In season scouting without burning bridges how to?

[stash59]

Since I've cycled into alow point as far as my health. I haven't been able to get out and scout. So I lay around and think. I've realized I haven't quite got my head around the Beast mode of in season scouting. I grasp the concepts of shining and checking for tracks at food sources. But when these are .5 miles or more from the bedding. How do you pinpoint a particular bed. I know observation stands can help. But Dan talks about walking transition lines. But doesn't this burn bridges? Do you stay well into the woods side and look for rubs from more of a distance? Dan says he probably relies more on tracks. How can this be done if there aren't any areas conducive for this?
A little off topic. How do you check tracks after shining when where you see the buck is on private land?
Thanx!

[Horizontal Hunter]

Subscribed. I am looking forward to the responses as well.

Bob

[ Post made via iPad ]

[PK_]

Personally I find it works best on transitions that have definite terrain features that help you pinpoint where they should be bedded. If you just have a long transition line with bedding cover and no points, peninsulas, or small islands you have your work cut out for you going in without prior scouting.

Whenever I am doing my in season scouting it is basically to check spots I know or highly suspect a buck to be bedded, generally they are specific small areas. Not necessarily an entire transition…

I hope that makes sense.

[dan]

As far as walking transitions in season to find good spots near bedding, you need to be able to recognize bedding and be able to back off enough. The good thing is, in a lot of terrains the bedding ain't going to jump out and grab you... Say your on a hardwood area along the edge of a marsh... You know bucks bed in the marsh, and your aware they are heading to the ridge to eat acorns or move past to hit something further out... Most of the good bedding is not going to be along the straight hard transition, it will be on a little finger of trees going out, or at a tiny micro island, or a dry spot in the cat's you cant see, or in a bowl where brush and trees mix with the cattails... So, if you see a trail coming out with either tracks, or rubs or you just suspect bucks are using it, you set up and give it a shot... In hill country you walk the ridges, see a point going out, rub's or other sign coming out, set up... Etc.

[stash59]

So say you find tracks from a target buck in or near the food source. Then you have 2 beds of equal quality safety wise for the bucks. They're 200 yards apart. Do you just scout your way in and sit? Or if you don't find any sign do you go on to the next?

[JoeRE]

In farm country to be honest one scouting trip rarely ruins much, deer are constantly getting disturbed. Still overall I agree with you and try to stay away from bedding unless I am going in for a hunt.

My spring scouting has one main goal in mind - find primary bedding and figure out under what conditions its used such as wind, stage of rut, hunting pressure, that sort of thing and pick a setup for it. My in season scouting goal is to stick to the edges to find big buck sign then try to figure out what the most likely bedding is just from what I saw in the spring and marked up on maps. When I approach bedding areas in the fall it will be for a hunt and I want it to be to a specific spot I already picked out. Obviously you can't do that if you never scouted the area in the spring or hunted it in the past but that is something I tend to avoid.