Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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ajandrs
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Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby ajandrs » Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:32 am

Hey guys, I found the Beast late last season (my first hunting season) and wasn’t prepared to implement this style of hunting at that time. This year however I planned on getting more into the Beast style of putting myself into positions to be successful, rather than putting myself in a tree on a semi-educated guess / hunch and hoping to get lucky. My pre-season scouting was far too limited to be perfectly honest, with 2 young boys my ability to get out of the house for extended periods of time just isn’t what it used to be. However, I still found 2 pretty decent spots with tracks that showed deer movement through the area. One is a funnel about 50 yards wide connecting 2 big pieces of timber (#1 on the map), I set up in this funnel Monday night (opener) and had a clear shot to the field edge on the North side of the funnel, plus a couple good shooting lanes to the game trail that runs through the funnel. As I sat there however, I was thinking about a comment Dan made in a thread or video I came across the other day where he was talking about the early season “lull” and how it only affects traditional hunters and not Beast hunters. He mentioned funnel hunters specifically and made the comment that funnels are great but only if the deer have a reason to actually go through them, which struck a chord with me. With all the corn and beans all around me, there’s literally food everywhere so that’s not going to drive their movement and they wouldn’t use this funnel for water access, so I sat there asking myself, what would push a deer through here and I didn’t have an answer. There were some tracks in this spot but nothing amazing, and several oaks dropping acorns but like I said there’s plenty of food everywhere right now. On top of that, with the corn fields they have plenty of cover to move around without needing the timber for concealment … those fields should be harvested in the next 1-3 weeks and this seems like it’ll be a much better spot to sit at that time. Thoughts on that?

Because of the layout of this public land, there is access everywhere around the park, about the furthest hike you can have is ¾ mile, but 90% is within a half mile hike. My access point would be the red dot with the green arrow pointing to it. Luckily it seems everyone around here is lazy because I don’t see any other hunter sign a half mile in. I’ll definitely hunt spot #2 on the map a little as the tracks through that area are pretty promising, and I know a couple guys tagged a doe Monday night not too far from that spot. I’m really interested in the point at #3 on the map though, that would be a ¾ mile hike in. The winds here (West wind is most common) would usually be decent to get in behind that point and see if anything is bedded up in there. Then there’s the entire area in the green oval that I’ve never been in, North of #3 there are a few other points worth checking out, then it’s thick timber South of the #3 point and based on what I’ve seen, I bet it gets zero pressure. Also worth mentioning, this is all flat land, no ridges or hills to speak of.

How do you guys tackle in season scouting / stalking in areas like that green oval. In the thick timber at least, I suspect that in order to be quiet you’d have to move at a painfully slow pace to keep snapping twigs and rustling dry leaves to a minimum. Do you glass the area ahead and then slowly move up a ways and glass again, and just keep repeating the process until you get on some sign? Right now everything is still very lush and green, which makes it even more challenging to see and move through. Just looking for some tips on how to tackle this land like a beast and not sit back and hope luck is on my side. I know I’ve heard around these pages that “if you’re not bumping deer you’re not in the game” so I understand that’ll be part of the process of getting in there and moving TO the deer but I still want to do it as methodically and smart as possible.

I’m working with an XOP Vanish XT stand and Helium sticks, but I have 4 Beast sticks on order so hopefully I’ll have those by this weekend … so I have everything I need to get on the ground and find these deer, now it’s just about actually doing it!

Thanks for any tips you might have!

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Babshaft
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Re: Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby Babshaft » Fri Oct 05, 2018 1:21 am

I hope this doesn't come across as harsh, because that is not my intention whatsoever. Have you bought any of the DVD's? If you have, give them a watch again. Even though you didn't really do much post season scouting, you can still go in blind and hunt what you suspect are the bedding areas and hope for the best. It'll be a lot of failure, but you'll learn a ton.

As for your questions:

1) I wouldn't hunt this funnel again until the rut. It's wide open, easy for others to access and it looks like a good distance away from any secure bedding. In my area, if there wasn't a tree stand there, there would be a guy standing there in gun season (first two weeks of November). If there's no one there, you might see something during the rut. Another option is to leave a trail camera there for the rest of the season and see if you get any bucks in daylight...or other hunters.

I have the most beautiful funnel to hunt right close to my house. I hunted the crap out of it. Last season I watched 4 different bucks on camera go from using it in daylight to night based on what I think is my presence. If I had of waited til late October, early November, I'd have been in the game I think.

2) Why do you like this spot? Why would a deer be here? Security cover? Food? Lack of human intrusion?

3) Get some boots on the ground and see. It looks like there's a man made feature near it, so I'd keep my hopes low, but you won't know til you check it out.

Another thing you may not want to hear is something Dan's said quite a bit and I've recently confirmed for myself in my area. Not all public land (or private for that matter) is created equal. Some properties are just too easy to access and too close to a large number of people or they're lacking something for habitat. For example, I have a 28000 acre public piece 25 minutes away. It's a massive conifer swamp. I put over a hundred hours of boots on the ground scouting after hours of aerial scouting. The buck sign is dismal, but theres a TON of moose sign. In all that time I only found a dozen rubs and one scrape. I was only able to find a few bedding areas for deer - all of the best spots were taken over by moose. This swamp is the only place, near a large metropolitan area, that has moose hunting. There's so much pressure in there from it, that if you draw a tag, you're given a square area to hunt. You can't leave it, and nobody else can enter it.

Should I hunt this area or drive an hour away to another public swamp that has no moose and is loaded with deer sign?

I'm not saying this is the case with your piece, I'm just saying it's something you should evaluate. Dan only hunts 10% of the public places he scouts. I hunt 50%, but without this forum I'd be wasting time. And with more experience and more places to scout I unfortunately think my % will get closer to Dan's.

I came to the forum late last season as well. I bought the swamp and marsh bedding dvds and read a ton of the all time best tactical threads as quickly as I could. I literally took that information, grabbed my bow and saddle, and walked the transition lines/edges slowly till I found some rubs, scrapes and large tracks. I would pull my phone out, look on the aerial map and see if it looked like the bedding areas were similar to what I saw on the dvds. If they were, I would setup. I hit my very first buck with the bow last year because of it. So I'm by no means an expert. I'm just at the same point in my development as you and thought maybe my information would relate to you.

Hopefully it helps, and good luck!
ajandrs
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Re: Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby ajandrs » Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:06 am

Babshaft wrote:I hope this doesn't come across as harsh, because that is not my intention whatsoever. Have you bought any of the DVD's? If you have, give them a watch again. Even though you didn't really do much post season scouting, you can still go in blind and hunt what you suspect are the bedding areas and hope for the best. It'll be a lot of failure, but you'll learn a ton.

As for your questions:

1) I wouldn't hunt this funnel again until the rut. It's wide open, easy for others to access and it looks like a good distance away from any secure bedding. In my area, if there wasn't a tree stand there, there would be a guy standing there in gun season (first two weeks of November). If there's no one there, you might see something during the rut. Another option is to leave a trail camera there for the rest of the season and see if you get any bucks in daylight...or other hunters.

I have the most beautiful funnel to hunt right close to my house. I hunted the crap out of it. Last season I watched 4 different bucks on camera go from using it in daylight to night based on what I think is my presence. If I had of waited til late October, early November, I'd have been in the game I think.

2) Why do you like this spot? Why would a deer be here? Security cover? Food? Lack of human intrusion?

3) Get some boots on the ground and see. It looks like there's a man made feature near it, so I'd keep my hopes low, but you won't know til you check it out.

Another thing you may not want to hear is something Dan's said quite a bit and I've recently confirmed for myself in my area. Not all public land (or private for that matter) is created equal. Some properties are just too easy to access and too close to a large number of people or they're lacking something for habitat. For example, I have a 28000 acre public piece 25 minutes away. It's a massive conifer swamp. I put over a hundred hours of boots on the ground scouting after hours of aerial scouting. The buck sign is dismal, but theres a TON of moose sign. In all that time I only found a dozen rubs and one scrape. I was only able to find a few bedding areas for deer - all of the best spots were taken over by moose. This swamp is the only place, near a large metropolitan area, that has moose hunting. There's so much pressure in there from it, that if you draw a tag, you're given a square area to hunt. You can't leave it, and nobody else can enter it.

Should I hunt this area or drive an hour away to another public swamp that has no moose and is loaded with deer sign?

I'm not saying this is the case with your piece, I'm just saying it's something you should evaluate. Dan only hunts 10% of the public places he scouts. I hunt 50%, but without this forum I'd be wasting time. And with more experience and more places to scout I unfortunately think my % will get closer to Dan's.

I came to the forum late last season as well. I bought the swamp and marsh bedding dvds and read a ton of the all time best tactical threads as quickly as I could. I literally took that information, grabbed my bow and saddle, and walked the transition lines/edges slowly till I found some rubs, scrapes and large tracks. I would pull my phone out, look on the aerial map and see if it looked like the bedding areas were similar to what I saw on the dvds. If they were, I would setup. I hit my very first buck with the bow last year because of it. So I'm by no means an expert. I'm just at the same point in my development as you and thought maybe my information would relate to you.

Hopefully it helps, and good luck!


Not harsh at all Babshaft, I appreciate you taking the time to respond and provide your insights. Right now I don't have the DVD's, I'm only armed with all the info I've gotten from reading through these pages. I'll make it a point to pick up the DVD's soon though, I've heard great things from a lot of people about them.

I agree with you about not hunting that #1 funnel again until rut, that's kind of the feeling I had as well. There were some tracks in there but like I said I don't see any huge reason the deer would NEED to be using that funnel right now so it's probably best to stay out of it until rut comes around. As of now I haven't seen any hunter sign in there at all, and it seems to be far enough away to keep most if not all hunters away from it.

As for #2, there are a quite a few tracks walking through this area, you can barely see it in the map, but it's a low-ish (low for around here) area with a typically dry creek bed, big rains and you'll get a little stream through there but still not much. The problem with this spot is it does have a little more pressure. I'll sit it at least once and maybe move on. As for human intrusion, this huge park has plenty of human intrusion so I believe the deer are mostly used to it. There are several equestrian and hiking trails throughout so human scent is probably all over. There are good oaks for food source, and plenty of cover in this area otherwise.

#3 and the green oval in general seem to be the most promising. The green start on the map is where I had a permanent stand last season and I rattled / grunted 3 bucks out of the field and they all came from the South East, which is towards the green oval. My next trip out there I plan on walking the transition on the Eastern edge of that field and look for sign or obvious trails that lead into the timber and go from there. Either way I plan to stay on the interior of this land as just about all the hunter sign I've seen is within 1/3rd mile of any access point. I know there's a good deer population in this park based on the annual harvest report, but I think to get to the good stuff you gotta get back into that thick timber deeper in the park and from what I can tell no one is really doing that, but I'll soon find out. I plan on getting in there Saturday morning so I'll post back what I can find. I really need to get some better bino's, I'm using a cheap POS pair from Walmart that I swear I can barely see out of. But I've already spent a little over $1,300 this summer / fall on gear so a new pair are out of the question for this season.

Thanks again for your time and response, I appreciate it!
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Babshaft
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Re: Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby Babshaft » Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:18 am

Right on man!

Do you have any trail cameras?

If you do, set them up in areas you'd think about hunting but aren't quite sure of and move on to the next one. Check them this winter. I think they're a great tool for a busy guy like yourself. It'd be an easy way of telling whether or not you'd be wasting your time sitting at a spot or not.
ajandrs
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Re: Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby ajandrs » Fri Oct 05, 2018 7:40 am

Babshaft wrote:Right on man!

Do you have any trail cameras?

If you do, set them up in areas you'd think about hunting but aren't quite sure of and move on to the next one. Check them this winter. I think they're a great tool for a busy guy like yourself. It'd be an easy way of telling whether or not you'd be wasting your time sitting at a spot or not.

No cams yet, I'm hoping to pick up a couple next month ... Sams Club has a 2 pack of decent cams for $99, but like I said with what I've already spent this year I might be asking for trouble picking up more gear! :lol: I totally get how valuable they are for getting intel on what's going on in there and will definitely have some in the woods by the end of the year, if nothing else I'll just say that's all I want for Christmas! :D
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Rob loper
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Re: Scouting Advice / Tips Welcome

Unread postby Rob loper » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:49 pm

Babshaft wrote:I hope this doesn't come across as harsh, because that is not my intention whatsoever. Have you bought any of the DVD's? If you have, give them a watch again. Even though you didn't really do much post season scouting, you can still go in blind and hunt what you suspect are the bedding areas and hope for the best. It'll be a lot of failure, but you'll learn a ton.

As for your questions:

1) I wouldn't hunt this funnel again until the rut. It's wide open, easy for others to access and it looks like a good distance away from any secure bedding. In my area, if there wasn't a tree stand there, there would be a guy standing there in gun season (first two weeks of November). If there's no one there, you might see something during the rut. Another option is to leave a trail camera there for the rest of the season and see if you get any bucks in daylight...or other hunters.

I have the most beautiful funnel to hunt right close to my house. I hunted the crap out of it. Last season I watched 4 different bucks on camera go from using it in daylight to night based on what I think is my presence. If I had of waited til late October, early November, I'd have been in the game I think.

2) Why do you like this spot? Why would a deer be here? Security cover? Food? Lack of human intrusion?

3) Get some boots on the ground and see. It looks like there's a man made feature near it, so I'd keep my hopes low, but you won't know til you check it out.

Another thing you may not want to hear is something Dan's said quite a bit and I've recently confirmed for myself in my area. Not all public land (or private for that matter) is created equal. Some properties are just too easy to access and too close to a large number of people or they're lacking something for habitat. For example, I have a 28000 acre public piece 25 minutes away. It's a massive conifer swamp. I put over a hundred hours of boots on the ground scouting after hours of aerial scouting. The buck sign is dismal, but theres a TON of moose sign. In all that time I only found a dozen rubs and one scrape. I was only able to find a few bedding areas for deer - all of the best spots were taken over by moose. This swamp is the only place, near a large metropolitan area, that has moose hunting. There's so much pressure in there from it, that if you draw a tag, you're given a square area to hunt. You can't leave it, and nobody else can enter it.

Should I hunt this area or drive an hour away to another public swamp that has no moose and is loaded with deer sign?

I'm not saying this is the case with your piece, I'm just saying it's something you should evaluate. Dan only hunts 10% of the public places he scouts. I hunt 50%, but without this forum I'd be wasting time. And with more experience and more places to scout I unfortunately think my % will get closer to Dan's.

I came to the forum late last season as well. I bought the swamp and marsh bedding dvds and read a ton of the all time best tactical threads as quickly as I could. I literally took that information, grabbed my bow and saddle, and walked the transition lines/edges slowly till I found some rubs, scrapes and large tracks. I would pull my phone out, look on the aerial map and see if it looked like the bedding areas were similar to what I saw on the dvds. If they were, I would setup. I hit my very first buck with the bow last year because of it. So I'm by no means an expert. I'm just at the same point in my development as you and thought maybe my information would relate to you.

Hopefully it helps, and good luck!


Couldnt hzve said it any better
Well said babs


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