The Hunting Beast

post season scouting -- what do you look for in new spots??

I have my approach but what is yours??

Buck bedding areas and specific or actual beds. Big tracks, big rubs from previous season, hunter sign. Trees for stands. prepping trees. Entry and exit routes. parking spots. Transition lines to set up near. Wind direction needed.

PLB has just about got it covered, but I will add that I also will check to see where the water and food sources for the area are in relation to the bedding areas.

I draw large circles aruond parking areas and look for pockets between those circles that are very far or hard to access...a boat is great to get into some of my spots

keep the ideas coming!

I hunt thousands of acres of unbroken forest. With that said, I mostly just look for all the different food sources, note when each one will be available and how the deer will transition between each one as the season progresses. I let the Wind and terrain tell me where he will be bedded and how he will move at any given time of year or day for that matter...in relation to the food source and/or does.

Step #1 Find an area that holds older bucks/good genetics - all over WI, S Iowa, N Missouri, W IL etc

Difficulty of terrain - marsh, hills, large fields of CRP, large unbroken timber = more mature bucks in most cases.

Then after than I look parcels of huntable land... public, special access, private (tough in WI, better if you get away from heavily populated cities = usually 90-120 mins from bigger cities I have luck getting on farm property.

Then I look for bedding areas and food sources and areas I believe pressure will push deer (this is always fun predicting where deer will go when weekend warriors show up - WI gun season)

I could be wrong about this so feel free to correct me, but it just seems to be my experience here in the farmlands of South Eastern Indiana that immediate post season scouting does have it's benefits but not for locating primary buck beds for the following seasons pre-rut hunting. Seems like they bed closest to the best food source when it is cold and that changes annually with crop rotations and natural forage depending on the seasonal weather impact. I mean they still have preferred bedding locations but seems you can't simply go by what you find now for next seasons late year hunts. Immediate post season scouting seems like a better time to locate rutting activity as these will rarely change from year to year, and some Doe group bedding as these seem to always be located near food sources and are much easier to find than a lone buck bed.
Scouting 1200 acres very intricately this past season I didn't find one confirmed buck bed. My strategy for this year for locating a buck is to soft bump about green up when browse is abundant and they start migrating back to core areas which I am hoping will be long enough before season that they will return to these areas by season opener.
We always see good bucks on the property (except this year for me) during the rut...I am fearful that mature buck bedding is not taking place on the property. If I don't locate any deer by soft bumps then I can assume this theory is correct. This will mean that time permitting I need to gain access to the properties where they are bedded or find public or private land that is holding bucks and go after them on my lone wolf vacation days.

Indianahunter wrote:I could be wrong about this so feel free to correct me, but it just seems to be my experience here in the farmlands of South Eastern Indiana that immediate post season scouting does have it's benefits but not for locating primary buck beds for the following seasons pre-rut hunting. Seems like they bed closest to the best food source when it is cold and that changes annually with crop rotations and natural forage depending on the seasonal weather impact. I mean they still have preferred bedding locations but seems you can't simply go by what you find now for next seasons late year hunts. Immediate post season scouting seems like a better time to locate rutting activity as these will rarely change from year to year, and some Doe group bedding as these seem to always be located near food sources and are much easier to find than a lone buck bed.
Scouting 1200 acres very intricately this past season I didn't find one confirmed buck bed. My strategy for this year for locating a buck is to soft bump about green up when browse is abundant and they start migrating back to core areas which I am hoping will be long enough before season that they will return to these areas by season opener.
We always see good bucks on the property (except this year for me) during the rut...I am fearful that mature buck bedding is not taking place on the property. If I don't locate any deer by soft bumps then I can assume this theory is correct. This will mean that time permitting I need to gain access to the properties where they are bedded or find public or private land that is holding bucks and go after them on my lone wolf vacation days.

I replied to this before, but Im not sure if you got to read it or not before it was lost, so I will try to remember what I said best I can..

Im no expert on this, just going by what I have learned here, but I'll do my best to help. You are correct about immediate post season scouting..the beds you will be finding now (like in the snow) are most likely temporary beds near food sources, and are not the primary or fall beds you want to be finding. Scouting after the snow melts but before green up would be the best time to find these beds, as the woods looks pretty much like it did in the fall.

I would think that soft bumping them in the spring would work fine, and I can only assume that Dan and others that scout pretty much exclusively for beds do their fair share of bumping deer..One of the big reasons for scouting in the spring vs later in the year..

One thing to remember is that deer have different beds at different times of the year. If you go out scouting and dont bump any deer that day, I wouldnt think that means that they dont bed there at all. Maybe a primary food source becomes preferred mid season, and then they start bedding on your property..The best thing you could do is to locate the actual beds themselves rather than relying on bumping deer. (I know its easier said than done)

Post an aerial photo/topo over in the land management section and hopefully Dan and others can help you locate the most likely sites..

If the deer just simply do not bed on your land at all, I guess the only short term solution is to try to locate other properties where they do bed..

I hope I helped..

Scouting after the snow melts but before green up would be the best time to find these beds, as the woods looks pretty much like it did in the fall.

X2

Post an aerial photo/topo over in the land management section and hopefully Dan and others can help you locate the most likely sites..

I have been privatly going over Bob's maps of his property. Its taking a while though.

And I appreciate it Dan. I am sure that it would be much easier if I could get you here on foot. I am sure topo info is not nearly as easy to identify for farm country as the Hill Country. I have been stomping around that property for most of my hunting career and I would bet that walking it with you would probably shock the heck out of me....LOL! No rush and no worries.

The snow melted for a day or two here last week and I found a couple beds I doubt I would have otherwise but I think it can still be very advantagous to go scouting in the snow. Especially if pressure is still on the deer now, they will still go to where they feel safe. So it never hurts to follow big tracks now. I like your soft bump idea Indiana. Only you can't really see what buck your bumping in the spring. I haven't had time to hit the swamps and big woods yet, too far a drive, but I've been heading for the steepest and thickest terrain I can find around home and have had way more luck finding beds this year than last. Even when I'm looking for a new place to scout I almost always make sure it has at least one good steep hillside. I usually think if its easy to get to its not a good spot, but I also spend some time scouting in the overlooked spots. Especially near houses, I think I've made my fair share of homeowners nervous.

i look for limited/difficult access or public areas near know good pvt land. then scout and find buck beds and the trails used to access them

I basicly look for marshes with a ton of transitions and some deep cover where a old buck can hide in solitude.I will say that most all of the Buck beds I,m finding are in them spots where you stop and think "man do I really want walk into that crap and half way in your thinking you should turn back but you go on and thats where you find them beds.For me I would not have found any without my knee boots .Everyone had to be accessed through some water .Dan,s tips on stepping at the base roots of them cattails came in very handy also.

For me its all about finding those pockets where the deer don't get pressured. Depending on the area I hunt those locations can be very large or small but are just about alwasy hard to get to or very thick. Most often finding other hunters or spots other hunters are going to like (funnels, food, or ridges for example) and avoid those areas at all costs. This really helps me narrow down a property and save a lot of time.

Then it's just a matter of scouting out what you hope are buck bedding areas and interpreting the sign and drawing up a plan to hunt that area.