I've never used them before but have decided to try a couple this season. Would it be too early to create them now or should I wait until October? There seems to a belief that dominant bucks create their scrapes earlier than lesser bucks.

TIA

Too early, bucks I am seeing are still in full velvet and in bachelor groups..

Too early. In deep E TX I think in area you hunt it is pretty easier to see when bucks start making scrapes. Find scrape line and look for the larger dominant scrape. that is area to use mock scrape. E. TX and Ark I've had success with getting bucks to use mock scrapes. W TX and N TX no luck

Some bucks makes scrapes year round. I found a scrape in early June in La Salle county one year after a rainy cool period for June. Most bucks don't scrape like that year round. It really depends on how early your rut starts in your area as to how soon after they strip the velvet that they start to make scrapes. In NE Kendall County the bucks would immediately start to makes scrapes after they stripped the velvet off...they were in full rut by mid October. I found fawns on the ground the last week of April every year and found one on April 5th one year and he ran from me when I about stepped on him.

I start making my mock scrapes when I start seeing real ones being put down

In our area wee start seeing scrapes mid to late October.

I have been seeing scrapes for the last two weeks now. Not too early here.