This year I'm not seeing scrapes where there have been some in the past. I know that numerous deer use the same scrapes and I find it hard to believe that all those deer where harvested last season. Can one of you more experienced hunters enlighten me?

Wait a week an look

I suppose it is a little early.

This location has been one of the first the past couple years but nothing this year so far.

I've noticed if the licking branch gets broken off the scrape will go dead rather quickly.

I haven't seen a rub one this year. Have seen a few small scrapes and one good sized one. Overall it's been warm though. My best scrape dogwood that always has scrapes in it every year got smashed buy a huge oak when it went down last spring in a storm. I walked by it today and there near the fallen tree top under a crappy little limb off a sapling was a big scrape. I guess if they couldn't get to their old spot they would get as close as they could.

Not harvested, EHD'd.

That and as hard as the leaves are coming down ...

Not my seeing many over here either, but our deer #s are WAY down last few years.

They just started here yesterday. It will be a late, intense rut.

We've been hit hard with EHD, deer herd is way down in size and rut sign is very slim.

Many factors influence rutting activity/buck sign .Food sources, Weather buck to doe ratio are a few But it can vary alot from year to year And it can be almost no buck sign on one side of a mountain and just a few hundred yards away that area is tore up

The branch is more important than the scrape.

It's the same time every year. Goes off photoperiodism.

I'll wait till a kentuckien chimes in.
A wealth of knowledge will be forthcoming.

Be nice. Hes a nice guy.

Today I saw a few of the good serious scrapes. They were very torn up with serious work above.
Time to get serious!

Agree!

We had a camera on a scrape/licking branch that was being worked regularly by multiple deer, bucks and does. One of the more mature bucks got his rack all tangled up in the licking branch and ripped it off. We have pictures of him carrying it away in his antlers. With the licking branch gone, that scrape has gone completely dead.

Before......


During, already broken but hanging on


Broken and being carried off


The last pic is a capture from a video of the branch being broken and carried off.

Agreed if top wears out or gets torn off, scrape goes cold.
That is why I always look at the top as much or more than the ground.
When I make mock scrapes, I always give them plenty to work up above.
I can do wonders with zip ties and green flexible branches.

Hi Guys - I forgot to include this.

This works great to revitalize a defunct scrape.

When you have a scrape where the deer have torn off the licking branch, try adding a new one. This is what I do. Step one is to drink a big bottle of water. Collect sturdy flexible cuttings - I like to prune a red oak of some side branching. I wear surgical gloves for this. Look around for any scraps of the old licking branch. Use zip ties to attach the new licking branches and attach the scraps if any. Last thing I do is freshen their scrape with dominant urine. I have a convenient dispenser that works well. It sometimes can be problematic if I have skipped step one.

How is this for a licking branch? This tree is close to a few cedars. There have been 1-4 scrapes under this and/or the other trees for at least 25 years. The trees are in the open behind a seasonally occupied home.

Looking spot on. Witnessing a lot of activity from the porch this morning. lol

What part of va are you in?
We had it here year before last. Nasty nasty stuff. It seemed that it killed more bucks than does. That was just my observation. The whole mtn area smelled