Rope Mock Scrapes

[Trout]

Thinking about giving rope Mock scrapes a shot this summer to locate older bucks. I searched the archives here and didnt see much, was curious if anyone on here has used these with any success to determine if older deer are in an area. I hunt big woods so shining and glassing arent very effective tools, feels like finding a needle in a hay stack, especially in the area I'm in where the buck:doe ratio is way out of whack, genetics are very poor, and hunting pressure is crazy high. Rope mock scrapes seem like a way to get a picture of an older deer if he exists, which could help me hone in on particular places. I'm usually not a big fan of this kind of thing, but I'm willing to try it for a season or two and see how it works out as an inventory tool.

So for those who use them, how are you setting up, what kind of rope are you using? if you're using scent to get the scrape started, what are you using? how about high % setup locations without being too intrusive? How long does it typically take to get a good inventory of what's in the immediate area?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Trout]

One other question, for those who have tried rope Moxk scrapes, how do they compare to traditional mock scrapes under a licking branch?

[stash59]

Muddy uses grapevines or some kind of similar vine. He uses 2 or 3 pieces at each spot. Uses zip ties to fasten to the tree limbs. To me these would be less obvious to other hunters, than a rope!!

Try searching for overhanging branches or licking branches with muddy as the author!! He had some great pics along with his explanation. Forgot to bookmark the thread.

According to Gene Wensel. If your going to add preorbital scent to the grapevines. Crushing/hammering the ends to create fibrous brush of sorts. Helps get more scent into/on the ends and makes it last longer. Once real deer start using them. No need to rescent!!

Let us know how it goes. Been wanting to do this myself. With my better mobility. I hope to do some this summer!!!

[Cchez]

Id recommend watching some of Jeff Sturgis' videos on mock scrapes, and Jim Ward is another one who uses/makes them. Maybe they've got some info you'd like to put to use. I hunt MN big woods, I've yet to try using a rope or vine. What i've done and had success with is finding a tree with a low enough branch i can bend down and make it more of a natural appearance.

Good luck, let us know what you try and how it works for you!

[Trout]

Muddy uses grapevines or some kind of similar vine. He uses 2 or 3 pieces at each spot. Uses zip ties to fasten to the tree limbs. To me these would be less obvious to other hunters, than a rope!!

Try searching for overhanging branches or licking branches with muddy as the author!! He had some great pics along with his explanation. Forgot to bookmark the thread.

According to Gene Wensel. If your going to add preorbital scent to the grapevines. Crushing/hammering the ends to create fibrous brush of sorts. Helps get more scent into/on the ends and makes it last longer. Once real deer start using them. No need to rescent!!

Let us know how it goes. Been wanting to do this myself. With my better mobility. I hope to do some this summer!!!

Thanks, appreciate the help, will search for those posts!

Id recommend watching some of Jeff Sturgis' videos on mock scrapes, and Jim Ward is another one who uses/makes them. Maybe they've got some info you'd like to put to use. I hunt MN big woods, I've yet to try using a rope or vine. What i've done and had success with is finding a tree with a low enough branch i can bend down and make it more of a natural appearance.

Good luck, let us know what you try and how it works for you!

Thanks, I'm kind of torn on rope vs a real branch. The rope thing sounds like it makes sense to work well with the rope absorbing more scent, was hoping for a firsthand account of how much better it is vs a regular old licking branch. If it's worth the extra effort, I'm all in, just hate to work harder for a gimmick. By that I mean that it also sounds like you need things to be just right to have an overhead branch in the right spot large enough to hang a rope- then you gotta get up to it and hang the rope. A natural branch would be easier to set up.

I will keep this thread updated as I try it out. I will try both and see which gets hit harder/faster/more frequently.

[JonNc]

I also plan on adding mock scrapes into the plan a little more this year. One particular area is a good travel corridor, with no good overhanging branches. They travel in the "opening" and also in the thicket 15 yards away about 50% of the time in each. I'm hoping to encourage them stepping out of that thicket. It's not a real opening just broomsage, weeds, and briars short enough that you can still shoot. There are only two thigh size trees in this opening creating a perfect visual if I do a mock scrape. I'm debating vine vs natural branch also. I saw one good hunter that was sawing off a branch and tying it horizontally to a tree like I'm speaking about that had no existing branches at the right height. It catches deer's attention visually and he has great success with this strategy. I like the idea of the vine, but it would be difficult to tie a vine since there aren't any branches for the first 18 feet.

[Trout]

I also plan on adding mock scrapes into the plan a little more this year. One particular area is a good travel corridor, with no good overhanging branches. They travel in the "opening" and also in the thicket 15 yards away about 50% of the time in each. I'm hoping to encourage them stepping out of that thicket. It's not a real opening just broomsage, weeds, and briars short enough that you can still shoot. There are only two thigh size trees in this opening creating a perfect visual if I do a mock scrape. I'm debating vine vs natural branch also. I saw one good hunter that was sawing off a branch and tying it horizontally to a tree like I'm speaking about that had no existing branches at the right height. It catches deer's attention visually and he has great success with this strategy. I like the idea of the vine, but it would be difficult to tie a vine since there aren't any branches for the first 18 feet.

Yeah I would try the vine thing but we dont have them where I live. I think you gotta go a couple hours or more south before they start to be a thing.

I dont plan to hunt over a mock scrape, though I'm not opposed to it, I just want to run them in the summer with trail cams for inventory purposes. I just need an older buck to visit them once and then I will start breaking the area down to figure him out.

[JonNc]

Yeah I'd say it wouldn't hurt to give it a try as long as you're not going in there too much. In my situation it's a spot they already use, I had a camera up all season in that spot and it's just to give them something to stop at, get better pics, and possibly help them step out.

I have had some luck hunting over scrapes on primary scrapes and knowing about when they heat up. I also see that they hit primary scrapes throughout the fall. I found one in October last year, couldn't get back out til December, which is after the rut here. I put a camera on it then. They continued to visit that scrape all month even into January. That's a little off subject, but I'm a big fan of scrapes when you can find the right ones.

[Cchez]

Muddy uses grapevines or some kind of similar vine. He uses 2 or 3 pieces at each spot. Uses zip ties to fasten to the tree limbs. To me these would be less obvious to other hunters, than a rope!!

Try searching for overhanging branches or licking branches with muddy as the author!! He had some great pics along with his explanation. Forgot to bookmark the thread.

According to Gene Wensel. If your going to add preorbital scent to the grapevines. Crushing/hammering the ends to create fibrous brush of sorts. Helps get more scent into/on the ends and makes it last longer. Once real deer start using them. No need to rescent!!

Let us know how it goes. Been wanting to do this myself. With my better mobility. I hope to do some this summer!!!

Thanks, appreciate the help, will search for those posts!

Id recommend watching some of Jeff Sturgis' videos on mock scrapes, and Jim Ward is another one who uses/makes them. Maybe they've got some info you'd like to put to use. I hunt MN big woods, I've yet to try using a rope or vine. What i've done and had success with is finding a tree with a low enough branch i can bend down and make it more of a natural appearance.

Good luck, let us know what you try and how it works for you!

Thanks, I'm kind of torn on rope vs a real branch. The rope thing sounds like it makes sense to work well with the rope absorbing more scent, was hoping for a firsthand account of how much better it is vs a regular old licking branch. If it's worth the extra effort, I'm all in, just hate to work harder for a gimmick. By that I mean that it also sounds like you need things to be just right to have an overhead branch in the right spot large enough to hang a rope- then you gotta get up to it and hang the rope. A natural branch would be easier to set up.

I will keep this thread updated as I try it out. I will try both and see which gets hit harder/faster/more frequently.

I'm not sure if you plan on using any scents or not. Last year all i did was pee in the scrapes myself and bench a branch down to about belly height. Within a day i had deer of different sex and ages come and check them out. No mature bucks on the one i placed on the edge of a food plot, but I did have a nice one come into the one i made on the edge of a big conifer swamp.

[Trout]

Found the post with Muddy's grape vine setups for anyone else interested. Thanks again to Stash for the heads up.

not sure if you plan on using any scents or not

I do plan to use scent to get them started. I'll probably just leave some of my own urine.

I plan to start these in June in areas where I hope an older buck lives. I have a half dozen trail cams so I will put 6 out, let em soak for 1 or 2 weeks, and then move all of them to new areas, then repeat that process over and over until fall. Ideally, by that time I will have covered dozens of areas and will have an idea where my best odds are to hunt an older deer when the season gets here. Then I can break those areas down and play cat and mouse. I still plan to shine and glass cause they're both fun, but it's hard to do this things effectively when there arent too many fields around. It's really just about locating a older buck which is something I struggle with close to home. I leave my home area and it's no problem, we just dont have a lot of em here. So that tells me I need to work harder and smarter and try some new inventory tactics.

Right now I'm thinking I will make the mock scrapes at locations that had good buck sign during spring scouting, ones that have in the past, funnels, etc.

[CChunter2]

I had some success last year on mock scrapes. I used a 1/4" diameter manila rope. I zip tied it to a small branch just to give it some stiffness. Then I zip tied that branch to a limb hanging straight down. I frayed the end of the rope and put some pre orbital gland lure on the limb. I also kicked out a spot underneath it.

[Robert]

I have had great luck with vines. One single vine about 4 feet off the ground and 3/4 inch in diameter. That's what has worked best for me.

[Scott S]

I own a small piece of land and I use a few mock scrapes there. When I get them in the right spot they work great.

I've never used rope. I use an oak sapling suspended with paracord as that's what I find they rub the most on my property.

[stash59]

Found the post with Muddy's grape vine setups for anyone else interested. Thanks again to Stash for the heads up.

not sure if you plan on using any scents or not

I do plan to use scent to get them started. I'll probably just leave some of my own urine.

I plan to start these in June in areas where I hope an older buck lives. I have a half dozen trail cams so I will put 6 out, let em soak for 1 or 2 weeks, and then move all of them to new areas, then repeat that process over and over until fall. Ideally, by that time I will have covered dozens of areas and will have an idea where my best odds are to hunt an older deer when the season gets here. Then I can break those areas down and play cat and mouse. I still plan to shine and glass cause they're both fun, but it's hard to do this things effectively when there arent too many fields around. It's really just about locating a older buck which is something I struggle with close to home. I leave my home area and it's no problem, we just dont have a lot of em here. So that tells me I need to work harder and smarter and try some new inventory tactics.

Right now I'm thinking I will make the mock scrapes at locations that had good buck sign during spring scouting, ones that have in the past, funnels, etc.

Great!! I looked a little for it myself this AM. But couldn't hit on the correct word combo. Please post a link when you have time. I need to bookmark that one!! I'll bookmark this one too!

[Trout]

Found the post with Muddy's grape vine setups for anyone else interested. Thanks again to Stash for the heads up.

not sure if you plan on using any scents or not

I do plan to use scent to get them started. I'll probably just leave some of my own urine.

I plan to start these in June in areas where I hope an older buck lives. I have a half dozen trail cams so I will put 6 out, let em soak for 1 or 2 weeks, and then move all of them to new areas, then repeat that process over and over until fall. Ideally, by that time I will have covered dozens of areas and will have an idea where my best odds are to hunt an older deer when the season gets here. Then I can break those areas down and play cat and mouse. I still plan to shine and glass cause they're both fun, but it's hard to do this things effectively when there arent too many fields around. It's really just about locating a older buck which is something I struggle with close to home. I leave my home area and it's no problem, we just dont have a lot of em here. So that tells me I need to work harder and smarter and try some new inventory tactics.

Right now I'm thinking I will make the mock scrapes at locations that had good buck sign during spring scouting, ones that have in the past, funnels, etc.

Great!! I looked a little for it myself this AM. But couldn't hit on the correct word combo. Please post a link when you have time. I need to bookmark that one!! I'll bookmark this one too!

Whoops, forgot to paste it- thanks again!


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