Help me better understand off season scouting
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Help me better understand off season scouting
Good morning!
So yesterday I began my ways to scout. This will be my second year of scouting so you can imagine I am new and have so much to learn. I do hunt private land but I am going to scout the few local state lands I have close to ease the pressure on the private and hope to use to sate land to learn and fail and hope it betters me for the private land trips I make.
As for the scouting I did yesterday, the area is not a massive chunk of land but holds some good bucks. I have a few buddies that have small game and duck hunted it and have seen nice bucks.
So as I got to working the area I came across a are where I started to find rubs, some old and some new. This area was tucked into that back of this area and one side was a big creek and also the expressway runs north and south. My problem is trying to figure out if this is a buck bedding area or a doe bedding area and if the bucks are just marking it up do to doe bedding. I sat in this area trying to ask myself why a deer would be here. What came to mind is not many guys make the trip back there because it was not easy and the whole area leading to it is nasty and thick and pretty much hard to hunt due to it being so thick.
I will post some videos that I took in hopes some can shed some light for me and help me better understand things.
So yesterday I began my ways to scout. This will be my second year of scouting so you can imagine I am new and have so much to learn. I do hunt private land but I am going to scout the few local state lands I have close to ease the pressure on the private and hope to use to sate land to learn and fail and hope it betters me for the private land trips I make.
As for the scouting I did yesterday, the area is not a massive chunk of land but holds some good bucks. I have a few buddies that have small game and duck hunted it and have seen nice bucks.
So as I got to working the area I came across a are where I started to find rubs, some old and some new. This area was tucked into that back of this area and one side was a big creek and also the expressway runs north and south. My problem is trying to figure out if this is a buck bedding area or a doe bedding area and if the bucks are just marking it up do to doe bedding. I sat in this area trying to ask myself why a deer would be here. What came to mind is not many guys make the trip back there because it was not easy and the whole area leading to it is nasty and thick and pretty much hard to hunt due to it being so thick.
I will post some videos that I took in hopes some can shed some light for me and help me better understand things.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
So I’m not sure how to upload a video, any tips would be cool and I’ll upload what I have. As for these two pictures, these were runs I was finding all over this area. And the other picture is a what I think is a bed in another area I found. Does that look like a bed? Thanks
- headgear
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
Sounds like a killer buck bed if you ask me, remote, creek and thick cover in the area are all good signs. Sometimes bucks and does will bed together in areas like this but the buck will have a his pick of beds and the does and smaller bucks could be outside of this area, this can make for a tricky entrance but sometimes you have to bump some deer to get to the older bucks, just go slow. With that said nothing is 100% so it could be doe bedding and the bucks show up during the rut but I am strongly leaning a lot of different deer use this area.
- Seeker529
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
looks like a good buck setup... but also doesnt look extremely used from the pic... only way to absolutely know for sure is to get down on hands and knees and look for hair in the bed.. not every buck bed has rubs in or around it..
- may21581
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
Definately looks like a good bed. That would go in the notes for next year.
"Failure is the price for entry for achieving something great"
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
headgear wrote:Sounds like a killer buck bed if you ask me, remote, creek and thick cover in the area are all good signs. Sometimes bucks and does will bed together in areas like this but the buck will have a his pick of beds and the does and smaller bucks could be outside of this area, this can make for a tricky entrance but sometimes you have to bump some deer to get to the older bucks, just go slow. With that said nothing is 100% so it could be doe bedding and the bucks show up during the rut but I am strongly leaning a lot of different deer use this area.
I have a video I need to figure out how to upload,unless the only way is youtube and add a link. But It would show a lot of detail on what I was finding and help you guys explain to me. But I would say it is what you said. Prob both bedding there and the buck is getting the best choice. I could use the creek to get to it and sneak in
- headgear
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
Aerial photos with some mark ups are sometimes the best but if you don't want to post something like that online we all understand.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
headgear wrote:Sounds like a killer buck bed if you ask me, remote, creek and thick cover in the area are all good signs. Sometimes bucks and does will bed together in areas like this but the buck will have a his pick of beds and the does and smaller bucks could be outside of this area, this can make for a tricky entrance but sometimes you have to bump some deer to get to the older bucks, just go slow. With that said nothing is 100% so it could be doe bedding and the bucks show up during the rut but I am strongly leaning a lot of different deer use this area.
x2 for all of this.
If it’s hard to hunt and there’s a bunch of buck sign, I lean heavily towards good buck bedding. Keep in mind almost all of my primo bedding holds bucks and does at the same time.
I would hunt this spot early as long as the sign dictates to do so. If you go in early and the buck sign is marginal or not there at all, don’t worry about it. As long as the does are there the bucks will be there for rut. Try again in November or late October.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
Hildebrand wrote:E70EE225-2C0D-48FE-8859-0A388D0A540A.jpeg
BDA420E2-3A60-4FFD-857C-5F74C0E36CC6.jpeg
I would black out all the names or you’ll lose your spot!! Lots of lurkers waiting for stuff like this...
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
So where the black outline is where I found the bedding area up next to that creek and express way. The blue is a area filled with water. Up top where it says consumers is a open area of clover
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- buttonbuck
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting
Hildebrand wrote:Good morning!
So yesterday I began my ways to scout. This will be my second year of scouting so you can imagine I am new and have so much to learn. I do hunt private land but I am going to scout the few local state lands I have close to ease the pressure on the private and hope to use to sate land to learn and fail and hope it betters me for the private land trips I make.
As for the scouting I did yesterday, the area is not a massive chunk of land but holds some good bucks. I have a few buddies that have small game and duck hunted it and have seen nice bucks.
So as I got to working the area I came across a are where I started to find rubs, some old and some new. This area was tucked into that back of this area and one side was a big creek and also the expressway runs north and south. My problem is trying to figure out if this is a buck bedding area or a doe bedding area and if the bucks are just marking it up do to doe bedding. I sat in this area trying to ask myself why a deer would be here. What came to mind is not many guys make the trip back there because it was not easy and the whole area leading to it is nasty and thick and pretty much hard to hunt due to it being so thick.
I will post some videos that I took in hopes some can shed some light for me and help me better understand things.
This helped me with a methodology.
https://youtu.be/cv3wQwOfJnk
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