summer scouting Beast style...

[Hawthorne]

I’ve amped up my summer scouting the last 3-4 years and I see the big ones on the same farms every year. When it rotates back to beans I know where they will be. They aren’t everywhere but for some reason they prefer certain areas for the summer from what I’ve seen. Come oct1 they may or may not be there.

[Seeker529]

I’m kinda confused ... I understand summer scouting for taking inventory but don’t deer change bedding locations so how can you determine where they’re gana bed if apple and acorns start dropping and food source change? And if you spotlight bucks late at night how do you know where they are bedding when they could be 1 mile away from their bed by then?

O kind of addressed that in the video, but its a good point for discussion as well. Depending on when your season opens, a lot of the busks I shoot right where I ended up glassing them right before the season. But some disappear and have to be relocated. Like I said in the video, once I find a shooter I narrow my focus on that area... I watch for him at different times, glass, shine, add trail cams, etc.... Often I dont know exactly where they are bedded... Thats where your skill as a hunter comes in and you hunt the animal down. The main point is you would have a very hard time killing giant bucks when your not hunt where one lives... Of my top bucks, almost all of them I was hunting that buck when I shot it. Yes, some were shot right where I was observing them, but many others it got me into the right woods and then I hunted and scouted him down...

Thanks Dan that’s what my thoughts were gearing towards but I wasn’t confident in that so I wanted to ask for reassurance!

[Uncle Lou]

It just never ends does it. Great video dan

[mheichelbech]

I’m kinda confused ... I understand summer scouting for taking inventory but don’t deer change bedding locations so how can you determine where they’re gana bed if apple and acorns start dropping and food source change? And if you spotlight bucks late at night how do you know where they are bedding when they could be 1 mile away from their bed by then?

O kind of addressed that in the video, but its a good point for discussion as well. Depending on when your season opens, a lot of the busks I shoot right where I ended up glassing them right before the season. But some disappear and have to be relocated. Like I said in the video, once I find a shooter I narrow my focus on that area... I watch for him at different times, glass, shine, add trail cams, etc.... Often I dont know exactly where they are bedded... Thats where your skill as a hunter comes in and you hunt the animal down. The main point is you would have a very hard time killing giant bucks when your not hunt where one lives... Of my top bucks, almost all of them I was hunting that buck when I shot it. Yes, some were shot right where I was observing them, but many others it got me into the right woods and then I hunted and scouted him down...

How often are you able to find a buck that relocated from where you saw him in Summer? Do you find that they have gone far and what’s been your best way to relocate the buck?

[NorthernRookie]

Just got the intel on my small private piece the landowner saw the biggest deer of his life just over the property line in a bean field. Probably the same 8 pointer i tried to kill last year with no real chances. Now i need to figure out how to draw him south about 500 yards. I assume now is the time to lay out mock scrapes?

[dan]

I’m kinda confused ... I understand summer scouting for taking inventory but don’t deer change bedding locations so how can you determine where they’re gana bed if apple and acorns start dropping and food source change? And if you spotlight bucks late at night how do you know where they are bedding when they could be 1 mile away from their bed by then?

O kind of addressed that in the video, but its a good point for discussion as well. Depending on when your season opens, a lot of the busks I shoot right where I ended up glassing them right before the season. But some disappear and have to be relocated. Like I said in the video, once I find a shooter I narrow my focus on that area... I watch for him at different times, glass, shine, add trail cams, etc.... Often I dont know exactly where they are bedded... Thats where your skill as a hunter comes in and you hunt the animal down. The main point is you would have a very hard time killing giant bucks when your not hunt where one lives... Of my top bucks, almost all of them I was hunting that buck when I shot it. Yes, some were shot right where I was observing them, but many others it got me into the right woods and then I hunted and scouted him down...

How often are you able to find a buck that relocated from where you saw him in Summer? Do you find that they have gone far and what’s been your best way to relocate the buck?

Not really sure of the percentages,,, Usually its the younger (3 year old) deer I loose track of. The older bucks usually font go as far. Sometimes, but usually they stick to an area. I find them by narrowing my search with trail cams, glassing, spotting, tracks, etc. in the area surrounding where I saw him or got the initial intel.

[MichiganMike]

Forgot about another tactic people could use to locate mature deer, bear drags. In michigan, bear dog training season starts in mid July. Those guys are dragging the sides of dirt roads almost daily until late September to locate bear tracks crossing the road. Well, they also show where big deer are crossing roads. I just started doing this last year and like I said in my earlier post, wasnt able to locate older deer, BUT, I learned a lot about doe travel routes and preferred road crossings from it. Every time I run across a deer track crossing, I mark it on onx then get out and brush the track clean. Eventually this is going to pay off from either coming across a big buck track and back tracking or from locating doe traffic areas and backtracking to their bedding areas. Even if you dont have bear hunters, you can drive dirt roads and do the same thing, it's just a little tougher to see the tracks sometimes without the drag.

Good idea! Never thought of that.

[austin1990]

Good stuff! I'll start my summer scouting tomorrow and hopefully can find some good places to key in on. The buck I killed last year I observed and filmed in july and he hung out there until September 29th when I shot him.

I do wonder though dan, what do you do in big woods for summer scouting, where theres not crops or fields? That's what some areas I'll be scouting. Right now I'm just going to start on the edges I can see from aerials of different tree types, sloughs, bedding, etc... and go off track sizes and number of tracks. Most of the big bucks I have gotten onto in big timber have been from cameras in terrain types that hold buck bedding, and cameras where big tracks cross roads...

[seazofcheeze]

I saw 4 solid bucks last night while glassing.

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[dan]

Good stuff! I'll start my summer scouting tomorrow and hopefully can find some good places to key in on. The buck I killed last year I observed and filmed in july and he hung out there until September 29th when I shot him.

I do wonder though dan, what do you do in big woods for summer scouting, where theres not crops or fields? That's what some areas I'll be scouting. Right now I'm just going to start on the edges I can see from aerials of different tree types, sloughs, bedding, etc... and go off track sizes and number of tracks. Most of the big bucks I have gotten onto in big timber have been from cameras in terrain types that hold buck bedding, and cameras where big tracks cross roads...

[<DK>]

Summer scouting is tough but effective, actually I have never seen another person while doing my summer scouting. I am not big on glassing unless the opportunity is there, I like to dive in. A lot depends what stage they are w antler growth / velvet. I have jumped one really good buck, hard horned, late Aug and he did not return that season. If I would have stayed out I could have had a great chance at that deer.

I like placing cam in intrusive spots for a few weeks and getting them out. I work based on the rain conditions and access options. Here are just a few examples I have uploaded and handy to share.









Or diving into to find them on foot



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWBgBhZQRvc&list=PLJzbVUu9Abt6RT2QCL_aVL1AdEIwz6IED&index=2&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1K6oSeu8aI&list=PLJzbVUu9Abt6RT2QCL_aVL1AdEIwz6IED&index=10&t=0s

Or jumping them before hunting them in Sept

Hill Country Stack Buck -

Hill Country AM / Bump n Dump Buck

I love Sept hunting but both summer scouting and early season hunting are tough tasks. Very rewarding though!

[Thesouthpaw]

Good stuff.

[greenhorndave]

No good bucks this evening, but there was this..

20200703_203549.jpg

[justdirtyfun]

I wanted to mention glassing and shining need to be done with correct weather conditions. If you suspect bedding to be wind based then wait for that wind. Or have a wind that you have a theory behind.
Knowing when a rain event cleared out tracks allows you to know how many 'back to bed' events have happened while looking a set of tracks in a particular location.

[stash59]

2 young bucks. Only deer seen yesterday evening. But the steak I grilled was good.