Minnesota North Outdoors

This idea came to fruition after working at many different construction sites.  The morning after any earth related disturbance I observed a high amount of deer tracks in the soil.  They would show up overnight after we had gone home from the job site.  From the appearance and direction of the tracks, they were there for no other purpose than to check out the newly excavated soil.  In some cases, these sites were located in areas that offered no real reason for the deer to be there other than exploring the newly exposed soil.

I used this concept and tried it first in front of trail cameras with great success.  I could post hundreds of pictures of deer checking out these areas and they contained no scent.  While in the vicinity of existing deer trails, the disturbance of earth itself seems to be the only factor that attracted them.  I was not able to truly test during the winter because in Minnesota the ground is frozen.  However, this disturbed soil worked equally well at attracting deer from March though November and seems to work equally well for all genders and maturity levels of deer.

The idea then came to me, prior to climbing into my stand, to make a series of disturbed dirt or "scrapes" around my hunting area.  The key difference was that I didn't use scent.  The attractant was nothing other than the natural smell of the newly exposed soil.  I believe that this odor of freshly exposed soil is exactly what attracts them.  The scent is natural yet different than what they expect and offers nothing alarming, but does spark their curiosity.  Another advantage is at times, I am even able to smell the musty order of decaying leaves and earth that I have exposed, so I figure it works great as a natural cover scent as well!

Recently, I had two small bucks traveling together that both detoured their travel route and stopped within 11 yards from my stand,

They sniffed and pawed around a couple of times in the freshly exposed soil.  I made this scrape only 2 1/2 hours earlier in the morning and these two bucks wanted to know what it was all about.  As they pawed around they left behind their interdigital scent.  Doing so should calm other deer down by leaving their natural scent and potentially attracting more as well.

To create these disturbances, I use a 3 tooth hand held garden rake that I store in a plastic bag or hang on a tree in my hunting area.  I use gloves to create these disturbances and do everything possible to keep my scent at a minimum.  I usually try to make a circular area with a diameter of about four feet.  I will make one or two of these disturbances 10 to 70 yards from my stand depending on if I am bow or rifle hunting.  I make sure that they are both in areas where I have the best possible opportunity for a good shot placement.  From my experience, in stands and blinds, deer will spend awhile sniffing around the area and should give you a couple of shot opportunities.  Don't be rushed into taking a bad shot as you will likely get a decent one as they paw and sniff the ground.

Disturbed dirt, try it for yourself and you will be impressed with the results, I know I am.