When deer are in good shape, they can exert more of their energies toward sex. I ran that theory by Jim Bowman, biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. He endorsed it. He added that the hunting regulations of recent seasons designed to bring a better balance between bucks and does have been paying off. With fewer does per buck, the competition among the bucks has increased, and that could be a factor to explain all the scrapes you and other hunters have been seeing.
Bucks have to work harder at being a buck.
Let me introduce you to my friend, Chris Hargrave, who is the founder of Operation Brush Pile. Chris is urging people across the state to build brush piles for wildlife habitat. In areas where natural cover is lacking, artificial brush piles can be constructed to fill this void. Chris got the idea while cleaning up fallen limbs from last December's ice storm, which hit the east and southwest sections of Virginia. More brush pile materials were made available this summer by storms Floyd and Dennis.