early scrapes?

[hillbilly3444]

Found a couple of scrapes yesterday. Seems to be pretty early to me, dont remember ever seeing them this early. They are about 5 yds apart and about 50 to 60 yds from my stand. I've seen several young bucks in the area lately. Could it be one of those "prepubescent" fellas doing this already? Should I stick with that stand any more than usual, or is this just a fluke that doesnt mean much?

[Goose]

Its a good sign. Mature deer are often the first ones to lay down sign. The downside of it is that more than likely it was made at night and will be visited at night. Scrapes are visited 90% of the time at night and that number is even higher early in the fall.
Most early scrapes are found along field edges, but of course, they can show up anywhere.
I would take it as a good sign that bucks are in the area, and maybe put a camera over it to see who is visiting it.
Hope this helps......

[bodetis]

i had killed a nice ten pointer where i hunt the second weekend of season here in kentucky, i had a 8 come by shortly before him but didnt get a shot at him, well i went to my stand a couple days ago looking for my broadhead  and part of arrow that broke off, about 50 yards from my stand i found a fresh scrape to, i was kinda surprised to but im sure it was that other buck i seen first that made it. i would stay in that area if i was you, maybe even move you stand closer about 30 yards, or look hard to find the trail the bucks are using and set up close to that. goodluck!

[hillbilly3444]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm gonna try to at least get a camera close by and if there is something big coming in, maybe I'll move my stand a little closer. Oh, these scrapes are in the timber, but only about 20 yds from the field edge.

[Demoderby4]

The earlier the scrape the bigger the buck will be in most cases. Yearlings and 2.5 year olds are still getting used to the raging hormones come this time of the year and don't start scraping until Mid to late Oct. most the time. If you find scrapes now get excited. But don't put too much time in hunting over them. I wouldn't move my stand any closer, if anything I would try to find a trail or a buck bedding area and hunt closer to that or the trail(s) leading to the scrape. Even if that means moving away from the scrape. I love seeing scrapes and my gut instinct still tells me to set up on them, but i don't because as Goose said 85-90% of scrapes are visited at night. It wouldn't hurt putting your trail cam there. That's a good move just to see what you got out there. Use those pictures to try to figure where the buck is coming from/going to. Once you figure that out, you need to be hunting that trail he is taking, esp. if he is on it constantly. Another note on that, if you find that the scrape is facing east or west that will help tell you when he is coming to look at it, more towards night, or early in the morning. Good luck!