Tell-Tale Signs to stop scouting and hang that stand?

[obrion]

I am curious to see what some of the successful hunters approach is to in season scouting with a stand on your back. What are your clear indicators that a spot is so hot you need to get into a tree now? And how far do you push your suspicions toward bedding?

Thanks,

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Fresh waist high rubs from mid October through Halloween...Ask me how I know? Yup, I moved past them like a dumbo

[BigHunt]

Fresh waist high rubs from mid October through Halloween...

What he said also big freash tracks

[ Post made via Android ]

[Dewey]

The main thing I look for is very fresh sign. If I know the area well and see a fresh rubline with large tracks heading into a known bedding area you can bet I am setting up right away for an evening hunt if the wind is right.

Later on as we get closer to the rut I am looking for buck cruising areas downwind of doe bedding. A few spots I hunt have zero tracks or trails but once things heat up there will be a very heavy trail pounded in the dirt from cruising bucks. If you find spots like that it can be a buck super highway if you catch the right day.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[keb]

When my gut tells me its it.

[Swampthing]

Don't forget fresh buck droppings. That always gets my attention.

[Dewey]

Don't forget fresh buck droppings. That always gets my attention.

Yes thanks I forgot to mention that. Freshness of the droppings is a great way to know you are on the freshest sign.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Swampthing]

Last week I set up on some fresh sign,I was walking a marsh edge and came across a very faint trail exiting the cattails. It was no worn down doe trail just a trail of grass split and bent over. I found a real fresh large pile of dropping along it. So I found a bush 20 yards off the trail and a nice shooter came out 1/2 hour before quiting time. He busted me drawing and busted back to safety.

[crankn101]

For me I just know it when I know it. My closest spots are 200+ miles away so all my scouting up to this point is done in season, but after learning more about bedding and their behavior on here ill scout and shed hunt hard next spring.

A fresh scrape in late Nov can be money...

[dan]

Very fresh sign... The best sign is large fresh day old tracks near a a bedding area... Tracks going in fresh in the morning has done it for me a lot of times...

[Crazinamatese]

In past seasons, I usually found fresh scrapes and rubs that are a day old or less, there is almost always a buck bedded close by.

[ Post made via Android ]

[dkoy85]

For me it's fresh sign. Whether it's fresh mega rubs in conjunction with stinky scrapes from the night before, or signs of chasing and/or cruising, as Dewey mentioned, around doe bedding. Nothing gets me more fired up than walking in to pull a card or hunt an area and smelling bucks and seeing leaves flipped all over like a flock of turkeys were pecking around and knowing it's time to abort plans, go back to the truck and grab the climber!

It took me 6 years leading up to this past season before I really started to put together important clues to really feeling confident in when to go in for the all day sit and kill- during the rut. It took a lot of missed opportunities, bad shots, and bad stand setups to feel like I'll get a crack at a good buck every year- and I'll screw up a hundred more times till I get it right, if ever.

And it all really boils down to fresh sign. Fresh fresh fresh! Be a student of the woods. Let the woods speak to you. Eventually you will walk into an area and just feel awesome about it, and that's because it almost becomes muscle memory... of the brain. Where you can react to a situation and not think about it, but just know what to do at that very moment. Sorry, kinda went on and on.. and on didnt I?

[obrion]

Thanks guys! Awesome responses, I appreciate your time. Hopefully this stuff will become more and more obvious every time out.

[ Post made via Android ]

[JoeRE]

Really good question...for me its looking at several pieces to the puzzle. I know from experience I don't do well going in completely blind. Not just topos or aerial photos - I don't feel confident unless I have done quite a bit of preseason scouting. That information is critical when deciding if the sign I see at is worth hunting. Otherwise I have no idea if I am 100 yards too far back or 100 yards too far in. With that its just the usual - big tracks leading to food sources, scrapes, rubs in spots close to where I think the bucks are bedding.