Scouting

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
DaveT1963
500 Club
Posts: 5196
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:27 am
Location: South
Status: Offline

Re: Scouting

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:14 am

BBH1980 wrote:I think your right. Many guys put to much stock in cameras. They are just a tool that has an application in certain situations.


I look at it like this, everything we do is just a tool or a process. This even includes putting an arrow through the vitals.

Some tools will work better in some situations. Trail cameras can be abused or can be the best tool for a particular situation or process. I do a lot of out of state hunts. In those situations, cameras give me a lot more info than I can get through observation or even scouting. I typically let them soak all year - setting them out during post scouting and checking them late summer to confirm some things. Also, for taking inventory on certain properties, you cannot beat a camera over a well place mineral lick as long as you don't bugger it too much.

Then there are places where human intrusion is seldom encountered that yes putting a camera right there and checking it frequently is probably doing far more harm than good. And then there is the buck - some mature bucks are surprising tolerant of human activity and learn to adapt to it. Other bucks, say in a wilderness situation, may not tolerate any human intrusion.

We have to be smart in all aspects..... anything we do to tip off to a mature animal that we are hunting them is going to be counter productive. We have to balance that with the opposite of not doing anything and being complacent because that also can be counter productive. Just like moving in close to bedding, if we are not aggressive to some degree and even spooking some bucks - then like Andrea and Dan say - we are NOT even in the game. Experience comes from when we make that mistake of pushing too hard, or not pushing enough, and then adjust accordingly. And over the years, if we learn, we pick up on what tool will work where and how to go about using it.


Evanszach7
500 Club
Posts: 707
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:00 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Scouting

Unread postby Evanszach7 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:17 am

Hand and hand but in-season carries more weight with me. 90% of the time I’m scouting my way in to an area I post season scouted. If not for post season scouting I might not even be in the right area, or have burnt some spots in-season scouting going in too deep because I didn’t have the post season intel.
User avatar
BowhuntingPA
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:16 am
Status: Offline

Re: Scouting

Unread postby BowhuntingPA » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:15 am

In-season scouting is my best scouting.

I have heard Dan and others many times say that if you see particular sign or movement around a certain time that it is bound to repeat at the same time the next year. Because of that, I learn the most from in-season scouting.

2018 season: I was new to the beast and didnt fully understand how to find exact fingers of hill country that the buck would bed on and I didn't have any marshes or farms nearby. I didn't have any exact beds identified going into the season so my goal was to just kill A buck and then get into aggressive scouting mode and try to figure this stuff out once the pressure was off. I started really really heavily scouting a lot of new areas and areas far away more intelligently after I killed my buck. After I killed the buck I was able to devote a lot more time to find the exact beds on each property rather than be conservative and play it safe and waste a hunt by not knowing the areas or hunting in an area that doesnt have mature buck bedding/daytime movement.

Taking mental notes from dan and marios podcasts as well as some youtube videos gave me the knowledge of what to do when I was putting boots on the ground and cyber scouting. So starting in november I was really scouting buck bedding, not just deer, for the very first time. I was finding very fresh well worn buck beds on peninsulas of swamps or fingers of hill country with new and old rubs in them. When I found a buck bed, I would mark its location on GPS and backtrack the exit trails to find a potential tree or two to set-up in for different winds. This year I am going to hunt a few of these buck bedding areas at the same time of year as when I found the fresh sign in them last year. I am also going to hunt each once in the early season if an observation sit shows that a buck I want a crack at is using that bedding area.

When I started shed hunting recently, I noticed some of the beds with sign that was very fresh in october now looked old. Im guessing these were rut beds based on where they were located and the time of year i found them. The rubs on the trees had faded and were hard to see. But then again I have found some areas in marsh bedding with fresh buck sign and it is mid march. Im guessing these are primary bedding areas. Post-season scouting (after the seasons closed in late jan/early feb) has been great but I get a little bit more information out of in-season scouting because I can hunt those areas the same time in 2019 as when i found the fresh sign in 2018. I will also be scouting my way in-to areas next year that i identified post season scouting. If i find fresh buck sign in a field a few hundred yards away from the bedding on my way to the bedding I will know that the bedding area is probably being used then and I will hunt it.

Thank you all this is my first beast post hopefully I can learn a lot from everyone
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: BLEXbot, cbigbear, Google Adsense [Bot], PoppaOtt84 and 87 guests