DYI Sportsman Podcast:In Season Scouting Tips

[<DK>]

I thought this was a great listen and wanted to share on here. Garrett and Boudreaux are both very informative guys that do great job!

~ http://www.ninefingerchronicles.com/pod ... ting-tips/


I loved the discussion about guys being timid to scout in season for hot sign or jump bucks from beds. Also, I really enjoyed the noise/access talk part of it.

One question though, is Boudreaux a member here? I did want to say thanks for calling it scat and not alternatives!

[<DK>]

Anyone have some tips for In-Season Scouting they are willing to share?

One tip, that works in season or post season that Bowhunter4life taught me is to shave the rub w a knife to check how fresh it truly is. This has really helped me understand WHEN to be in a location or WHY it was made.

[BackCoverBowHunter]

Anyone have some tips for In-Season Scouting they are willing to share?

One tip, that works in season or post season that Bowhunter4life taught me is to shave the rub w a knife to check how fresh it truly is. This has really helped me understand WHEN to be in a location or WHY it was made.

thanks for sharing that I am going to use that!

[<DK>]

Anyone have some tips for In-Season Scouting they are willing to share?

One tip, that works in season or post season that Bowhunter4life taught me is to shave the rub w a knife to check how fresh it truly is. This has really helped me understand WHEN to be in a location or WHY it was made.

thanks for sharing that I am going to use that!

No problem, its one of my favorite little tricks iv learned from others.

[Jonny]

Anyone have some tips for In-Season Scouting they are willing to share?

One tip, that works in season or post season that Bowhunter4life taught me is to shave the rub w a knife to check how fresh it truly is. This has really helped me understand WHEN to be in a location or WHY it was made.

Care to elaborate on what you look for to determine the freshness?

Pinching turds also works well. Moisture and consistency are pretty good at saying how fresh they are. Flies are a give away too

[<DK>]

Sure. At least a couple things iv learned from trying it are - Certain barks will make a rub look way fresher or older than what it truly is. For an example, the first rub I tried it on looked fairly fresh (to me) yet cutting the bark in a fresh spot revealed way different, fresher color. Which meant I was way off on my guesses. Also, in the off season, some rubs that look like possible last years turned out to be made early season.

A few things iv tried to pay attention is bucks like to rub certain trees in their regions. For me its cedar trees. Most times a cedar doesnt need shaved to know how fresh and it wouldn't matter much if you did. One key about the tree types is that sometimes they rub type a tree/bark iv never seen, so it helps learn.

If there is an area or spot I hunt often or plan to hunt while scouting it, iv marked a couple trees that are generational. Havent made it back yet to check em yet tho... So id like to do a test in the backyard and shave certain trees w a machete and see how quickly weather effects the looks/color. Hopefully BH4L sees this and has some more pointers, iv only tried it a couple seasons so far but it has really helped me. I guess my main goal w it was to learn to read early season rubs.

[jwilkstn]

Interesting stuff DK.. I think I'll experiment with doing this also.

[HoosierG5]

I find a lot of truth in this...Im so scared to walk inout of my area its silly. Trying to keep scent snd obstruction to a minimum hamstrings me from knowing the most recent happenings. Id guess it certainly limits my success. Going to try and break the habit.

[ThePreBanMan]

Whenever Garrett puts up new content - I make sure not to miss it.

[kwaldeier]

Where you from DK?

[Bowhunter4life]

Good stuff DK. Is something I started experimenting with a long time ago. I just never was real sure how old some of the sign I was seeing in the woods really was. Trying to figure out the early season sign and as DK mentioned I believe in the beginning I mistaked a lot of early season sign for the previous year. Of course there are some things that play a part in the aging process. Weather being a big one. Sunlight will make them age faster drying out the freshly shaved bark. Many others as well but even so you still can get a pretty good idea of about how old it is.

To me this was important in trying to figure out what times of the season these areas were being used. Might sound silly to some but you can become pretty good at guessing the age of a rub or round about if you just pay closer attention to these little things.

Have been guilty of it many times setting up on sign thats a week old. Depending on the type of tree a rub that is only a week old can still look pretty fresh. Would see that coming out of known bedding and set up. Was always 1 or 2 steps behind them. For me it was just a learning process and now I put way more thought into what I’m looking at as far as sign in the woods!

[<DK>]

Where you from DK?

MO

[kwaldeier]

Me too!