In season scouting

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Hunter74
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In season scouting

Unread postby Hunter74 » Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:56 am

Something I've been thinking about, mainly getting aggressive with my in season scouting and covering or looking closer at some of my stuff. The thing I hang up on is not wanting to burn some of my hunting areas by scouting too much. So the question I have for everyone is how to you go about your in season scouting? How close will you get to known bedding areas? Do you make sure you stay downwind unless your several hundred yards away?

I really think you can get away with a little more intrusion if your just walking through an area and can get fairly close to bedding without hurting it if you steadily move through. It's when you actually setup on an area that you do a bit of damage to it however I haven't been quite willing to test this theory just yet.

What it all comes down to is I want to learn how to gain more intel on a spot before I hunt and burn it. I don't wanna think he's in that bed, I wanna know he's in that bed. I know you can't be right all the time but I gotta believe you can get to the point of being right about half the time

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Ladykiller
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Re: In season scouting

Unread postby Ladykiller » Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:56 am

This time of year my in season scouting consists of driving around to see where the deer are feeding in the evening. I'll also walk transition lines.

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Hunter74
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Re: In season scouting

Unread postby Hunter74 » Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:38 am

Another thing I've been thinking about is camera placement. This is something I'm very cautious with because I know camera's can do a lot of damage but I'd like to start using them more. So where do you guys put your camera? Obviously I wouldn't put it next to where I would actually set up but what about 100-150 yrds from the bed?

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xpauliber
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Re: In season scouting

Unread postby xpauliber » Fri Dec 23, 2016 9:31 am

I've struggled with this too when I first started hunting this style. The first question you need to ask is "how many quality areas do I have to hunt?" That's going to dictate how careful you have to be with your in-season scouting. My buck hunting is literally a year-round endeavor and each spring I add at least a few new areas to my inventory. At this point, I have enough areas to hunt that sometimes I can't even hit them all in a season so I can push the limits more with my in-season scouting and try to go for the kill right from the get-go rather than try to minimize my intrusion and make one area last the entire hunting season.

With that being said, if you have a lot of different areas you can hunt, my favorite in-season scouting is with the stand on my buck walking downwind of the bedding area and scouting the food sources that a buck might hit when he leaves the bedding area. I've killed my two biggest bucks in PA by doing this and the sign I found consisted of fresh signs of feeding under oak trees and a series of small rubs leading out of the bedding area into the acorns. I setup immediately on that sign and both bucks came out 45 minutes before dark. Both hunts were first time sits also.

I don't do in season scouting unless I have the stand on my back so I can't comment on how you can conduct that without tipping the bucks off in some way.

As for trail cam usage, all of my cams are hung in areas that I've never hunted before but I'd like to hunt. Most times I haven't quite figured out how the deer use the area and/or I don't know whether a buck I want to target is using that area. A lot of times the cams are giving me Intel for the following season and I will use that info to decide whether to add those areas to my premium spots or scratch them off my hit list altogether. Sometimes, the spot is producing deer/buck sightings but nothing I want to shoot. I'll keep that spot in mind until a year that a big buck shows up shining or I talk to someone that has seen a big buck there and then I use the info I've gained over the last few seasons to get in there with the stand on my back and try to make a kill.

For me personally, I can't overestimate the importance of a first time sit. When local guys ask me what my secret is, the first thing I tell them is that I very rarely hunt the same tree twice in a season and I get a lot of weird looks. It takes a lot to build an inventory of spots and most guys aren't willing to put in the work to do that.

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justdirtyfun
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Re: In season scouting

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:12 am

From my time here I see a specific characteristic that guys are using with all their hunting.

Think things through. That's the key.

Concerning in season scouting a few key questions can help you decide where, when and how much to do.

Can you scout right before a storm to wash evidence from you away?
Can you scout a specific area they are probably not using today? The wind might have them bedded elsewhere.
How soon will you be hunting that location?
Do you know a travel route that can give evidence that is a safe distance from their bedding?
Can you use a map and determine an expected return to bed route to either hunt or just "spot check"?
What intel are you missing and needing to find?

The last one is often my stumbling block. I will scout to scout and forget to define what I am looking for.

A day ago I saw sign good enough to hunt but was setting a cam and had a predetermined trail to check/hunt. So my in season scouting went a bit too far but I was ok with that. During early season that kill something pressure would have told me to stay and hunt where the sign was hot.

Another thought is scouting will get easier as you learn your bedding areas. NOT knowing bedding is how in season scouting becomes bad.
You don't have to be the best, just do your best.


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