Remember, the overwhelming majority of scraping activity precedes breeding and for the most part stops once breeding is completed. In fact, on northern ranges, a mature buck will make 50 to 80 percent of his scrapes before the first does come into estrus. Though they may seem to be at times, scrapes are not randomly distributed. They're generally made along travel routes or clustered in areas of high deer activity, especially along opening edges, where they can draw the most attention from other deer. The area must also be suitable for scraping.
Most scrapes are circular or oval areas, two to three feet in diameter.
Reopened scrapes, however, are on average about 60 percent larger than initial scrapes. Although scrape size increases with use, on northern ranges those made during the breeding period are larger than those made by the same deer the rest of the year, even if they're only pawed once. Typically, the largest scrapes are those maintained by older bucks. Sometimes different bucks make scrapes close enough to each other that, with repeated pawing, they eventually merge as one enormous scrape. Some of these combination scrapes can measure 8 to 10 feet across.