Scouting in the dark

[802bowhunter]

Ive only done this a couple times for morning sits scout with a flashlight for hot sighn at 3am then hang and hunt.

The reason I bring this up is I have a buddy who guides.
That last 2 years hes done all of his hang ons, baiting, scouting and cameras at night.
He says hes having more sucsess.
He seems to think deer are not relating night time activity in the woods as hunting pressure hes got mostly small parcels or populated areas with lots of human scent around.

Has anyone else tried this?

[muddy]

Seems like a good way top stink up my spot IMO. What looks good with a flashlight sure can change in looks come sum up. Not a technique I'll likely employ.

[thwack16]

I do it out of necessity but think there is some credence to only having your scent in a bedding area at night.

I do almost all of my trail cam checks in the dark after DST.

Also will do some sign checking by light. Basically just seeing if scrapes are opened up as the pre-rut ramps up; or if travel routes to late season food sources are being used in January.

[Huntress13]

I could see that working maybe if the deer are all out in the ag fields at night, they aren't seeing / hearing somebody in the woods. Smell is another matter. I suppose if they are used to a lot of human smell very close, then maybe you could get away with it.

[Quest1001]

All I know is my last set up in the dark, I basically set up in a dead tree! haha

[cspot]

I have moved stands in the dark simply because I was hunting in the daylight. I don't see how scouting in the dark would be very productive. I am guessing your buddy if he is baiting with trail cams is just checking the baits/cameras at night. That is a bit different than actual scouting.

If the areas he is doing this are near bedtime bedding areas and the deer vacate these areas to go to destination food sources away from there, then it would probably work better to access at night.

[hunter10]

I’m thinkin like the previous posters