snow scout

[cornfedkiller]

Im in MD, and we will never get 2.5 feet of snow.

We only get a few inches here and there at a time...

Its kinda hard to understand then if you dont have as much snow..

I went to my family's hunting land a few days after christmas to pull some stands and cams, and beds were in the most random places.. Ive seen it before on other properties Ive hunted in the late season too.. Most of the beds look like a couple does were walking along and decided to lay down and take a break for 15 mins, some are even just out in the middle of the food plots. Some of them I saw were 100 yards away from a corn field, but just out in the middle of the woods. Thats what had me so confused as to whether or not scouting this time of year would even be worth it..I didnt know if bucks would still be using their primary beds, and if they are, how I can tell the difference between those and the other ten million beds I see everywhere..

Here is a link to a thread I started about it before..you can see what some of the beds look like..The pictures in that thread are the ones that look like they actually get used all the time (since some are down to the leaves), but there are hundreds more I saw that day that arent like that..

[76chevy]

spent the day scouting a property I started hunting this year.

I also just got in (1041PM here) from hanging a cam behind my house, I did not want to bump the deer out of their bedding area so waited until they moved to the fields then snuck in tonight...

anybody else do this after dark scouting in the snow??

[dan]

spent the day scouting a property I started hunting this year.

I also just got in (1041PM here) from hanging a cam behind my house, I did not want to bump the deer out of their bedding area so waited until they moved to the fields then snuck in tonight...

anybody else do this after dark scouting in the snow??

They still smell you were there, even if they don't see you.

[dan]

Im in MD, and we will never get 2.5 feet of snow.

We only get a few inches here and there at a time...

Its kinda hard to understand then if you dont have as much snow..

I went to my family's hunting land a few days after christmas to pull some stands and cams, and beds were in the most random places.. Ive seen it before on other properties Ive hunted in the late season too.. Most of the beds look like a couple does were walking along and decided to lay down and take a break for 15 mins, some are even just out in the middle of the food plots. Some of them I saw were 100 yards away from a corn field, but just out in the middle of the woods. Thats what had me so confused as to whether or not scouting this time of year would even be worth it..I didnt know if bucks would still be using their primary beds, and if they are, how I can tell the difference between those and the other ten million beds I see everywhere..

Here is a link to a thread I started about it before..you can see what some of the beds look like..The pictures in that thread are the ones that look like they actually get used all the time (since some are down to the leaves), but there are hundreds more I saw that day that arent like that..

The random beds you described sound a lot like "night" beds to me... Did you kick any deer off of them in daylight?
Deer often bed right in or near food sources to take breaks during the night and chew there cud before returning to feeding. Those of you who shine deer must notice that sometimes the deer are bedded in the fields at night.

[cornfedkiller]

The random beds you described sound a lot like "night" beds to me... Did you kick any deer off of them in daylight?
Deer often bed right in or near food sources to take breaks during the night and chew there cud before returning to feeding. Those of you who shine deer must notice that sometimes the deer are bedded in the fields at night.

No I didnt kick any out during daylight, but I was also riding snowmobile back in there, so they wouldve heard me coming from a long ways off. But those beds definitely seem like night beds, and I have noticed them laying down out in the food sources and stuff before while out shining as well.

How do you tell the difference between night beds and actual beds? Will it be pretty easy to decipher?

Also, I totally forgot to link that thread I referred to before, so here it is..

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3852&p=41454#p41454

[dan]

No I didnt kick any out during daylight, but I was also riding snowmobile back in there, so they wouldve heard me coming from a long ways off.

You would see running tracks leaving the beds...

I would concentrate on the obvious bucks beds that are well placed. Regardless of wether what your looking at is day or night beds, mature bucks are very cautious about picking there day time beds. It seems to me that mature bucks don't randomly do much of anything. Everything they do has a specific reason. Especially picking a bed. So seek out those beds that are in great locations and don't be set back by a random bed in the middle of a field or open woods...

[BackWoodsHunter]

I spent some time shining during the rut and noticed a lot of deer bedding in the open fields. I have never seen anything like it. We shined tons of does all bedded in cut hay fields most within 50yards of the road. One thing I was wondering are these night beds in the open relative to pressure? I know the area I was hunting was a LARGE tract of public that the DNR had stocked and established a wolf pack in about 5-10yrs ago and its doing well. While shining that night we shined a doe and a yearling being chased by a coyote. I think the night beds may have something to do with pressure from predators as well as resting.

[Buckfever]

One of the biggest advantages of scouting in the snow on public land is to assess your hunting competition and figure if they've figured out what the deal is. Also it will tell you if anyone is encroaching on a pressure retreat that you've discovered or if someone is working a set off a bedding that you're hunting. Additionally you can based on where they're scouting see how and why it is that the mature bucks have adjusted to the hunter pressure.

[Buckfever]

I think the other major thing the snow does is that you can get on a good track off a fresh rub and follow it or backtrack it and really you just see stuff about how the buck uses the terrain and where it choses to bed and I swear in a couple days tracking the buck track in the snow, you get to feeling like you understand their behavior markedly better. Plus it's just damned fascinating.

[gjs4]

we got 42" in a day and half during season... they werent bedded anywhere other than the corn they lived in....the snow subsided...bthey were bedding in their usual spots

As Dan and others have said..(imo) snow is a greta way to learn things but dont bank on them unless all other variables (esp hunting pressure) are on....a bed found during season is way more valuable to me than one now