Deer hunters all have their own opinion on that works best for them in the deer woods. The lifelong argument remains on whether to hunt over scrapes or rubs, which is better to hunt can depend entirely on your situation and the amount of hunting pressure in and around your setup. With thousands of hours of camera footage to review each fall and hundreds of hours spent on stand building the whitetail Playbook we started digging into the answers to this debate, That is why reading scrapes and rubs is so important, oftentimes, bucks return time and time again to these areas to keep scent marking these beacons in the whitetail woods. This is the perfect opportunity to where we are able to take advantage of their habitual behavior which is normally a mature bucks fatal mistake and have the opportunity to harvest the most active mature buck on your property.
Finding the Right Scrape
The most important information you can obtain from trail cameras on multiple scrapes is “which type of scrape you should hunt”? There are various types of scrapes and everyone has their own lingo, but the most important scrape is a community or Hub scrape. You normally get multiple shooters on these scrapes at all different times of day and night, but more importantly you will see countless does and fawns visiting these scrapes. You will quickly learn which bucks are coming time and time again to that scrape. Put a trail camera up around that scrape preferably a cell camera so intrusion is limited. So if your choice is to hunt a Hub scrape or scrape, be sure to pick one with ample cover and good access in and out. Deer feel safe under the cover of night, so they are more likely to visit protected scrapes during the day and scrapes on wood edges and food sources at night. We also know that many deer are willing to go 30-40 yards out of their way to hit a scrape, or scrape line.
Hunting Rubs That Matter
Decades of deer hunters have had success hunting rub lines, some swear that it is the best way to go. A rub line is likely where a mature buck is walking along each and every day. Make sure to do your fair share of scouting around the rub line. Sometimes there may be some smaller bucks tearing up the area, so having those trail cam pictures can be the difference in knowing where to hunt and wasting your sits to only see small bucks. Unlike scrapes, many deer will not go out of their way to hit a rub, especially if it is not on a main trail. So you can be sure that you have a few bucks going back into those rubs regularly and not 5-10 different deer. Hunting rub lines adjacent to field edges or hedge row rub lines are mainly night time, catching a buck crusing these areas is only a short window during the Rut. Finding and hunting rubs in funnels and piches will yield better results throughout the entire season than random rubs left acroos the countryside. While opinions differ, everyone can agree that hunting scrapes or rubs are worth a try. There is not a scientific study that shows which one is better for hunting. Millions of hunters have had success with both options. Each property is different, so if you have scrapes and rubs on your property, try hunting both
