A scrape line by far. Bucks tend to make rub lines on their various wanderings through the woods. The rub line will likely be on a popular trail so isn't necessarily a bad place to hunt, but bucks will regularly visit scrapes when they are active so give me a scrape or scrape line any day. I especially like to keep an eye on them when the leaves are falling heavily. If the scrape is open at such times, chances are the buck is visiting a lot.

 

Scrapes now through the pre rut. Rubs If I find a lot rubs in a little area that has some cover usually means I am in his bedroom or close to it.

 

Agree 100%. If you find a group of rubs bunchesd up in thicker cover Look on the ground I bet the bed is not far away But that specific buck might only be using that bedding area for a week or two And then move locations depending on time of year

 

Rubs tell you a route that the buck is routinely taking. You can also tell what direction he is going and then extrapolate to morning or evening. You can often follow a rub line right back to the bucks home turf.

There are different kinds of scrapes. There are permanent ones at trail junctions, etc that the whole herd uses for communication.

A lot of scrapes in late October can be totally random, bucks can open a lot of scrapes on a single day. They will often check them from the downwind side so the deer will often approach them from different directions based on the wind, making stand placement a crap shoot. They often freshen them at night and a lot of times they never return to a scrap.

I had a beautiful buck coming down a field edge last year. He was about 100 yards down the field and headed my way.
Every 5 yards he would stop and open a scrape! It took him so long to cover the 100 yards he didn't make it to me during legal shooting hours.....grrrrrrr!
AND he never returned to any of those scrapes in the next couple of days. I never saw him again that year.
But he's on camera this year again! I hope he shows up tomorrow!

 

I've killed more mature buck over a rub/scrape line that I have made myself than over any other indentifiable feature other than natural or ag food source (not bait).

I've honed my system....I look for the first scrape to open in an area...as soon as I find it, I make 3-6 scrapes in that immediate area with a rub (using the back of my hand saw) within a few feet of every scrape. I've doctor the scrapes with a few drops of Harmon's Scrape Blend and/or my own urine, I hunt that area from the moment I make them until dark and I do my best to do an all day sit the very next day. I have become a firm believe that the scent dispersed in the air from the turned up soil and the peeled bark, combined with urine/scent peaks their interest enough for them to want to check out...the rubs create a visible sign-post that they can spot as they are relying on their nose to find danger or figure things out...it is very important that my stand is set on crosswind so that my scent is carried away from downwind location that I expect a buck to use for his approach. I have increased the efficiency of this by using the tactic sparingly and under ideal situations, name a ridge top that carries the scent into a thicker bottom when a buck would/could be bedded, seeking a doe, traveling for cover. I have had mature buck 3.5-6.5 approach from more than 100 yards away and go directly to a rub that I made and almost rip the tree out of the ground and then visit a nearby scrape with such ferocity that they are sending dirt 20 yards behind them. This has proven to be the most effective in mid-October, I usually wait for the first real cold snap or heavy frost after the full moon in Oct. This year will be interesting as there are 2 full moons in Oct - 10/1 and 10/31..so who knows. Most of the results reported above have been realized on public ground in pressured areas.

Hope this helps.

 

Given the choice I'd pick the scrape line but truth be told I don't hunt either one. There will be some of each in most of the areas that I hunt.

 

My thoughts on scrape line. Just a visual of hey this is my territory. Scrape depends on if it is active or not and when. Scrapes can mean different things. Is it a hey are you ready or is it just a exploratory scrape. I hunt both depending on the time of the use.

 

I once hunted what I thought was a scrape line because the scrapes were along the ridge, spaced maybe 50-75yds apart for almost 1/2mi. I thought for sure I'd set up 20yds off the side of the ridge and catch buck after buck coming down that row. Didn't happen like that at all. Set a camera up to see if they were doing it at night and caught nothing. I was perplexed but still kept hunting because something or someone was making those scrapes.

When I finally saw the culprit, it was eye opening. It was indeed a buck. A very big buck. And he was indeed making/refreshing the scrapes. But he wasn't doing it in a line and not all at once. He came up the side of the hill, scraped at the ridge peak, then continued on down the other side. He never traveled the ridge line at all, only crossed it. Furthermore, there were no obvious trails he was using. As far as I know it was just random spots. I'm sure he knew what he was doing, but he didn't bother to stop & explain it to me lol.

Anyway, from then on I don't hunt hunt "scrape lines" anymore because they are not what they seem. Since that learning experience I've paid closer attention to them and almost every time it's the same thing. They hit a single scrape from a perpendicular approach, then hit another scrape crossing back again, and so on. They don't actually hit scrape after scrape in a line like the evidence seems to suggest, or at least in my experience. They do hit every one of those scrapes, just not at the same time and not from the direction you'd think.