This book was written for every hunter who wants close encounters with the nicest White-tailed bucks his/her hunting area has to offer. No sanctuary or game preserve deer are illustrated within. Every experiment was conducted on open to public hunting property. No agricultural fields, food plots, or supplemental feeding strategies were used either. Every experiment was conducted with no outside influences to "lure" the deer to the locations-other than my mock scrape making method and scent combinations. All the photographs contained are time and date stamped for authenticity with easy step-by-step instructions on how to get bucks to stand right in front of you in plain sight! You don't need pockets full of money or leased hunting property, or even private property, for that matter, to see nice whitetails. Anyone can see nice bucks anywhere whitetails roam. EXCERPT: We weren't supposed to be seeing this kind of stuff up here, I thought. But here we were, sitting on the hottest scrape around. At least eight different bucks had visited that one particular scrape.
EXCERPT: Not just one or a few scrapes, rather, almost all became community scrapes if my mock scrape method was adhered to properly.
EXCERPT: It's important to remember that right after the first buck places his scent on your scrape, it's now a natural scrape.
EXCERPT: Misnomer: Deer will only respond to scrapes just before, during, or right after the rut. Bucks and does respond to mock scrapes before bow season even opens (October 1st in the North), which is several weeks before the rut starts.
EXCERPT: Get your scrapes made early. Shortly after they shed their velvet is best, so you'll have a clear idea of which areas have the biggest bucks to target for that hunting season. Start making your scrapes a few days to a week before the opening of bow season. This allows the scrapes time to cook before you hunt them. Letting your scrapes cook is key to its effectiveness. You will have seen enough of the bigger bucks on camera before the rut is in full swing (before they leave the area in search of receptive does) to determine which scrapes to target. You will have a nice buck visiting your scrape early in the season, but then he'll vanish during the breeding season. This is why you want to make them early and let them cook. It gives you enough time to find the one you want to pursue before they get lovesick and leave. An interesting discovery was that when the rut was on and in full swing, the nicer bucks and does visited the scrapes far less than they did earlier in the season. This is attributed to an increase in the radius of their roaming activity, and because bucks intercept receptive does before they make it to the scrapes. This is an excellent time to use your rattling horns to possibly harvest a nicer buck cruising for does. Rattling is a hot topic.
EXCERPT: Horn rattling is very similar to my mock scrape method. You have to believe in it for it to work. If you fidget or move around too much on your stand, the jigs up, and the buck will vanish before you even see him. For every one buck you see, there are several you don't! Have the mindset that every time you rattle, bucks will respond. I had no intention of discussing rattling techniques in this book, but I had a great photo and story of a nice buck. Rattling is an art and deserves respect and attention to detail. Many people aren't sure how to do it, so they give up. Rattling in a buck is an extreme rush; everyone should experience it. It's actually quite simple and very effective if done properly. Will it work every time? No. Will it work on every buck? No. It's another tool to put in your hunting arsenal, alongside mock scrapes. These techniques will help you become a more successful and well-rounded hunter. Scrape hunting becomes less effective in general as the rut approaches, horn rattling becomes more effective. They go hand-in-hand.
About the Author: This book began by accident in 2010. I was experimenting with making mock scrapes to see just how effective they actually are. The area I used was Marquette County in Michigan's Upper Peninsula-thousands of pictures covering a large section of the county were accumulated in the experiments. The goal was based solely on my quest to become the best hunter I could be. After testing different scent and lure combinations along with other variables for the experiments, and documenting the results, it was time to share what was observed. The products and manufacturers mentioned throughout my manual were chosen because they flat-out provided the best results. I was not paid by any manufacturer to use or endorse the products contained within this book. I wanted to find the combinations that deer responded to most favorably. If you follow the techniques developed the way it's explained in this book, nice bucks will visit your mock scrapes. I promise you that! Whether or not you get the opportunity to harvest one, well, that's up to you...even though I'd love to hunt with you. The only animals I hunt are White-tailed deer. I'm totally fascinated with their habits and world. I enjoy roaming the big woods looking for deer sign in the spring of the year also, just before the last of the snow has left-looking for old whitetail rubs and scrapes from the previous season. It's a great time of year for this type of activity because you can see so much further through the woods. It's also an excellent time to find their late season bedding and travel areas because their scat and runways have accumulated over the winter undisturbed. I spend several hundred hours in the woods every year learning all I can about these majestic creatures, trying to learn their habits. To me, there's not a more interesting animal on the planet. With their sudden surge in popularity over the past twenty years-because they are so cunning and curious-I'd say I'm not the only one who thinks that. Gale Arden Bott
