Editor’s Note: Between the cover where deer bed down, and the places where they feed, big bucks are on the move and more vulnerable then.

I’ve been aware of mock scrapes for years, however, honestly I’ve never given that idea much attention or used them. But today I have two young hunting companions, my son, John, Jr., and Derrick Jones, who in 2020 and 2021 have created mock scrapes, put trail cameras out near them and had fantastic results. Trail cameras don’t lie. I believe before the 2021 deer season ends that one or both will take a buck over their mock scrapes.

I interviewed Kyle Hooten of St. Mary’s, Kansas, a couple of years ago, who had read numerous articles about other deer hunters who had created mock scrape trees and been very successful with them. For three years Hooten and his dad had used this almost surefire tactic in their region of the U.S. and had taken several 150-160 point bucks using a mock scrape tree. Here’s what Hooten did in his own words.

“I’ll cut down either a big limb or a small oak tree – 3-4 inches in diameter at its base – dig a hole and put that tree where I want it to be,” Hooten reports. “Then I use ScrapeFix powder (https://www.scrapefix.com/) on the limbs and under the tree on the ground and place other types of deer lure and deer scents under the tree. We’ve found that these mock scrape trees work best during the prerut in our area when the bucks are searching for that first estrous doe. If the bucks break limbs on the mock scrape tree by rubbing their antlers and their foreheads there, I’ll simply screw a new limb into the trunk of that tree, and the deer can work it again.”

To learn more about hunting for deer, check out John E. Phillips’ book, “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property,” available in Kindle and print at http://amzn.to/WIEUoo and Audible at https://www.audible.com/pd/PhD-Whitetails-Audiobook/B08VYMWS6J. You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser. (When you click on this book, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read 10% of the book for free and hear 10% for free). On the right side of the page and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book. To see more of John’s deer hunting books, visit www.amazon.com/author/johnephillips.

Tomorrow: Hunt Deer at Water and Crowded Places