What do you look for scouting while scouting?

[Ky mountain man]

What kind of sign do you look for while scouting in the spring? Rubs, old scrapes, doe traffic at the moment, etc...

When you do find what you are looking for what is your next move?

Thanks for your input...

[cspot]

That is a little hard to answer as I am looking for a whole lot of stuff when scouting. I think the best way to answer is to explain my plan for this weekend when I go scouting.

I probably have at least a dozen or so spots that I have cyber scouted that have potential that I want to scout this Spring. In addition to those spots, I will probably get another dozen or so spots that I will add from driving around looking that I will want to scout. In the big woods area I am hunting my first focus when walking will be to see if there is deer sign period. Some areas simply just don't hold deer in these parts. Next I am looking for what food sources are there, what terrain features are present, what potential bedding areas there are. I am also looking for buck sign and hopefully big buck sign. All this while I am looking for hunter sign from the past year and evaluating how much pressure I think the spot gets. When I find spots that look good then I am looking for potential stand sites. My ultimate goal is at the end to have some stand locations marked or crossing the area completely off. Not sure how many spots I will scout this weekend, but I am hoping to get quite a few scouted. Will really only be able to scout on Saturday though as I have plans on Sunday afternoon. There is a completely new area on Sunday that I want to drive around and do some road scouting in the morning before I leave to locate some more spots to walk on another weekend.

[Boogieman1]

I look for cover and terrain. I then try to find a tree that swings odds in my favor. Eventually through trial an error I will find the best tree on the place. From there it’s just a matter of playing peakaboo and knowing when the grease is ready for frying.

[Ghost Hunter]

To sum it up short. I look for a change in terrain features with difficult entrance or something that nobody wants consider to hunt. Then just see if they are using it. There may not be much sign. But, there got to be some tracks if they are using it.

[AppalachianArcher]

I look for the same things I do while in season scouting, you just have to determine when the sign was left and make note. I found a fairly fresh rub and scrape the other day while scouting. The scrape looked like it was being worked still and the rub looked to be at least a week old. This tells me that the deer are using this area later in the season, as this sign wasn't there back in late November/early December. If I find sign that looks like it was done months ago or scrapes that aren't opened up anymore, I relate that back to rut sign (November). The next thing I look at when I find sign is terrain, cover, and food to see how it relates.

[The_Real_Jmill]

All dependent on the terrain/access but I typically have already narrowed down a few spots that I assume have some type of bedding via aerials/topos. I pretty much walk straight to those pre determined locations and start from there, I will work the edge of those areas looking for sign/major paths/tracks coming in and out of those areas. Then I will also look at travel corridors leading from bedding to food sources or other areas of bedding/cover. While doing this I try to keep into account others hunters stands or access in and out of the area and see where I can slip in where someone else won't be. Some of my most successful areas are areas that really don't have that much stereotypical deer sign but always produce year after year.

[rfickes87]

I look for cover and terrain. I then try to find a tree that swings odds in my favor. Eventually through trial an error I will find the best tree on the place. From there it’s just a matter of playing peakaboo and knowing when the grease is ready for frying.

Your post made me laugh. Its so short and sweet (and maybe too vague for a newbie) yet, it's absolutely spot on!

You summed up my whole season in 4 sentences, .

[Ky mountain man]

Thanks for the input guys. Please keep them coming.

When you say you look for terrain what exactly do you mean? Saddles, points, water, cover, etc....

Some of my hunting ground is timber for miles without any agriculture land. I do have access to stripped land on coal company property. Some of the big boys are up in the timber where there are no access trails from my experience. I found a very nice fresh shed last year in a pine thicket. Do any of you guys hunt pine thickets? I hunt pressured public land as many of you guys probably do. It has 8 scoreable points. :)

[headgear]

I generally focus on large wet areas or larger areas with a lot of thick cover, seems like the hardest part is to find a buck with some age on him. They need a good sized space to escape the hunters and predators, if you can't find that you just don't find much mature buck sign to begin with.

[Ky mountain man]

I look for cover and terrain. I then try to find a tree that swings odds in my favor. Eventually through trial an error I will find the best tree on the place. From there it’s just a matter of playing peakaboo and knowing when the grease is ready for frying.

Your post made me laugh. Its so short and sweet (and maybe too vague for a newbie) yet, it's absolutely spot on!

You summed up my whole season in 4 sentences, .

I wouldn’t say I was a newbie, I am just not at the beast caliber as many of you guys YET....Nice deer in your profile pick rfickles thanks again to everyone that is willing to take time out of your day to help someone else.

[rfickes87]

I look for cover and terrain. I then try to find a tree that swings odds in my favor. Eventually through trial an error I will find the best tree on the place. From there it’s just a matter of playing peakaboo and knowing when the grease is ready for frying.

Your post made me laugh. Its so short and sweet (and maybe too vague for a newbie) yet, it's absolutely spot on!

You summed up my whole season in 4 sentences, .

I wouldn’t say I was a newbie, I am just not at the beast caliber as many of you guys YET....Nice deer in your profile pick rfickles thanks again to everyone that is willing to take time out of your day to help someone else.

You took my post the wrong way and that's my fault not yours. I apologize for that because after re-reading what I typed up I can see how you thought I meant you personally. I did not mean you and was not calling you a newbie. Please don't think I was picking on you. It was just how he said it I thought it was clever. It really resonated with me and my development over the last few years and I knew exactly what he meant.

[Ky mountain man]

Hehe, don’t worry about it. If you are picking on me your leaving someone else along.. With some of the beginner questions I ask I could see how someone thought I was green behind the ears. I am in a way when it comes to the beast style.
I want to be like some of you guys and kill mature bucks, not just one either. I have been frequently watching beast podcast before I go to bed. I been reading a lot on the forum looking for insight. I guess I use to be embarrassed to ask questions about deer hunting because of pride.

As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat’em join’em.

This forum is kinda uniques as in there is plenty of respect between members, that is such a cool thing. I noticed their is one guy on here that has a signature that made me smile, It says “internet nice guy” ...we could use more nice guys in the world. Thanks for your help again.

[Ky mountain man]

Can someone please explain what kind of terrain they are looking for? Points, saddles, etc..

[treeroot]

I'm looking for the obvious sign, hunter sign, bedding and food. I'm also looking for patterns based on terrain. I'm trying to learn their response in the area to changes in season, pressure, cover, food and so on. Hunting the way I do I'm trying to predict where they will be the following weekend because it changes so much week to week.

[Ky mountain man]

I'm looking for the obvious sign, hunter sign, bedding and food. I'm also looking for patterns based on terrain. I'm trying to learn their response in the area to changes in season, pressure, cover, food and so on. Hunting the way I do I'm trying to predict where they will be the following weekend because it changes so much week to week.

Thank you treeroot