Jeep by case-up time.

I cover a lot more ground during rifle season than I do while bow hunting and I have found lots of scrapes, probably at least 3 dozen. Some of these were definitely made since Sunday the 6th when I was bow hunting because they were located in places that I had walked then. There are even 2 or 3 that were made after Thursday the 10th, my first day out with rifle. Others are in spots that I walked in for the 1st time this year and can't pin point the time, but most of these are really fresh. Today was the 1st day that it hasn't been really windy and those beech leaves blow around like mad and the maybe a quarter of the scrapes that are more than a week old have quite a few leaves on them. In a couple of spots there are 2 scrapes side by side within a few feet of each other. Where this occurred there is a big one and a smaller one. Most of the scrapes are a good size. I have identified at least 3 scrape lines. I have never seen this many scrapes here even during years when I have taken a buck from this spot.

I haven't seen a single buck. The only deer I've seen is a doe. I have a doe tag for the WMU I'm hunting in, but when I saw her I was back at the road sitting in my Jeep eating my lunch. She popped up out of the ditch from behind a thicket of trees 40 yards south of me and casually crossed the road into another WMU! She'll probably be back but I'd rather shoot a buck anyway. I put out a trail cam for a few nights on one of the scrape lines but got no buck photos. I have a tablet that I can check the pics on so I would swap the SD card each day and look at them when I went back to the Jeep for lunch. I pulled the cam off this evening cause after 6 days I'm a bit pooped and thought I might take a break tomorrow, sleep in, get some chores done, etc., then back at it again Thursday I thought about leaving it cause I had it cable locked to a tree but the front wasn't locked so if somebody found it they could have got the card out or busted the camera off the cable. Maybe I'm paranoid but I know somebody that got their cam stolen and it was on their private property, not crown land like mine.

After the long winded intro, what I really want to know is, are there multiple bucks in this area competing for the attention of the does?

I am thinking this is likely, but would like to hear other's opinions. I heard some shooting on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning not too far away and up towards the hunt camp to the north of my spot. They park at the road and drive their quads in a mile or so to their camp. There was only one truck there this year instead of the usual 3 or 4 and it was gone Saturday evening. I'd hate to think that all the scrapes were made by one buck and it's already in some other guy's freezer.

 

[Mount Sweetness]

Could even be one buck, doesn't sound like a lot of deer there.
Maybe try sitting right until the last minute of legal shooting, walk out with the gun unloaded in a gun sock. Those last 25 minutes are usually gold.

 

[eastwind]

You said you were eating your lunch, sitting in the jeep. You should know that at lunch time there is a good possibility of deer on the move at that time. Your much better off to be sitting in the bush where you can see 2 or 3 scrapes or even better where 2 deer trails cross. I've shot a few deer at mid day sitting quiet and still.

 

[Scamaniac]

Most important of all is never give up. Especially where there is sign. He or they will fack up eventually to chase a doe and you need to be there. Perseverance... and on windy sh!tty days they lose their superpowers

 

[Ed82]

I got my buck this past weekend right at sunset. I didn't notice any scrapes but there were lots of trails and places where the deer had bedded down in the clearing and in the trees. I tried using my buck grunt (this was only my second successful hunt) and within a few minutes a decent 5x5. If the deer are there something like a buck grunt or a bit of rattling right now might be the just thing to get them to get out of bed.

 

[hoytcanon]

I watched one buck make 20 scrapes in under an hour... lots of scrapes doesn't necessarily mean lots of bucks... but it does mean "at least one buck."

 

[birdinator]

You said you were eating your lunch, sitting in the jeep. You should know that at lunch time there is a good possibility of deer on the move at that time. Your much better off to be sitting in the bush where you can see 2 or 3 scrapes or even better where 2 deer trails cross. I've shot a few deer at mid day sitting quiet and still.

I have been out on my watch several days at lunch time. Some days I will take my lunch in with me and spend the whole day in the bush sitting in the morning, mid-day, and late afternoon with a couple of still hunt walks in between to try and locate bedded deer. Other days I come out for a bit but not at any set time, just sometime between mid morning and mid afternoon, however it worked into my plans for the day. Using the trail cam to try and confirm if any bucks were still visiting the scrapes complicated things a bit. In the past, I have only used them for the late bow season years that I still have a tag in the bush behind my house where I have permission. I didn't need to view the photos on site in that scenario cause I would just swap out the card and look at them in the house each night. For next year I plan to have something smaller that I can get a rugged case for to take in the bush with me.

 

[birdinator]

Maybe try sitting right until the last minute of legal shooting, walk out with the gun unloaded in a gun sock. Those last 25 minutes are usually gold.

Due to the topography and orientation of this spot, the sun goes down on it about half an hour before sunset. On sunny days I usually time my departure from my watch to get me back to the Jeep at case-up time walking slowly and quietly still hunting most of the way out and there will be enough light to shoot until then but just barely. Depending on wind conditions, I will be watching 1/2 to 3/4 click from the road and will cross some runs where I might see a deer on the way out. I carry a sock with me just in case and occasionally I will stay on my watch up to the bitter end and walk out in the dark with my gun in the sock. On cloudy days there is not enough light up to end of legal shooting so I might leave a bit earler; I would be able to see a deer in my scope at close range but the branches and saplings that could deflect a shot tend to become invisible and blend into the deer's body. As it darkens I check my sight picture to decide when to leave. The light gets a bit better for a ways when I get to the top of the 1st ridge on the way out but will usually be too dark when I get down to the bottom of this even if it's only 15 minutes after sunset.

 

[birdinator]

Could even be one buck, doesn't sound like a lot of deer there.

I watched one buck make 20 scrapes in under an hour... lots of scrapes doesn't necessarily mean lots of bucks... but it does mean "at least one buck."

I am wishing that I had paid a visit to the hunt camp before the hunter(s) that were there left to find out if they got a buck last Friday or Saturday when I heard the shooting. It would have helped me to decide if I should stick it out here or switch to another spot. I have other spots farther from home where I go moose hunting that had some good deer sign and usually gets little to no other deer hunters, plus some other sometimes good spots that I didn't find the time to scout.

 

[birdinator]

Most important of all is never give up. Especially where there is sign. He or they will fack up eventually to chase a doe and you need to be there. Perseverance...

Don't I know it! The area that I usually watch is a spot where they shack up some years and it can happen towards the end of the 2nd week. A few years ago 3 does moved into my spot on the Thursday. I tracked them into some thick stuff and played cat and mouse with them trying to see if there was a buck with them. I didn't spook them off but they wouldn't let me get close enough for a clear view in the heavy cover. I stopped trying to get a look and went back to watching for the remainder of the day and all day Friday and got a 10 point buck at sunset. My dilemna this year is I don't know if there is still a buck there or not.

I guess there's always a chance that the doe I saw will cross back over to my side of the road and either attract a buck or I could take the doe instead. Or maybe I should check out the other side. The crown land extends over to the township boundary there and I have been in there before but my doe tag is no good there. But maybe if the doe is still over there the buck might be too. I just thought of this while typing this reply so I will work that into a plan. I guess even though I would rather shoot a buck I have been focused on hunting where my doe tag is valid.

I'm turning 60 next month and after 6 days straight I needed to take a break this morning. I also have a few chores I need to get done but plan to get back to the hunt tomorrow

 

[birdinator]

I got my buck this past weekend right at sunset. I didn't notice any scrapes but there were lots of trails and places where the deer had bedded down in the clearing and in the trees. I tried using my buck grunt (this was only my second successful hunt) and within a few minutes a decent 5x5. If the deer are there something like a buck grunt or a bit of rattling right now might be the just thing to get them to get out of bed.

Congrats! I have been doing a little calling, both buck grunt and doe bleat, but so far hasn't produced results. I haven't tried any rattling yet this year but have been meaning to.

 

[The ROC]

I'm in the same boat... three or four does on my property. One young buck and a three year old buck. Both bucks seem to be nocturnal except last Thursday I had a buck chasing a doe but couldn't get a shot off. Othere than that nothing else buck wise. I have seen two scrapes on my propery but no rubs. Now if I had a anterless tag I would have tagged out third day of gun season. Heck there was a doe hanging around my front yard 60 Yards away from my cabin this evening. Didn't even care with my presence as I was grabbing fire wood, just kept on grazing on the grass.

Having said that my neighboring properties I've heard gun shots either around 7 - 8am or around 4:30pm.

Deer season is over in my WMU on Dec 15.

 

[Found]

I find scrapes from different bucks look different, location of licking branch, height of branch, size of licking branch, etc. For example I hove found some bucks don't go very high for the licking branch and use smaller trees. Also I have seen the hoof prints are different sizes in the scrape.

 

[birdinator]

I find scrapes from different bucks look different, location of licking branch, height of branch, size of licking branch, etc. For example I hove found some bucks don't go very high for the licking branch and use smaller trees. Also I have seen the hoof prints are different sizes in the scrape.

Sorry, I must have missed your reply until now. Only a few of the scrapes had nice well defined hoof prints in them and these I think may have been made by the same buck. Some of the scrapes were big and roundish, and included all of the ones that had nice prints in them, and others were smaller and sort of triangular shaped. In a few cases, there would be one of the smaller triangle scrapes very close to one of the larger roundish scrapes. This is one of the reasons I thought there might be more than one buck scraping in the same area. I didn't pay too much attention to licking branches but I guess I'll start looking at those more in the future.

 

[birdinator]

I didn't manage to fill my tag during the rifle hunt. We were supposed to get a decent snowfall on the eve of the last day but it didn't amount to much and I didn't find any fresh tracks at all in my usual spots. Fortunately, archery is open until mid-December so I have been out a bit with my bow, and with the benefit of a few inches of snow. I found one set of partially filled tracks on Thursday afternoon and fresh tracks of 2 deer travelling together Friday morning. After watching and calling in the morning I decided to see where the tracks went. They crossed the road into the adjoining WMU so I went over there in the afternoon. I picked up the trail of the 2 deer and found another trail of bigger tracks over there as well which I am hoping is a big buck because my doe tag is no good there. I had other stuff to do today but plan on getting back there tomorrow and working on the theory that the deer may be bedding during the day on the other side of the road, hunt that side all day.