Does anyone scout during the summer?

[Jon308]

[Jon308]

[Jon308]

[wmahunter]

yes - some areas I hunt have traffic all year around from recreation - mountain bikers, horses , hiker

[tgreeno]

I do my heavy duty scouting Feb thru green-up. But do keep scouting until the bugs get bad.

Summer is mostly glassing & shining. Some observation sits.

[Rob loper]

You can but it can be difficult to find soft edges in the summer where the deer like to bed. At least where im at its hard that time of year. Unless its a large meadow or swamp with points bowls etc. then the deer bed in the same places every year. Big woods imo wind is big with bedding and thickets creeks any body of water. Etc will be wind specific. So its really hard to read things in the summer in the big woods. Its like going into a different world thsn in late fall or winter.

[Dpierce72]

For me, it's a yes/no question...

Scouting:

Glassing field edges etc in non-threatening ways - yes

Running cameras in non-threatening areas for inventory - yes

Map work / cyber scouting - yes

Busting through swamps in Arkansas looking for beds - No way

While there is clearly no substitute for 'boots on the ground', there are always ways to keep the ball moving down the field.

[Jonny]

I don't. I don't live close enough to the areas I primarily hunt. Plus, summer is really the only time I have to make enough money to get me through 9 months of school, so I'm pretty busy as it is. Plus I need to work a little extra overtime to get money to buy a certain stand next year

If I had the time and a better situation (location), I would do a lot of glassing and shining. But if you do your homework all winter, no reason why you can't have success if you don't scout in the summer. Obviously the more you put in, the more your odds increase, provided you have an idea of what you should be doing and stick to it.


I do a lot of cyber scouting throughout the year. Just found a real promising spot that could be dynamite if I can get my schedule to work out properly to hunt it. I'll have to put it up in my journal at some point since I'm really lacking in updates recently.

[NYBackcountry]

Im with the others, I've been trying to get about 80% squared away by start of summer. The remaining 20% will be identifying exact trees in early June, I just want to get an accurate picture of what the foliage will look like early season and the rest is glassing/shining.

I hear that Jonny, I mentioned in another post i've been getting behind with my journal. I recently started making my entries a little less detailed and more general observations to get my brain churning, instead i've been adding more details on the comments of my pins that i place in google earth. So when I go into my maps I can see everything visually but there is more detail in the comments. Feels less like "homework" to me.

[Jeff G]

nope, I have fun and go fishing in the summer and its a little break from hunting.

I will do cyber scouting all year.

i will not go near bedding areas i hunt until season, not tipping them off at all.

[ScottSpitzley]

Glassing, shining, and letting the trail cams soak. Nothing better than going for an evening drive during summer glassing and shining!

[Boogieman1]

I do quite a bit of summer scouting. I check cams on salt licks and if I'm getting pics of something I'm interested in I will get in there and get the info I need. I will only go in once though.

In other cases I won't find out what the farmers planted until early summer which could throw a monkey wrench into my feb scouting if the food source changed from previous year.

I also cut a lot of deer trails in tall grass and add background cover to my rut stands. And on small private tracks I lay down a lot of my scent around the perimeter at this time. Also water levels are a big deal in deer movement in my area so I keep an eye on the dropping lake

[elk yinzer]

I run some cameras and do a little sitting fields mostly just for something to do. The way I hunt that intel isn't really that valuable.

If it's cool and not humid I may run the woods, get a few hundred spiderweb facials and dodge a couple rattlers to remind myself why I scout from November through early May.

[muddy]

Trail cams only

[KLEMZ]

I have found lots of new buck bedding areas in the middle of summer. I only do it when my family is on vacation in northern Wisconsin during July or August. Crack of dawn, in the woods (when its sorta cool), back at the cabin as everybody is waking up. To me, it is just as easy to see the buck beds in summer as it is in spring, it's just not as physically comfortable to be out there. But all beasts know how to embrace the pain, for the cause!!