Scouting tips and tricks

[SILhunter]

I got into bed hunting last year and did a lot of scouting last winter/spring. 1 mistake I made was doing a lot of speed scouting which is alright but once I found a good spot I just marked it on my phone(hunt stand) and kept going, one problem with that is when you go back to hunt your not sure how to approach it. This year I am going back to those spots and finding THE tree I need to be in and finding the best entry/exit routes to it. I am taking my gps along now since it will put me with in feet of a marked tree, make yourself some notes about wind direction needed, best time to hunt based on thermals. I would also taking your climbing method along and get up in the tree to make sure you have shooting lanes before you get there to hunt.

[jwetzel52]

After reading what you did that’s kind of what I did too. I knew I had a lot of ground to cover so I found the bed and back tracked a bit to where I thought I needed the stand but only spent a little time thinking of thermals and wind. But after asking people for advice on the spot after I got home and realized my mistake, I see that I need to get back in there and spend more time than I did. Really like the tips, thank you.

[SILhunter]

@jwetzel52 did you read lockdowns article in this forum? It's labeled 2020 whitetail "die"ary, a good read

[jwetzel52]

No I haven’t but I will thank you

[country_gbrony]

Edges are great in all types of topography and habitat types. Are you hunting mountains or flat land? My scouting changes because I hunt mountains, swamps, pine plantations, and marshes in VA, Homogeneous terrain is usually a no-go but in the mountains deer will bed up high in it regardless of cover sometimes. I've seen beds in open woods if the terrain is steep and they can escape easily.

[jwetzel52]

I hunt more farmland than anything. Big blocks of timber, some swamp and creek bottom. Stuff like that

[country_gbrony]

So that makes it a little easier. I hunt some farmland too and typically the deer will move from cover during the day to the ag at night. A lot of times they wil stage in the timber milling around until it gets darker . Usually the big bucks are the last to get up. I've rarely seen big bucks bed in daylight in open timber in farm country unless: there is almost 0 human pressure or they are tending a doe in heat. The ag is your food source they will move to at night and from in the morning. I would hang as tight to cover as I can if I were looking for a nice buck in either morning or evening. Watch your entry route to your stands because bucks can bed in the woods and watch the fields if you enter that way. If you use a field to enter the woods in the morning your likely to blow the deer off the field as they eat. Deer will also bed in weird places in farm country. Fence rows right along the driveway, near old equipment, behind houses, etc. They will bed right next to dog pens cause they know the dogs never chase them, they just bark. Deer get accustomed to human traffic on a farm and realize its no threat as long as its in the usual places they see, hear and smell people. Many a deer die from a rifle tucked in a tractor.

[raisins]

What do you take with you when you scout?

I carry a small pack with the following:

water, snacks, flashlight and spare batteries, hand pruners if I get caught in some brush, toilet paper, ultralight rain suit, gloves, polar fleece, paper map, small notepad, pens/pencils, compass, whistle, lighter, iPhone with OnX Hunt and map of area loaded so I can go offline if connection isn't good, small Vortex monocular.

You can use the monocular to check out areas a bit without walking down to gauge your interest. Also, if you think you see a rub or scrape, you can confirm or exclude from a distance sometimes.

I mark up my OnX with waypoints, lines, and shapes a good bit while in the field.

If I'm somewhere it is legal to use, I carry a machete with a 12" blade.

[Evanszach7]

I hunt more farmland than anything. Big blocks of timber, some swamp and creek bottom. Stuff like that

With public farmland Ive had the most success identifying overlooked spots through:

scouting other public hunters (stands, trash, their access points),

elimating obvious funnels (timber strips that connect public to private)

Figuring out adjoining private pressure. From the truck, looking for deer feeders, archery blocks, hunting stickers on trucks. ... Although I just found a really good spot within 75 yards of a backyard with all of this. A spot Id not scouted for years because of this.

The best spots seem to be those with no huntable trees, or newer growth areas where the canopy is so low your better off hunting from the ground.

Ive also been scouting with the wind in mind this year and accessing to intentionally jump more deer and speed up locating bedding areas I could've overlooked. In-season scouting approach....

[AppalachianArcher]

Depending on the size of the property, I like to break them down into smaller areas to help with thoroughly scouting a place. If the place is over 1000ac, I like to pick 100 acres that really catch my attention from a map. Once that's established, I'll do boots on the ground to scout it.