Scraping before Grunting

Whats your guys thoughts and theorys on the fallow an pre rut verge of the rut behaviour with their Scrapes, from first marking, have you found anything to indicate older bucks scrape first or first in best dressed? and whats the time frame between scraping and croaking or grunting begins?

i will proberly answer this for myself in this area specifically in the next few weeks but keen to hear ya thoughts...

i might try get around a few areas an see if i can get eyes on a few more bucks , they have just started to make themselves known ere

Lentle & Saxton reckon the big bucks are the last to turn up at the rutting grounds.
At the other end, I have seen many scrapes still in use in late June, but I suspect its the young fellas playing around.

At my place I noticed the first scrapes 3 weeks ago- along with the first rubbed trees. Scrapes have been getting more common every week now until this morning i reckon they are in full use. Had the first buck croak this morning and he was a full mature boy with a well marked out territory. Crept into 40 meters and croaked at him and he came on in, which is a bit unusual as I find the big boys dont tend to come to a croak. No does in residence but they were only 200 meters away and the sole spiker we saw was hiding with a few sheep, obviously kicked out all ready.

I found a lot of scrapes today had been having some attention since I last checked about three weeks ago.
And I found the first thrashed silver fern for the season. I don’t know if this is a common fallow thing or just this herd, or it could even be the same buck doing it every year.

i got lazy and only camped on the ridges and didnt go into the valleys haha, couldnt be fooked the other day,

that sounds about right with the three weeks or so from first sightings of the scrapes, which is easy to pick up if ya frequent the area in question!

seems to fall on easter every year here so i dont see why any different this year, however im going to try my luck at hog deer which the season is April only, so im going to give the first half a go on Hog deer and then follow up on Fallow in the tail end of the rut i will assume!

I’m pretty sure I heard a couple of croaks today, and have gamecam photos of bucks sparring, so things are starting. More new scrapes too, though some of the usual spots are untouched.

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Originally Posted by Rees

Whats your guys thoughts and theorys on the fallow an pre rut verge of the rut behaviour with their Scrapes, from first marking, have you found anything to indicate older bucks scrape first or first in best dressed? and whats the time frame between scraping and croaking or grunting begins?

i will proberly answer this for myself in this area specifically in the next few weeks but keen to hear ya thoughts...

i might try get around a few areas an see if i can get eyes on a few more bucks , they have just started to make themselves known ere

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Bucks will just be starting to establish their areas now. They'll be cruising through and checking things on the daily then peaking during the rut but will still be checking things out into start of June when the yearling does cycle. I had bucks croaking chasing young does late May last year. if you have a caller now is the time to pull in a decent buck if you come across a scrape. using one during the rut you'll pull in the" teenage" boys.

I heard a buck going off his head for over an hour on the 28th Feb. too far to go to get to him though

Regarding the original question, there was a new scrape in front of one of my cameras. A mature buck had a sleep in the hollow a couple of weeks ago, but it was a spiker that made the scrape a few days later.

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Originally Posted by Cigar

Regarding the original question, there was a new scrape in front of one of my cameras. A mature buck had a sleep in the hollow a couple of weeks ago, but it was a spiker that made the scrape a few days later.

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All the boys will come and give it a stir up

any of you blokes bush stalk the fallow esp during the rut?

here alot of the fallow hunting is done on the fringes of privste property and the bush--- fallow r easy in open country

rutting bucks in scrub is awesome tho.

I mostly bush stalk. They are sneaky little buggers!

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Originally Posted by Cigar

I mostly bush stalk. They are sneaky little buggers!

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yeah they r, hunting them when not grunting, or bush hunting does, its difficult and underappreciated i rekon.

most of the fallow get shot from the vehicle driving in or out of the property, but when you arrive to location an its not an open paddock fading off into bush land with a mob of deer on it, targetting fallow can be difficult!

im trying not to get too jazzed up about the Fallow this year but its kinda hard not too.... i love em

I enjoy hunting them in the bush as well. Heres a little vid from last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOM3ZGIG_T0

I find with all sorts of stags/Bucks if they will walk away from you if you grunt/roar then are not in full swing, don't disturb them and come back in a couple of days and try again.

yeah i was grunting just over a small rise from one today an i thought all was good but he had no interest to be honest lol. i didnt wanna rattle as it often spooks the hinds too, in the end i was 45 meters off but a bit late and got busted by hinds.... he wasa gooden.

so i answered my own questions regarding scraping and noises.

i prefer to snoop around the herd as a satelite would, often run into the satelite bucks though, an get busted by the does.... welcome to my rut. FFS

i do fuck a majority of good hunts up by trying to get the bastards on film first for 'real hunting content' but its starting to add up to alot of missed oppertunities on some good deer ay