First time bed scouting.... lets say i have a few questions

[ADKMtnTrapper]

Good Afternoon,

So i made some time yesterday to do a 3 hour scout venture of 2 different properties and i managed to find one bed, with nice spike skeleton in it! Needless to say my first location i believe i found some doe beds but none with hair in them. The topography and layout of the land made since. I was surprized at how long it took to scout such a small area and how painfully obvious it was that i am back in elementary school now that i am scounting in a different light. One question i do have is when you identify lets say a point of interest of about 75 yds in diameter, how long do you spend trying to find beds? Also if you know the deer bed in that area but you struggle to find definate sign what are some good starting points on keying in on these beds?

At my second location i had high hopes, the terrain and topography match idea locations for bucks to stay close all the resources are there (Heavy cover, good wind/thermals, secluded water source, and mix of mast and agriculture crop, and low human pressure) I searched through thick and thin every hump, ledge, etc and i found one small trail with old and 1 set of new track of a young deer(Id guess about 2 yrs old). My only thought and question is, does cattle(Beef cow) presence hinder deer activity? The farmer has a 4 strand barb wire fence running around the pastures could this be putting them off? One thing i am sure of is this will be a great turkey hunting location for next week! I did not get to the other half of the property which is a thin(id say about 50 yds wide strip of woods bordering two fields. Is it worth scouting the other half or should i cross this property off of my list??

Thanks for any input!
ADK

[hunter_mike]

I have asked myself and the beast members this general question many times and for now i think i have found my balance.

You have to define your goals. Goals for your hunting career in general and goals for the individual property.

1. Is your goal to be really in tune with a select few properties? Or is your goal to cover a ton of ground and lots of different properties?

I know for myself that my goal is to cover a few dozen different properties over the next few years in varying terrain just to get a feel for how to hunt all of them and what general parts of the state are better than the others. I basically want to find all of the best hunting areas in my corner of the state. The bad part about this is that I am walking past a lot of beds when I scout. The good part is that I can still tell when I am in a hot area by finding SOME of the beds, large rubs, tracks and scrapes near bedding cover. Another good part is that I am covering a ton more acres than the average guy. Another good part is that when I am older and possibly cant move around as well, I will still know a hundred "good areas" that I can go back to for a detailed scout that is less physically exerting. I basically don't even care if I kill anything this year, I just know that with every trip to the woods I am increasing my odds that a kill will happen because I add more spots to my "top 10 spots list".

2. Then there are goals you need to set for the individual property. Is there a specific buck here that trips your trigger? Is this a convenient location that also has potential to kill a good buck? I.E. a spot close to your house or work... Then yes i will spend a ton more time trying to locate every single spot of ground with potential for bedding.

[remmag]

Grew up on a beef farm, deer or horses never seemed to effect deer movement. Had deep runs cutting through our pasture to get from one field to the other. My dad also had two stationary blinds on both sides of the pasture for gun season and killed numerous deer walking the fence row so I wouldn't think that's a factor IMO.

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[fishlips]

One thing I have to keep in mind is that scouting for me takes time. I am not as tuned in as a lot of guys on here to finding spots and dialing in right away to where the hot spot will be. But over time, I have gotten better and am better able to identify spots from online scouting and then once on the ground, you kind of just have to really dial it in and find the exact spot. Can't say 100% for sure how to expedite the process, just really pay attention to the sign in the area you expect bedding to be. I think sometimes I get the feeling that an area is going to have a bed in it and it's just a matter of time before I get into it.

3 hours of scouting though isn't a ton of time yet, so don't get discouraged. 3 hours for me gets me a little bit of time in a spot that is difficult to get to.

One piece of advice is to slow down (assuming you are just getting started) and really try to learn a few areas really well. I think then you can kind of come up with a system that works for you that you can apply to a lot of areas and scout more efficiently. Just tough because those first few years can be slow going (or have been for me), but you might only be prolonging the learning period if you rush through areas.

[dan]

One question i do have is when you identify lets say a point of interest of about 75 yds in diameter, how long do you spend trying to find beds? Also if you know the deer bed in that area but you struggle to find definate sign what are some good starting points on keying in on these beds?

If your starting out doing this, your going to find spots that are good bedding areas in certain terrains that really are hard to tell visually... The good news is, the longer you look at beds, and scout beds, the better you will get at seeing a depression and saying "thats a bed"
If the terrain is right, the pressure is right, the cover is right, assume they bed there and make a set up accordingly. Trust your gut.

does cattle(Beef cow) presence hinder deer activity?

In my opinion it does... They will pass thru cow pastures to some extent, but I have noticed much less bedding and activity right around the cows.

[ADKMtnTrapper]

Thanks for the input guys, this is my first year scouting this way and i definately know that this is a slow learning process. I didnt expect to get great results in 3 hours but unfortuneately that is all the time i had that morning. I come across some beds a time or two in the past and i can pick them out but i never sought them out. My main question was in regards to deers tempermant to cattle and fencing. I am thinking that they avoid this area because of the high fences and consistant disturbance from the cows. I am thinking that this will be crossed of my list of places to hunt unless i notice some deer in the fields during the late summer month and i can just hunt the funnels if need be.