Scouting & the return on investment

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Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby cbigbear » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:49 am

This is something I think about often what return do I get from hrs invested. What scouting technique do you think yields the best results for time spent?

Cyber
Boots on the ground
Glassing
Shinning
Listening
Trail cams
Other

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:51 am

Boots on the ground, hands down.

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I considered trail cameras as boots on the ground too. If I had to separate, I'd put cameras ahead of boots. Just like the tracks vs cameras thread, I'd rather have a confirmatory picture than a 4 finger track.
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby Bucky » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:51 am

#1 Trailcams
#2 Shed hunting/boots on ground
#3 Glassing
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby Arkansan1 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:51 am

Boots on the ground

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby welded34 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:03 am

Boots on the ground has helped me the most

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby BHC » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:14 am

Scouting and return on investment depends on your goals and the property you hunt.
My he best scouting prioritization is:
1.Trail cams- find the mature or target bucks and find where all they are going. Just strategically rotating cameras.
2. Cyber scouting- find terrain features and and aerial photo type funnels to break large pieces of land a buck or bucks are using into a few key spots of focus.
3. Boots on the ground- quick run throughs to find sign old and new. And get a feel for the actual terrain/ cover you are hunting. Picking stand sites.

This is yr around process and one season relates to the next...

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby mheichelbech » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:28 am

Depends on the time of year. In September, boots on the ground could be a negative return. I see it like this:

Jan to May - boots
Year around - trail cams
September to December - glassing and observation

Trail cams maybe #1 in June through August.

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:33 am

#1 boots on the ground without a doubt as long as I can do it ahead of time.

I would lump all "observations" into #2 including trail cams, glassing, and shining. Trail cameras being the most effective of those three to me in most situations - but not always.

cyberscouting a distant 3rd.


mheichelbech wrote:Depends on the time of year.


I agree with that too. If I have to hunt a completely new property tomorrow....well cyber scouting just got more important.

My list assumes I have a full year of preparation.
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:44 am

mheichelbech wrote:Depends on the time of year. In September, boots on the ground could be a negative return. I see it like this:

Jan to May - boots
Year around - trail cams
September to December - glassing and observation

Trail cams maybe #1 in June through August.

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I agree. It's tough to argue against trail cameras as number 1. Even if the spot is 3 miles back into the thick of it, you only have 4-6 hours of time invested on deployment and retrieval...but the card holds the 24/7 interim. Its like sitting in the same observation stand each night. Tough to gather than much data in the same amount of time with any other tactic.

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby phade » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:00 am

Trail cams as #1 because of the 24/7 return on investment, although you have to build in the cost of buying the cam, too. Don't forget that.

Second would be boots on the ground or cyber scouting. Cyber or Map scouting takes the really, really big picture, and makes it much smaller. The more I get into it, the more often I go in with target in mind to scout with boots on the ground and find out my interpretations were on the money. Even on 40 acre parcels, if I ID two or three spots, I go there first instead of trying to grid out the place and cover all of it and then just happenstance running into those spots.
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby PK_ » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:01 am

Logistically for me, it has been cyber scouting, by a longshot. I have killed more bucks as a direct result of cyber scouting more than all other methods combined. But that is because I do not live within an hours drive of any area I hunt. Additionally, the smaller pieces of public I hunt are generally 10-15k acres, the larger are 50-100k+, without cyber scouting you are going to burn a lot of time and boot leather trying to figure out the lay of the land that can be seen in a matter of minutes on map.

In some terrain if I am able to get boots on the ground beforehand it almost feels like cheating.

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:08 am

Its interesting to see everyone's different perspectives on this. Goes to show there are a lot of different effective ways to get the job done.
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:16 am

Boots on the ground while winter/spring scouting has helped me get in a good area where the bucks frequent but by far my best success has come from in season scouting and setting up on hot sign. Those small adjustments have been huge for me. If you don't hunt fresh sign your not even in the game. Funny I remember somebody else saying that in the Marsh Bucks video! ;)

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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby Twenty Up » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:20 am

#1- This forum (because I would never of known where to begin looking let alone what I'm looking at)
#2- Boots on the Ground
#2.5 Trail Cameras because they reveal extremely important information

I don't glass much due to time restrictions, distance from where I hunt as well as how thick the woods are down here with minimal open fields.
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Re: Scouting & the return on investment

Unread postby dan » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:20 am

For me the order would be:

#1 -Boots on the ground

#2-Shinning

#3-Cyber

#4-Glassing

#5- Listening

#6-Trail cams

Trail cam would go up the ladder a couple spots if I was hunting a large private parcel.


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