Sage Hunting Advice for the Last Week of October

Fresh scrapes are pure excitement. Primarily, if the pawed earth is large in size and there’s not a single leaf in the dirt.  Brian Kitghtlinger did a great job of covering the four types of scrapes in his post last week, and here’s a step further.  Many sponsors are urging you to use their products to score as the rut draws near, but here’s a strategy that has high success and is easy to embrace.

A Scrape Ignored

I do media work in South Dakota every year and do my best to squeeze in a day or two of deer hunting once the work is complete.  On my last trip, I had just one day with no time to scout, so I headed to a location that had proven very productive in previous years.  As I waded a small stream in the first light of dawn, I walked past a fresh scrape that had been refreshed from previous years.  I was tempted to hunt there but moved another 50 yards to the far side of the creekbed to take advantage of a west wind.  In the first hour of the day, I saw movement through the dense brush and found a mature 10-point and an 8-point at the scrape.  The crossbow shot was obstructed, and as soon as the deer left, I moved closer, and within 30 minutes, a 6-point came to the same spot.  The deer saw me sitting against a tree, and we had several minutes of eye contact until it relaxed and looked away, just enough time to fill my tag.

Night Scrapes

Over the years, I have hunted many scrapes with little success, primarily because I didn’t see them as places where bucks make one scrape and move on.  The honey hole of scrapes is finding primary scrapes that are fresh and show a progression of movement.  In this way, you can see that a buck is using this scrape line as a travel corridor.  Dale Strubel is a senior hunter who shares his expertise in the following video.  His advice is simple but effective and parallels my experience over 50 years in the deer woods.

Old School Advice