Ever tried switching out licking branches?

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SplitG2
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Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby SplitG2 » Tue Aug 06, 2019 2:57 pm

I enjoy doing mock scrapes and have had what I would consider good success with them. I don't know if any of you have tried this or even given it a thought but it is something I have often wondered about.

I primarily hunt 3 different pieces of property and have for the last 20 years. By way of the crow, you could draw a 1.67 mile line and hit all 3. Now, altho it is a fairly short distance I have only ever seen 4 bucks in 20 years from one property on either of the other 2 and vice versa for all 3. I have seen slight "genetic" traits from bucks from farm A on Farm B or C and also again, the same the other way around but it is extremely rare to see even a single buck touch all 3 in a season. Does it happen without me knowing, most likely but I hunt A LOT on all 3 and run several cameras and as i said, only 4 known in the last 20 years.

To the scrape thing now. I have often wondered what would happen if a guy made a mock scrape on farm A, B and C, let the scrapes get established on all three farms for a couple weeks then cut the the licking branch off and take it to farm B and place it on that mock scrape and do the same from farm B to C and farm C to A. Introduce new "deer scents" to a new area, almost like telling the bucks on the farm that there's a new guy or 2 in town. Has anyone tried this? If so, did it create any extra traffic for a short period of time at that particular scrape for the bucks trying to figure out the new smells? Or do you see this as something completely detrimental and possibly the stupidest thing you've ever heard?

Just something I've always wanted to try and intend to do so this year between the 3 farms.


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stash59
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby stash59 » Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:05 pm

Haven't heard that one. Who knows? Just know throwing a strange buck's tarsal gland in a scrape really tee's off the dominant bucks. But still usually get's hit at night!
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby muddy » Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:32 pm

I have a couple buddies that do this. I was going to maybe try it this year, but it's kind of a PITA and would be an unnecessary trip to otherwise " working scrapes" and maybe muck them all up?

IMO buying a few bottles of buck urine and freshening the scrapes does the same thing but with less invasiveness.
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby SplitG2 » Tue Aug 06, 2019 6:12 pm

muddy wrote:I have a couple buddies that do this. I was going to maybe try it this year, but it's kind of a PITA and would be an unnecessary trip to otherwise " working scrapes" and maybe muck them all up?

IMO buying a few bottles of buck urine and freshening the scrapes does the same thing but with less invasiveness.


Not that trying scents wouldn't work but back 8-10 years or so ago and beyond when I use scents I cannot think of one positive result I ever had from any of them. So now, I run as fast a Katelyn Jenner to get away from them.


On each farm I can get to the scrape on each that I intend to try this on with little to no disturbance if I go in on the right conditions. My intentions were to try it, see if I had any positive results and if I did, it was more less gonna be one of those things I could use to throw into my bag of tricks. Here's my logic, of course this is hypothetical in that one could be successful doing this nearly scent free. Should it work with positive results and I am hunting a specific buck on farm A near his bed and/or primary scrape, I'm likely only able to pull that sit off once and it would likely be an afternoon hunt. So to "possibly" provide myself a better hand in that game of poker, before the hunt cut the licking branch off of the scrape from farm B or C, take it with me to my stand that afternoon on farm A and as quickly and quietly as I could, make the switch on his primary scrape. Maybe he might pick up those new scents while bedded and make him get up a little earlier or maybe when he gets up he decides to possibly just scent check his scrape instead of going to it and now that he smells new bucks scents he is more less forced to go to the scrape to investigate and present a shot. Probably sounds stupid and more work than it's worth but with the right buck you never know, I guess.

Any of your buddies share their results?
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muddy
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby muddy » Tue Aug 06, 2019 10:43 pm

SplitG2 wrote:Any of your buddies share their results?


They had increased buck pics the first few days after switching licking branches from farm to farm. A lot of nocturnal activity mostly, but the bucks would stick around the "new" branch longer and work it over
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby backstraps » Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:12 am

I had this same conversation two weeks ago with a buddy

I have moved licking branches for a long time. Rubber gloves a must

I also go as far as stealing the dirt from the scrape with a small hand garden/sand shovel. Place in gallon zip lock bag and label the ba to match the limb

Then I injected those licking branches and scrape dirt from several different locations

It can sure pull the resident bucks to these mock spots !!!
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby thwack16 » Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:23 am

backstraps wrote:I also go as far as stealing the dirt from the scrape with a small hand garden/sand shovel. Place in gallon zip lock bag and label the ba to match the limb



I've never thought of the switching out the branches, but have contemplated the switching the dirt several times. Always plan to, but never get it done. Could make for an interesting draw during the early pre-rut stage.
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby muddy » Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:42 am

Same thoughts with moving dirt, it would work but is the risk worth the reward? You gotta go into 2 hot scrapes undetected and get out undetected. Probably going to lay some scent down and so on and so forth.

I would only go the distance on switching licking branches and dirt if it was late October and I saw a front with rain coming. I'd go in a few days before that front and get stuff moved and hunt in the better location immediately after the rain stopped. It would give the bucks time to get a snoot full of the "new deer" and hopefully drive them to freshen their "invaded" territory before dark the day of the front/rain.
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby Jdw » Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:26 am

This topic has me wondering how it would work. But I don’t think I would try it hunting because I think the deer will smell me and that will counteract any benefit from doing it.
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?......Update

Unread postby SplitG2 » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:06 pm

Just figured I’d give an update on this...

First off, I would like to apologize as I do not have pics to share in this thread. Due to a medical emergency in the family and constant long distance travel to visit for 2 months, I had to sell all of my cameras around the time I performed this project.

With that said tho, I had great results with this project this year. I took the licking branch from 2 week old, already established scrapes from property A, B and C and switched them all around. Property A got a licking branch from property B, property B got a licking branch from property C and property C got a licking branch from property A. The branches on farm A and B were placed over mock scrapes I made in places where there has never really been a scrape but within the vicinity of annual scrapes. Almost immediately they were taken over and hit hard, in fact they hit them so hard that the number of annual scrapes that they usually have in the vicinity were never reestablished this year.

Property C was the one that was a little more interesting. I had placed the branch on an already established mock scrape that had seen about 3 weeks of use by both does and bucks. It was hit nearly nightly by does and every other day or so by bucks. Once I removed the existing licking branch and replaced it with the one from property A, the scrape went cold for about 8 days. I could check this one daily undetected as I had it on my food plot at the house and I can see the food plot from the house and In that 8 day period the only action it seen was a single fawn track. This particular test was the farthest distance, as the distance between property C and property A is 1.67 miles. The usual bucks and does were still using the plot but they wouldn’t touch the scrape. After the 8th day tho, they started hammering the heck outta the scrape, both bucks and does right up until the bucks really stopped scraping and began chasing does.

They obviously weren’t scared of the scrape as it was on the plot and they still hammered the plot daily but I wanna say that it was full of so many foreign deer smells(at least foreign for that area during that particular timeframe) that maybe it confused them. They could smell these new deer on the scrape but couldn’t smell their scent within the plot or surrounding area. Either way it was a fun experiment and something I will likely do again in the future. If anyone has a theory as to why property C worked out the way it did I’d love to hear it.
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Re: Ever tried switching out licking branches?

Unread postby Mathewshooter » Fri Dec 13, 2019 2:13 pm

You dont need to go through all this trouble. Get yourself some Smokeys Pre Orbital scent and put it on an overhanging branch to start a scrape or doctor an existing one. Theres no need for scent in the scrape itself. Ive been running cameras on video mode over scrapes for the past 5 years or so and at most 50% of the bucks smell the ground scrape itself but 100% of them smell the overhanging branch. The pre orbital scent will be the scent of an intruder buck to the area....so its the same concept.
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