So how do you do it? I am thinking about doctoring some active scrapes with some doe estrous scent. I have not messed with this much. I am going to hunt hard four days at the end of the week and into our gun opener. If I spray a scrape down each day on the way in to my stands in the morning can I get them to start to look around in the day light by the end of my hunt or should I start doing it now if I can get over there before that?
Best thing is to hunt all day thats best the best for me.
doug77
My problem is they come in two hours after dark and are gone two hours before light with most of the big guys hitting the area at midnight. I need to motivate them to come in when there is shooting light.
i think its about to bust wide open with chasing.i hope i get to see some big deer in the 2 days before gun season opens up...it wont hurt to doctor the scrapse as you stated.it will think the does are coming into the scrape during the day and may come and check it during the daytime itself....good luck
That's everyone's problem until the rut kicks in and when that starts they'll show up at any old time.
Oklahoma has had practically nothing but warm blue bird days with variable winds since the season opened on 10-01. You'll see a few does during days like that, but very few bucks. It's just too warm and bright and they don't have any Ray-bans. That's
all gonna change though and very soon.
Anyway will hitting scrapes with some estrous get them moving in my locations or does it take the does to really get it moving? There must be some scent users out there with some pointers.
Pm sent. :saywhat:
I hunted my stand a few days ago. Saw nothing. I heard three running through the pines just out of view. I stayed in my stand until it was too dark to see beyond just a few feet.
About two hours later almost to the minute I turn on the back flood lights to my parent's home and a nice buck is in their back yard. I left a few mintues later and saw the mack-daddy of bucks in the same fescue field I've seen him in for the second time at about the same time.
If rut was full swing here I believe they would be roaming instead of feeding like that.
If you're seeing does during daylight hopefully when the rut gets in full gear the bucks will be moving like the doe.
That's what I'm hoping for.
The first buck in the back yard was a nice narrow six point with a very sleek body. Not the buffed-up neck you'd think for rutting time. I'm beginning to think for my area the rut hasn't fully hit yet.
Lots of opinions on this, but the biologists here will probably kick in. There is a lot of hype on tricking a deer by using artificial scents and bottled urine to bring them in.
What you have to realize is that they are not just waiting for that one first doe to hit that one scrape. Bucks are constantly moving and searching. They know the scents of the deer in the area. The chances of you "bringing" in a buck during daylight are pretty slim. Don't think that way, its the biggest change I ever made and I never saw so many more deer once I changed.
You have to scout and go to them. Their hidden trails pre rut, or the main doe trails during the rut. Scents may get them to stop for a moment as they are passing thru, but they certainly will not make a buck go crazy and change his routines wondering who this strange smelling doe is when there are all the real does out there acting like real deer. Young bucks can be fooled(sometimes), but the big boys want the real thing. Find the does during the rut and sit as long as you can on a main trail. Bucks from all over will be traveling and you NEVER know what you will see.
Don't get suckered in to the retail hype by buying scent drippers and scent wafers, mock scrape kits, and 20 dollar bottles of "estrous" urine.
Save your money to go on fun trips. Find deer trails and use the rut to get them during the day. Otherwise, get closer to their core areas to see 'em during shooting light. You may not, then just play the rut game.
ok due to the fact im not hunting anymore this year (tagged out early i put my camera up with some corn infront of it. got 3 nice buck includeing 1 chocolate horned beauty i call tank. other wise i see bucks on good paths like 4wheller trails
Try to back up your stand to where they are before they get to your current stand.
Scents can get you in trouble. They are not the cure all at all.
Hunt where they go during the day.
If I had a lot of ground and knew they were on it I would be trying to nail down where they move through first and last light. I would also be hunting the doe trails. However, this is 20 acres so I am not going to get any closer to where they are unless I get right in their bed, and that could be on the property, but I am already very close to heavy cover and on a travel line from one section to the next. If they are in there, they don't move in the day light, and I am not going to jump them out looking. Wind most days will not allow hunting on the far end of this cover area. The other problem is that this is a little off the main habitat so not a major travel corridor. Without something to get them checking the area in the day time to try and find a hot doe it is just a wait and see thing. Trail cam shows a lot of traffic at night and some good bucks checking once or twice a week. I just need them there more often and in the light.
Hunt the rut. Otherwise any 3.5 year old and onward buck and most does are pretty much nocturnal 80%+ of the time after bang stick season opens according to Dr. Kroll. The rut, however causes mistakes......fatal ones, even for the vets.
I have a buck that was working several scrapes around one of my sets. I went in there yesterday and found all of the scrapes cold but one. It was so fresfly done you could smell it from a distance!
I know there are at least three bucks in that are with one being a nice 8, the other two are dinks (I would shoot em in a second!) so who knows which one is doing it.
Anyone else seen this types of thing where they only use ONE scrape letting nearby scrapes go cold.
J
Well, I hastened to write this before.... but if yer hell bent for leather there is an old "trick" I used once... Go into their bedding area on thi 20 ac mid afternoon. Put up a stand right in the middle, climb up, tie yourself in and get some sleep. Its not comfortable and I sure can not do it any more but oh well.
Spend the next morning (day) on alert. If they are getting back to that area as a bedding spot be ready.
I killed a huge tall tined deer that way in 1979. It was the only way to get him. He moved really late in the afternoon and most of the night and you could not approach the area when he was there. He would book like hell.
Actually, he came back in just before full daylight and I saw him. He bedded out of range but by 8:30 he had moved three times and was at 15 yards. Dead deer. One tired, stiff, sniffley nosed trad bowhunter
I am hunting entirely differetn species of deer in the Blacktails. I plan to hunt in very thick stuff near bedding areas.
I am also trying bait this year. A deer block with molasses and grain and alfalfa hay.
We shall see.
Good luck.
Paul
QuoteOriginally posted by J-dog:
I have a buck that was working several scrapes around one of my sets. I went in there yesterday and found all of the scrapes cold but one. It was so fresfly done you could smell it from a distance!
I know there are at least three bucks in that are with one being a nice 8, the other two are dinks (I would shoot em in a second!) so who knows which one is doing it.
Anyone else seen this types of thing where they only use ONE scrape letting nearby scrapes go cold.
J
Yes, the property in question had one large one with a cluster of three arund it. Then about 30 yd. out another good one. 40 yd. from that thee around a big low branched maple. Now only the original large scrape is getting hit much.