Help me better understand off season scouting

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Hildebrand
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:10 am

DaveT1963 wrote:I personally think the fact that it does not look "currently" heavy used is a huge plus. This typically means it was made earlier in the season BEFORE rut. there fore it is possibly a food based bed or a bed that buck frequently uses in his core area. If you found it now and it was still showing sign of heavily used it would most likely be a rut bed or a high pressured escape bed. Knowing this can arm you with info on WHEN to hunt it, which IME is just as important as finding it.



I was thinking that myself. Maybe hit it a time or two early and move on


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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:13 am

Wlog wrote:Don’t worry too much about the hunting pressure. I’ve noticed that around my area it’s very cyclical. One year there will be trucks in a given parking lot every weekend, the next year it’s a ghost town and everyone is on a different area. That’s why it’s helpful to know multiple areas well and be able to adjust on the fly.



I can imagine that. I did find it funny to see all the areas where there where pop up tents,sink wicks left to their tents and cans of buck bomb laying all over like deer dont know whats going on lol These were spots that you would expect guys to hunt but I wanted to see the whole picture. But yea that is my goal here, learn as much on scouting and pick over a few areas to have in my back pocket
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G-Patt
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby G-Patt » Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:48 am

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.


I think it's great you're starting your journey to scout. Looks like you have a great start. As an late adult-onset hunter who began hunting and scouting a few years ago, and who regularly scouts pretty much year round now, there's nothing that beats boots on the ground to either confirm whether a spot you cyber-scouted is great or sucks. You're asking the right question: why would a deer be here? In addition to hunting pressure, something to help you with this question is to get to know the names of the trees, shrubs, grasses and topography of where you are hunting as well as how the wind moves or swirls on your prevailing wind days. For example, I have a hunting spot where does are bedded at the bottom of a bowl adjacent to a creek covered in briar, thick grasses, bamboo and cedars. It's adjacent to red, pin and chinkapin oaks, which is mixed in with tulip poplars and beech. I know that in southerly windy conditions the wind swirls northerly in that spot. If I'm hunting does, I'm hoping to kayak into the bowl on a calm, westerly-wind day in the wee morning hours to ambush some does when they come back to bed after eating acorns and browse. I guess my advice is to get to know the trees, plants, topography and how wind behaves on any given wind direction in that area. Good luck! I hope you kill a monster buck with your new-found skills. Keep scouting and asking "why?"
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1STRANGEWILDERNESS
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby 1STRANGEWILDERNESS » Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:36 am

Hildebrand wrote:
Wlog wrote:Don’t worry too much about the hunting pressure. I’ve noticed that around my area it’s very cyclical. One year there will be trucks in a given parking lot every weekend, the next year it’s a ghost town and everyone is on a different area. That’s why it’s helpful to know multiple areas well and be able to adjust on the fly.



I can imagine that. I did find it funny to see all the areas where there where pop up tents,sink wicks left to their tents and cans of buck bomb laying all over like deer dont know whats going on lol These were spots that you would expect guys to hunt but I wanted to see the whole picture. But yea that is my goal here, learn as much on scouting and pick over a few areas to have in my back pocket



Oh man oh man not the scent whicks and buck bombers, at least you know where not to hunt.. It’s okay if some goof ball wants to use that crap but when they don’t pick it up I get borderline irate.
There was a dude near me in federal forest with a huge box blind he illegally put in and leaves yr round illegally. Over the years his trash left behind ( carpeting from his old blind, propane bottles, cotton, buck bombs, bait bags spread all through the woods. I picked it all up and stuffed it in his blind. As hunters we don’t need these guys in our ranks.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:25 am

Want to bring this back up. I was busy this past week. My wife and I brought a baby boy into this world.

I was able to sneak back out and scout some more of the state land I scouted before.

I found some promising sign , but i did see signs of hunters. Most look liked old stands guys left and have not hunted in a long time tho.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:30 am

3D58367C-FC6C-4485-A535-67105F9D8DA1.jpeg
So here is some sign I found
3D58367C-FC6C-4485-A535-67105F9D8DA1.jpeg
BC6E3C0F-5494-4819-BD73-2852259B4140.jpeg
E090FAB6-A7C2-4B5D-89C0-8ADFB9F0D6B2.jpeg


This was all sign I found in one area. Some old stands nothing fresh. There were good trails and rubs all over.
In the one picture you can see plan as day the deer are cutting across the on ramp to the expressway to bed I would guess in the area that’s cattails and what not. Only guess I would have since that trail is like that.
In the last picture of the map the x is where they are crossing the on ramp. Is this because they feel safe and nobody goes over there ?
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Hildebrand
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:32 am

Here is another part I scouted. This part was so thick and nasty it was hard to walk through even with all the green off. I found a lot of rubs and areas where deer sign was heavy but this was pretty close to a field edge. Thoughts ?
CDC6F5F6-EBF6-4B1A-9921-710284903290.jpeg
F27753AB-BA30-45F2-A1CE-5FAF6836645B.jpeg


So to the right of that black is the area with all the rubs. This was just one picture I snapped. That whole area is thick nasty and no big trees in it. It’s just over grown about 8 foot tall madness
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby raisins » Tue Jan 21, 2020 7:28 am

deleted post...not sure how to remove
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Mibowhunter91
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Mibowhunter91 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 7:58 am

I’ve noticed and guys like dan talk aboutnit all the time in farm country the mature bucks bed in a way to be able to see danger coming on the edge most of what I hunt is broken farm country and find my best buck bedding in areas by the field that get left alone
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:00 am

Mibowhunter91 wrote:I’ve noticed and guys like dan talk aboutnit all the time in farm country the mature bucks bed in a way to be able to see danger coming on the edge most of what I hunt is broken farm country and find my best buck bedding in areas by the field that get left alone



That could be very well what is happening right at this spot. Would be a tough one to hunt if that is the case.
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:04 am

I was hoping to get Dan or another farm land guy to chime in. I was wondering if anybody has even seen the expressway stuff before. Makes sense because who goes over there but I cant wrap my mind around it lol
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Mibowhunter91
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Mibowhunter91 » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:35 am

Hildebrand wrote:I was hoping to get Dan or another farm land guy to chime in. I was wondering if anybody has even seen the expressway stuff before. Makes sense because who goes over there but I cant wrap my mind around it lol


Not exactly like you have going on but there’s a spot of public by me I hunt and can watch the trucks go by it’s also always from the parking lot
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:58 am

Mibowhunter91 wrote:
Hildebrand wrote:I was hoping to get Dan or another farm land guy to chime in. I was wondering if anybody has even seen the expressway stuff before. Makes sense because who goes over there but I cant wrap my mind around it lol


Not exactly like you have going on but there’s a spot of public by me I hunt and can watch the trucks go by it’s also always from the parking lot



That path acorss the on ramp is a long ways from the parking lot and you have to cross a creek to make it to that. I seen to old stands but it looked like they had not been hunted in for a long time. I maybe run back and toss a cheap camera on the area and let it soak up whatever I can. Lots of sign and some of the biggest rubs I have come across
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Mibowhunter91 » Wed Jan 22, 2020 8:42 am

Sounds like you need to throw a hunt at it
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Re: Help me better understand off season scouting

Unread postby Hildebrand » Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:47 pm

Mibowhunter91 wrote:Sounds like you need to throw a hunt at it


I am going to for sure. Thanks for the replies


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