DaveT1963 wrote:Another big difference is in season scouting. With Ag fields you can glass and walk the edges to look for tracks/rubs etc. without disturbing the bedding in a lot of cases. To find how sign in big woods, i.e. which acorns are falling/being hit, persimmons, and natural browse being used, etc., you HAVE to get in there and a lot of the time bucks will not be bedded far away and the odds are you will alert them as you verify. In years with high acorn production and bucks will a lot of times bed right where they eat and travel very little during the pre rut - they just do not have a need to travel - that is where ag fields have a huge advantage is because they usually travel a bit to these fields and you can spot check the edges for sign much easier.
Agreed, however things get a lot better once those leaves are down, at least up here. They still might be hard to get on in hill country but my swamp bedding areas start fill up with deer and any little extra pressure form other hunters really helps as well. I can still scout areas without getting too close to bedding so I at least know if a good one is in the area but like you mentioned to confirm you might have to get in a little too close. Just have to find a way to get it done with scouting/hunting non stop, now if I could only quit my job.