Top 8 Mock Rut Scrape Fails
Russ Chastain 08.07.20
(Image: Screenshot from video)
Whitetail hunting pro Jeff Sturgis loves his mock rut scrapes, as you’ll know if you’ve watched many of his videos. He picks a handy spot, dangles a hunk of vine over a scuffed-up spot in the ground and pees in it if he feels the urge, then he sits back and watches the whitetails come.
Along the way, he’s learned a thing or two about what NOT to do, so he’s made a video called “Top 8 Mock Scrape Fails.”
I admit that I have never seen a natural scrape made under a dangling vine to act as a licking branch– but his videos prove that deer do use his scrapes with the hanging vines. He likes to make a scrape in a good location for his stand, then destroy natural scrapes within 30-50 yards to encourage the deer to use his scrape.
He spends the first 4 and a half minutes talking at great length about the benefits of mock scrapes, why and where to make them, before he starts covering the fails that brought us viewers to his video.
His list of fails include:
- Using commercial scent (4:30)
- Hanging the licking branch/vine too high (9:27)
- Making too many mock scrapes (10:15)
- Placing the scrape off to the side of a trail rather than in it (11:40)
- Hanging the licking branch/vine diagonally or horizontal rather than vertically (12:40)
- Using a licking branch/vine that’s too light, so it moves around too much when the deer use it (14:45)
- Hanging the licking branch/vine unnaturally (16:57)
- Placing a mock scrape where you can’t (photograph and) shoot a deer that’s using it (18:52)
Of course he goes into detail about each point… watch the video and let us know what you think.
