Primary scrap areas...

[May-39]

I also hunt public and highly pressured areas in Mid Michigan and Northern Michigan 15-25 hunters/section.
A buck over 3.5 is a rare deer, they exist but that has been my biggest frustration is harvesting "only" 3.5 y.o bucks..I've seen 4-5 definate 4+ y.o. during hunting hours in the last decade..I've bumped a few in a.m., old bucks are in bed EARLY as you have figured out. How many Michigan hunters do you know would pass a 2.5 y.o 8 point on public or private land? I know one personally though a few now wait for a 2.5.
All the nice bucks I have harvested have been between 10a-2p over doe bedding areas or breeding areas during rut or near dark. I did shoot one buck from my canoe that wasn't there at noon, went and dragged dad's deer and shot it under my stand at 2:00..It has been very rare to see a nice buck in a.m. that was not chasing does.
However, my partner hunts big marshes as well and his last 2-3.5 y.o. deer have been in the a.m. on the edge of the marsh harassing or crusing for does in a.m.

I have found few primary scrapes here and am convinced that mature bucks scent check/watch from downwind cover. For example Last year in mid October I hunted 30 yards downwind of one that was in the middle of three small points that dropped into a marsh/tag swamps. I watched multiple small bucks and does visit..I heard one lone deer downwind of me once with a huge back end,,,I saw glimpses of a nice buck another time, property owner shot a nice 3.5 y/o buck on 11/14 with crossbow 60 yards past my stand right at dark,, that trail was 45 yards downwind of scrape but i backtracked deer after recovery and found a nice hole where you could plainly see the srape from the trail and North or West wind carried the scrapes scent to that trail. Straight west of the scrape about 100-150 yards was his bed under two lone tag alders in the middle of a 20 acre cattail stand

[KIoutdoors]

KIoutdoors, was your buck bedding downwind of the scrape? In hill country I find a lot of primary scrape areas at the end of the valleys where it starts to go up to the head of the valley. My theory is the does are bedding on those hillsides and the scent from the scrapes are rising into them. The buck will freshen them up before daylight and bed down up on the ridge downwind of the scrape. That's also how I killed the buck in my avatar.

I think John hunts flatter land than I do and I wonder if hunting within sight of the scrape would work in hill country especially since they are mostly in the valleys and the wind would be rough. Or if it's better to just always hunt up on the ridge downwind of the scrape area.

So now my question is, now that I'm becoming more of an evening hunter...How is the activity in these areas during the evening? Will the buck do the reverse in the evening, i.e. get there before the does and monitor them leaving for the feeding areas?

Sorry for the late response, been busy and out scouting. My buck was not down wind of the scrapes, but he was only 30 yards from the scrapes and could monitor them by sight. I usually only try to hunt them one time in the evening and that is usually because I am going in to see if the scrapes have been worked, because once I find these places in the spring I don't go back to them till it is the pre-rut and it's time to hunt them. Out of the four times I hunted one the primary scrape areas in the evening this year I seen one buck that was I would say 3 1/2 which for Michigan is still good. I have been noticing mid day activity at the scrape 3 out of 5 mature deer I seen this year (all wile hunting a primary scrape area) we between 11 and 2.

[KIoutdoors]

[quote="May-39"]I also hunt public and highly pressured areas in Mid Michigan and Northern Michigan 15-25 hunters/section.
A buck over 3.5 is a rare deer, they exist but that has been my biggest frustration is harvesting "only" 3.5 y.o bucks..I've seen 4-5 definate 4+ y.o. during hunting hours in the last decade..I've bumped a few in a.m., old bucks are in bed EARLY as you have figured out. How many Michigan hunters do you know would pass a 2.5 y.o 8 point on public or private land? I know one personally though a few now wait for a 2.5.
All the nice bucks I have harvested have been between 10a-2p over doe bedding areas or breeding areas during rut or near dark. I did shoot one buck from my canoe that wasn't there at noon, went and dragged dad's deer and shot it under my stand at 2:00..It has been very rare to see a nice buck in a.m. that was not chasing does.
However, my partner hunts big marshes as well and his last 2-3.5 y.o. deer have been in the a.m. on the edge of the marsh harassing or crusing for does in a.m.

I have found few primary scrapes here and am convinced that mature bucks scent check/watch from downwind cover. For example Last year in mid October I hunted 30 yards downwind of one that was in the middle of three small points that dropped into a marsh/tag swamps. I watched multiple small bucks and does visit..I heard one lone deer downwind of me once with a huge back end,,,I saw glimpses of a nice buck another time, property owner shot a nice 3.5 y/o buck on 11/14 with crossbow 60 yards past my stand right at dark,, that trail was 45 yards downwind of scrape but i backtracked deer after recovery and found a nice hole where you could plainly see the srape from the trail and North or West wind carried the scrapes scent to that trail. Straight west of the scrape about 100-150 yards was his bed under two lone tag alders in the middle of a 20 acre cattail stand[/quot]

I agree with you on that one, deer over 3 1/2 here are hard to come by ,and it is tough to find anyone who will pass up a deer for that matter !!! I love hunting in the norther lower Michigan Manistee nation forest to be exact because you can actually get away from some people at least during bow season. I know of about 7 primary scrape areas right now that have all the right ingredients that I think are worth hunting.

[gogebicbuckslayer]

Kl i spend a lot of time in the manistee national forest. I'm hopin these new apr's are really gna help boost the age structure in that neck of the woods.

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[KIoutdoors]

I know I love it up there!!! Some places it is hard to find some nice deer but the areas that my family has hunted holds some good ones every year. The mature deer up there travel a lot of ground during the rut I believe. I think they have a set pattern that they travel because I set a trail cam up (oct.20-Nov.14) and got a two bucks that were really nice for up there one would show up for 2 days then disappear for 5 or so days then would show back up and this pattern went on the whole time. They never were never in the area at the same time together. Wish I still had those pictures to show you, I thought that was rather cool.

[gogebicbuckslayer]

Ya there's a ton of land up there for a deer to roam it kind of like where I hunt in the u.p. a buck really has to cover some ground to find a mate. I hunt just south of the irons area and wouldnt trade it for the best farmland hunting in the state. I like the solitude.

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