Two years ago, the first edition of Rut Summit featured an interview with outdoor writer and photographer Charlie Alsheimer. The following is an excerpt from that interview. If you want to listen to the full audio version of the interview, visit www.RutSummit.com. It should be available as a FREE download for the next week or so.
Every Wednesday and Friday in October we'll be releasing new interviews for the second edition of Rut Summit. Until then, hope you enjoy this brief excerpt:
Scrapes, Rubs, and the Stages of the Rut: A
Conversation with Charles Alsheimer
By Ralph Scherder
Open almost any major outdoor magazine from the past
twenty years and you’re sure to see the photography and writing of Charles
Alsheimer. Today, Charlie is one of the
most widely recognized members of the outdoor media and is considered a leading
authority on whitetail deer. Recently I
had a chance to talk to Charlie about scrapes, rubs, and how they indicate the
stages of the rut.
Ralph: Why do bucks makes rubs and scrapes?
Charlie: It’s territorial, it’s all about
dominance. It’s like a dog and a fire
hydrant. We see the visual aspect, the
tree all torn up, but what the deer is doing is leaving behind a lot of his own
odor. He’s leaving scent from his forehead
gland, scent from his pre-orbital gland, and also from his nasal gland.
Like rubs, scrapes are visual and bucks lay down a
lot of scent. They serve as primers for
does that come into estrous, too.
Scrapes also let other bucks in the area know that there’s going to be
competition that fall.
Ralph: What
can you learn from rubs and scrapes?
Does how they’re facing indicate travel direction, time of day, etc?
Charlie:
First of all, I find that most scrapes along field edges are made at
night, simply because it’s rare to see a big buck standing in the middle of a
field in the daytime. The scrapes that
really energize me are the ones I find in transition zones between bedding and
feeding areas.
To determine whether a rub or scrape was made in the
morning or evening, figure out where the bedding and feeding areas are on your
property. If the rub is made on the side
of the tree facing the bedding area, then it’s a safe bet that rub was made in
the afternoon when the buck was heading for food. If it’s made on the side of the tree facing
the feeding area, safe bet that it was made as the buck moved from the feeding
area toward the bedding area, probably in the morning. For scrapes, study the direction the tracks
are facing and you’ll get an idea of where the buck was heading when he made
the scrape.
Ralph: In
your book Strategies for Whitetails you mention that there are three
types of scrapes: boundary, random, and primary. Can you explain?
Charlie: Boundary scrapes are made around a boundary
of a field, could be made on a farm road.
They’re primarily in the open and usually made at night. A random scrape is exactly that. Random.
If a branch happens to be hanging in the rights spot at the right time
where that deer’s walking, he’s normally going to stop and make a scrape. Sometimes you find these scrapes where there
are hardly any trails and wonder about its significance. Well, there isn’t any. The deer just happened to be walking through
the woods and made a random scrape there.
Primary scrapes are the ones you want to hunt
over. They’re found along well-used
trails in the woods. Both bucks and does
use primary scrapes. Both bucks and does
work the licking branches. Bucks urinate
in those scrapes and they serve as interstate highways for whitetails.
Ralph: What would you rather hunt over, a rub line
or scrape line?
Charlie:
Well, they kind of go hand in glove.
Probably 60 to 70% of the deer I’ve killed in my career have been over
scrapes. I know there’s a lot of print
given to scrape hunting each year, and more than half of the writers basically
say you’re wasting your time hunting a scrape line. Well, that’s okay, they can say that. But I kill deer every single year over scrape
lines.
Ralph: Whenever you’re preparing to hunt these scrapes,
what’s your ideal setup?
Charlie: When I think about hunting an area, it
doesn’t matter whether I’m going to Saskatchewan or hunting right here on my
farm, number one thing I do is locate the bedding area. Number two is knowing where the feeding area
is. Those are the most important.
After that, I figure out which way the prevailing
wind is blowing. Once you know the wind
pattern, you can hang your stand accordingly so that no deer is going to smell
you. I hang my stands in transition
zones between bedding and feeding areas, or travel corridors. I make those areas more appealing by adding
mock scrapes.
The next thing I do is I make sure to exit and enter
the stand in a way that doesn’t cut the trail that those animals will be
walking on. And then I take a yard rake
and rake all the debris off the trail that I’m going to walk to and from the
stand. So, when I walk into that stand,
it’s dead silence. No branches breaking,
no leaves rustling.
Ralph: Are
these tactics you use all season long, or do they change when the rut comes?
Charlie: Hunting
transition zones will work throughout the entire season because everything hinges
on bedding and feeding areas. Deer use
those areas throughout all stages of the rut.
They’ll even use them during the post-rut if the food source is still
there.
Ralph: Are
there any distinguishing factors a hunter can look for to determine the stage
of the rut?
Charlie:
There are. When you start talking
about the seeking and chasing phase and the breeding phase, I’ll tell you that
it’s pretty much boilerplate stuff once you know deer behavior. As you come out of October, you’ll find bucks
really starting to walk. They’re on a
march, if you will. From that point
until about mid-November, you’re going to see bucks chasing does. At this time, rubbing and scraping activity
is peaking. New rubs and scrapes can
appear daily.
You’ll know the breeding phase of the rut has kicked
in when scraping and rubbing activity drops off. Bucks become locked on does for up to 72 hours,
breeding her multiple times during that period.
Sometimes she may not go more than 50 yards in a day. If she doesn’t move, he doesn’t move. Find the does and you will find the
bucks. Also, during this time, scrapes
will go cold. That’s one tip I can give
hunters that they can take to the bank.
_____
To learn more about Charlie Alsheimer and his
whitetail research and hunting strategies, visit him online at www.charlesalsheimer.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment