Is in season scouting the missing link?

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

HB Store


User avatar
may21581
500 Club
Posts: 1186
Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 12:48 pm
Location: north east ohio
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby may21581 » Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:41 pm

stash59 wrote:When we first join the Beast. I think we often get hung up on finding beds. They're often easier to find in spring. Combine that with the notion that, pre-Beast, we were taught to find last season's rut signs in spring also. To effectively use rut tactics. I believe we fall into that trap, that we've already learned everything we need to know to go make a kill come fall. Then just make a guess where to go, which bed/s to set up on. During the season.

Reading through the Beast Q&A threads that lockdown organized. Really drove home the point that integral to all of these bed hunting tactics. Or even other tactics. Is adding, "in season" scouting, to the mix. Between Dan, the many other elite Beasts, The Hunting Public crew, even the recent Barry Wensel YouTube video posted on The Push. Each and everyone of these consistent big buck killers mentioned how important "in season" scouting in some form. Is to their successes.

Us newbies often wonder/worry that we'll mess things up. Burn the bridge without even seeing anything. Because we get too close or leave our human odor around. But isn't that part of the learning process. Granted pushing too close to a bed to place our stand. We'll bust out a buck, but we'll often at least get eyes on it. Pushing too close while scouting in season, may also kick them out. Or alter travel movements. But without knowledge that we did bump them. So it may be tougher to learn. But learning what we can get away with while "in season" scouting. Will eventually lead to more mature buck encounters.

We all want success, and as soon as possible. But we need to gain experience. And gaining experience takes time. So, we need to be patient, looking at the big picture. The mistakes we make now will teach us what we need to know. To have successes for "seasons" to come. Not just this particular hunt!


Awesome write up and very informative. I love the wealth of knowledge on this site. So to elaborate on this topic a little more I have a question. So when we combine in season scouting with our spring scouting I guess it would be common sense to not trot through the beds we found in the spring to see if their using it. So on a few pieces of land I hunt I know where they like to rub and can tell by the height when a big guy is there. Usually these rubs are 50-200 yds from the beds. Sometimes in the fields I can cut a track in some wet soil, these tracks are generally 200 yds from bedding. Also I know of several primary scrape locations. They are concistant year after year. When you talk on in season scouting would doing a speed tour of such locations for fresh sign dictate hunting a bed found in the spring with the correct wind? Or are you guys using the terrain and walking till you find the sign? When you do come across the sign if walking to find it do you set up right on it? Thanks


"Failure is the price for entry for achieving something great"
User avatar
greenhorndave
500 Club
Posts: 13819
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:23 am
Location: SE WI
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby greenhorndave » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:42 pm

Crazinamatese wrote:
greenhorndave wrote:
Crazinamatese wrote:Im not an "elite" beast hunter but I set up primarily on steaming fresh sign.

Like so? Or something else?
Image

lol. Usually scrapes but sometimes come across a nice shiny pile ofmilk duds.

:lol: :lol:
----------
Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
User avatar
DeerDylan
500 Club
Posts: 1491
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 6:17 am
Location: North East
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby DeerDylan » Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:27 am

Good outdoorsman can read the sign in season and call an audible when needed.
User avatar
elk yinzer
500 Club
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:39 am
Location: Central PA
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby elk yinzer » Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:15 am

In season scouting has been crucial to all of my best buck kills I can recall. I'm full circle back to the point where I need to sacrifice hunting days in marginal weather conditions to do more dedicated pure scouting. I got away from that gameplan more into scout with stand on back (SSOB) for a couple seasons and it has hurt my ability to be in the game and confident every sit. Over relying on SSOB leads me to too much second guessing, speculation, and bad decisions. To me it just has more targeted application than I was trying to make work.

Fear of bumping deer I think is a boogieman for way to many hunters. Just conventional wisdom the writers and producers have jammed into our collective conscience. Infrequent intrusions I think deer are pretty tolerant of. Indeed I think the way older deer behave, it just affirms their survival strategy when they best us at surviving a human encounter.
Treasurer, United Bowhunters of PA
https://ubofpa.org/membership-3
User avatar
stash59
Moderator
Posts: 10077
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 8:22 am
Location: S Central Wi.
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:38 am

elk yinzer wrote:In season scouting has been crucial to all of my best buck kills I can recall. I'm full circle back to the point where I need to sacrifice hunting days in marginal weather conditions to do more dedicated pure scouting. I got away from that gameplan more into scout with stand on back (SSOB) for a couple seasons and it has hurt my ability to be in the game and confident every sit. Over relying on SSOB leads me to too much second guessing, speculation, and bad decisions. To me it just has more targeted application than I was trying to make work.

Fear of bumping deer I think is a boogieman for way to many hunters. Just conventional wisdom the writers and producers have jammed into our collective conscience. Infrequent intrusions I think deer are pretty tolerant of. Indeed I think the way older deer behave, it just affirms their survival strategy when they best us at surviving a human encounter.


Years of hearing, "leave the bedding areas alone. Don't even get close! They'll head for the next county!" Has put the thought in "my" head. That every time you bump an animal. They're long gone! Elk are more prone to vacating the country. But I've even seen them, whole herds, stay in the same area after mild bumps!

One old timer told me once. "Deer are just big rabbits". Meaning they often just circle back!
Happiness is a large gutpile!!!!!!!
User avatar
Wetfoot
500 Club
Posts: 902
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 11:26 am
Location: Upper Peninsula, Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby Wetfoot » Wed Aug 14, 2019 5:31 am

I'm definitely not an elite killer but love the chase. I can confidently state that àll of my best hunts , encounters and kills have been the direct result of in season scouting and observation.
User avatar
greenhorndave
500 Club
Posts: 13819
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:23 am
Location: SE WI
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby greenhorndave » Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:49 pm

elk yinzer wrote:In season scouting has been crucial to all of my best buck kills I can recall. I'm full circle back to the point where I need to sacrifice hunting days in marginal weather conditions to do more dedicated pure scouting. I got away from that gameplan more into scout with stand on back (SSOB) for a couple seasons and it has hurt my ability to be in the game and confident every sit. Over relying on SSOB leads me to too much second guessing, speculation, and bad decisions. To me it just has more targeted application than I was trying to make work.

Fear of bumping deer I think is a boogieman for way to many hunters. Just conventional wisdom the writers and producers have jammed into our collective conscience. Infrequent intrusions I think deer are pretty tolerant of. Indeed I think the way older deer behave, it just affirms their survival strategy when they best us at surviving a human encounter.

This brings up something that's borderline a new topic. That is, Scouting with Stand On Back during in-season scouting.

What's your preferred method during in-season scouting? With a stand? Without? For what reasons?
----------
Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
mipubbucks24
500 Club
Posts: 1417
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:56 am
Location: South West Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby mipubbucks24 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:54 pm

2017 my last hunt on public before gun season walked about 3 miles all around 1 bedding area trying to find good sign. Only found 2/3 week old stuff. So I scrapped that location and drove to a different bedding area. Busted through the marsh because I was running out of day light, there was good sign all over. Set up with about 45 minutes left. Had a buck come out about 15 minutes later. Blew it on him when I thought I would grunt at him as his rout was not coming by for a shot. Even though i did not kill, it was a success. All that hunt did was confirm in my mind how important it was to in-season scout. Had I sat the other bedding area I most likely would have sat 3/4 hours in a stand with no deer. I would rather have the last 30 minutes of an area with fresh sign, then sit a spot for 6 hours scouted last February that has nothing using it at the very moment. I’m not saying you can’t kill in those areas but it seems like once mid October hits the deer are laying down sign in and around where they are spending most of their time.
User avatar
Ack
Posts: 3030
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby Ack » Wed Aug 14, 2019 6:35 pm

I went through the phase of "stay out of the woods" until the end of October because you'll mess up the deer. Since giving up that train of thought I have had many good encounters as a direct result of in-season scouting. I agree it can be tough giving up precious hunting hours, but it gets you in the game quicker. Just have to be sure you are smart about it and not push too close to the buck bedding.
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41590
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby dan » Wed Aug 14, 2019 9:54 pm

Scouting never ends, we just change the way we scout as the year progresses
User avatar
elk yinzer
500 Club
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:39 am
Location: Central PA
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby elk yinzer » Thu Aug 15, 2019 12:34 am

greenhorndave wrote:This brings up something that's borderline a new topic. That is, Scouting with Stand On Back during in-season scouting.

What's your preferred method during in-season scouting? With a stand? Without? For what reasons?


Both. My experience is the past two seasons I think I went a little too far with SSOB and tried to use it as a substitute for pure inseason scouting. In my playbook SSOB has to be a much more targeted approach to scouting. When I generalize scouting, I am talking much more thorough coverage of an area. I will usually carry my bow regardless just in case.

Backstory....I like to be as efficient as possible. I don't think hardly any of us get to hunt as much as we would like to. I've been hunting for 20 years and growing up hunted mobile and hunted bedding areas. I've killed a lot of deer during the rut (mid Oct - mid Nov). Rut is my bread and butter. I've never had much early season success at all (early season here is first 1/2 of October).

So I started to dive into the tactics on this forum, and a lot of this is not real new to me. I'm not the biggest devotee either, but SSOB is one thing I really picked up on and tried to adapt more to my situation. Something to a degree I've always done but I went more gung ho. Traditionally I would allocate a good chunk of early season time to purely scout, gathering intel for the rut. I kinda thought with SSOB, ok, best of both worlds. I can have my scouting and hunt too. Maybe finally figure out some stuff for early season that works.

I hunt big woods/mountainous terrain. I believe that does make it a little different because deer here break some of the "rules". The only thing predictable amount mountain deer is they are unpredictable. Food sources and a whole litany of things can shift the pockets of deer significantly. Here today, gone tomorrow.

So SSOB, I go into an area I scouted last postseason that looked great. I have beds marked. I have a great approach. But i haven't been there in 6 months. I go in there 4 hours before dark SSOB and there's nothing. Deer just aren't using the area. What do I do now? Cut bait and go to another area? That might take me a good hour, plus. Just setup here, maybe I missed something. Sign can be weird like that. Maybe the next bench down or up on the ridge is torn to heck. Sun starts dipping lower and you feel some pressure to find some hot sign and get set up. I'm hot, tired from a good climb and have 25 lbs of equipment on my back. It's not the ideal scenario for analysis and decision making.

Or, I go into an area I scouted a time or two but really don't know it like the back of my hand. I'm kinda guessing where I am going to end up. I run into some sign, maybe deer, maybe hunter. I bump a deer. I'm SSOB but I'm not getting a complete picture of the area because I am still trying to be stealthy. I can't truly, truly scout SSOB. Find a good tree and setup but not really sure what I am setting up on. Not too good.

I don't think as mobile hunters we should ever stop SSOB. I'm not hating on SSOB at all, I'm the doofus that didn't do it right. It's an awareness you should always maintain. What I am saying I've come to discover in my situation its not a replacement for inseason scouting whatsoever. I still need to take some days to just purely scout and not worry about setting up or blowing deer out or whatever. Let the sign paint a complete picture of an area instead of just guessing from a few little tidbits of info.
Treasurer, United Bowhunters of PA
https://ubofpa.org/membership-3
User avatar
Buck_it
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 4:28 am
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby Buck_it » Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:32 am

how does scouting early season change from late season?
Redman232
Posts: 1251
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:20 am
Location: NE Indiana
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby Redman232 » Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:38 am

Buck_it wrote:how does scouting early season change from late season?


Early season, it's often dry and there's lots of food sources and bedding options. Late season generally wetter and fewer foods sources and cover. Early season I'm checking locations with moisture that will hold sign even in dry weather. Late season I'll pretty much just walk field edges.
User avatar
xpauliber
500 Club
Posts: 1727
Joined: Fri May 20, 2011 4:41 am
Location: Central PA
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby xpauliber » Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:54 am

After September 1, I don't step foot in my good areas (season comes in around Oct. 1st here in PA). I've just been too paranoid to tip bucks off that close to season. I do most of my pre-season scouting before season via glassing & shining until season comes in and then I scout with the stand on my back. This has worked very well for me over the years but there have been times where I've had to go a couple weeks into the season before I started to find the fresh sign and get on the bucks. I'm hoping to change that this year.

I make it a goal to add at least 2 new properties to where I can hunt in the off season and over the years now, I've found a lot of good spots and learned how the bucks use them. This past spring, I actually added 5 new properties to my inventory and I'm going to do some scouting in September on those properties to see what I can find and see whether I can find a hot spot early. I'm not as concerned as I have been in the past because I have all of my old honey holes to fall back on.

There's such a fine line with in-season scouting.
User avatar
saint1480
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 4:34 am
Status: Offline

Re: Is in season scouting the missing link?

Unread postby saint1480 » Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:04 am

Awesome post to read and follow. Being my first full season hunting, first bow and now tree saddle my brain goes a little haywire trying to think about where I should be and what spot to setup on. I have found a couple good areas, some possible bedding and good transit paths between what I hope is bedding and food. Being so new I think I will almost always question the first tree or spot I pick but at the same time I hate sitting still. My priority is filling the freezer but truth be told I hope to get that covered early enough in the season that I can chase an older deer, buck or doe. In season scouting seems to be the best way to get myself educated faster. I don't have years of bad habit or preconceived ideas but it is comical to read the "pictures" painted in all the main stream magazines or media. Hunting is literally an age old sport/way of life and it is sometimes discouraging to see how resistent some are to adopting a new or different approach. My friends and family that do hunt and know I am going at it with a saddle are quite skeptical to say the least, nevermind with a bow that I only picked up a month or two ago!

Long story short, I am very grateful for the knowledge and experience here.

Nick


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: BLEXbot, Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Hawthorne, PoppaOtt84 and 79 guests