2021 scouting reports

[sagDE]

I spent a few hours out today and found 3 different bedding areas. Jumped 3 does out of one. One that I came across is next to a creek that the beavers have dammed. The area is very open with lots of downed trees. Lots of sign with what appears to be one main bed that is at the highest elevation and several lower satellite beds nearby. I’ve attached photos of this bed and area. There are fields on both sides of the creek. I imagine that they bed there on any wind because the vantage point is so good.

[sagDE]

Back out today and found an active scrape on a field edge outside of a bedding area. Thought that activity would be over by now. Balloon in the bedding area too!

[Jonny]

Pro tip. Leave a couple beers in the bed of your truck when you go scout all day

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[Horizontal Hunter]

Pro tip. Leave a couple beers in the bed of your truck when you go scout all day

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The recovery beverage of choice for discerning athletes. You don’t want to bonk on your way home.

Bob

[justdirtyfun]

Yesterday was pick day of weekend weather wise.
So I di 2.5 miles on a small property that laid out similar to old place in Illinois. No big sign but it was where it was expected.
Might hit it once or twice next year.

Today is rainy and I assembled 5 Beast sticks and wrapped them.

[Lockdown]

Helped a coworker out after work last week. Hit up a small patch of cover surrounded by Ag. Cattails, dogwood, canary grass and willow trees... pretty typical for around here.

I had my eye on 3 potential bedding areas. One was pretty disappointing. Looked like mediocre doe bedding with no buck sign at all. 2nd best was decent but nothing great. Definitely had some bucks bedding in there. It was a cattail transition choked out with dogwood 20-30 wide, then transitioning to CRP.

On the opposite side of the slew, it was more of the same, minus a point of dogwood and willows that jutted into the cats. It was obvious and telegraphed. Just an explosion of rubs right there... probably a dozen of them. (They’re hard to find elsewhere). On top of that there was a 3+ finger set of tracks in the snow and 4-5 big beds.

There’s old rubs in there too. None are big, but it’s the goods... no doubt in my mind. The tricky part is the point isn’t very deep and he’s going to have to sneak to within 40 yards of where he’s bedding. I told him not to go in there when he’s low on time, and don’t go in when conditions aren’t favorable for getting in quiet.

Interestingly, this bedding area is directly down wind of the neighbor’s stands 100-150 yards away.

[thwack16]

Not actively scouting, but it brightened the work day to get a pic of this one. Passed him early December, hadn’t had a pic for several weeks, was scared he was dead. Should have good potential next year.

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[sagDE]

Did a couple more hours today on a spot real close to home. Ran across some furry friends and a pair of doe beds.

[sagDE]

Not actively scouting, but it brightened the work day to get a pic of this one. Passed him early December, hadn’t had a pic for several weeks, was scared he was dead. Should have good potential next year.

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That’s a nice deer! Good luck getting him in the fall.

[Evanszach7]

Pulled 4 cams that I'd soaked since June in the Ohio big woods. Reviewed on site then hiked 6 miles to put the rest of the puzzle together. Very surprised by the lack of big buck sign considering a couple frequent shooters during 10/15-11/15. Seeing more and more here that scrapes are more telling in the big woods than they are in other areas I hunt.

2 hour drive, 1.5 hour hike in. 3 springs of scouting, 2 years of soaking cams around this tract, first hunt will be this season.

[JP BowHunter]

Got out today for some quick looking around. We have a fresh layer of snow on the ground so I was able to follow a nice trail that paralleled an ag field edge. I noticed some historical buck sign and found an area where a few trails converged into an opening in the timber with several oaks. This seems to be a feeding area that I was previously unaware of and will be fun to investigate further next year. I will be trying to determine now where the bedding in that area is. Always fun stomping around in the woods.

[DeadHeadSpread]

Can’t wait to get some productive scouting in. Here in PA we’ve had crusty snow in the woods since mid December. All the goldenrod and other weedy cover is knocked down flat which makes it hard to see how things will look in October.

[BJ99Robinson]

I did some post season scouting / shed hunting on 2.13.21 on a small farm in Indiana. I hunted this in the past, and recently lost permission, but was permitted to shed hunt it. I know this 12 acre woods holds some deer at times but I was not expecting to see the number of beds I found. We've had about 6" of snow on the ground for a couple weeks making it easy to see trails, tracks and beds.

I honestly lost tack of the number of beds I found, I would guess around 100 give or take, but they were everywhere with the most being on the South end of the Wood lot. The South end of the wood lot has the most cover and is farther away from the farm house. I believe they are using the South end to get out of the North wind and pick up some extra sunshine.

I tracked my steps using OnXMaps, I walked a little over 3 miles on just 12 acres. I felt like I covered it pretty well but only found 1 shed. It was worth while, the shed was in perfect condition, it even had a little blood on the base and scored about 59" on just the one side. I had a trail camera picture of the deer and guess him to be about 135", a decent buck for my area.

I couldn't understand the number of beds I found and it was unexplainable until later on. The following day I drove around about an hour before dark checking some nearby corn fields, fyi that's where they are at in my area right now. To my surprise when I drove by the farm I previously scouted there were 26 deer out feeding in the cut corn field. In that filed there deer of all ages and there were 3 bucks in the group still carrying their full set of antlers. I'm going to keep an eye on them before I make my next shed hunting trip. Many in my area have not dropped yet. I saw close to 60 deer total and every place where they were herded up there was at least 1 nice buck in the group still carrying. I'm thinking they will be dropping any day now.

I killed a really nice buck this year and I'm really excited seeing some of these big guys still around and hoping they survive the winter and are around the fall.

[alkillman]

Ok y'all, I need some help. I'm embarking on my first season ever hunting public land. So far, I've found great sign (lots of rubs and scat). I've only found three scrapes in different parcels and one was huge with several scrapes around it and it was in good cover. From there, I found rubs and lots of scat leading to a bedding area where a super long rub line exited from it. My question is this...I found the biggest rub that I've seen in two seasons on another parcel in thick cover. There are lots of rubs leading from super thick bedding about 230 yards away that could be coming from the same buck. There is a ladder stand that someone set up about 40 yards from the huge rub. What would be the etiquette for hunting that buck when someone else has obviously set up a stand to hunt that same buck? I'm just trying to figure out the right way to hunt around other people on public land. I'm mobile with a saddle so I can be as close or as far away from that stand/rub line/bedding as I need to be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Lockdown]

Ok y'all, I need some help. I'm embarking on my first season ever hunting public land. So far, I've found great sign (lots of rubs and scat). I've only found three scrapes in different parcels and one was huge with several scrapes around it and it was in good cover. From there, I found rubs and lots of scat leading to a bedding area where a super long rub line exited from it. My question is this...I found the biggest rub that I've seen in two seasons on another parcel in thick cover. There are lots of rubs leading from super thick bedding about 230 yards away that could be coming from the same buck. There is a ladder stand that someone set up about 40 yards from the huge rub. What would be the etiquette for hunting that buck when someone else has obviously set up a stand to hunt that same buck? I'm just trying to figure out the right way to hunt around other people on public land. I'm mobile with a saddle so I can be as close or as far away from that stand/rub line/bedding as I need to be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Could you tell if it was a gun stand or a bow stand? Often the gun hunters don’t trim much. If it’s a gun stand then he won’t be there until gun season in the last two years my buddy and I have both killed bucks on public right next to box stands that were placed on the public/private border.

Don’t think that he gets to claim that spot since his stand is there. That’s not how public land hunting works. That said, I’d sure try to distance myself from him and hunt closer to bedding than he does.

I think the only poor etiquette on your part would be seeing him on stand and setting up uncomfortably close anyway. If your set ups are close together, IMO it’s first come first served.