Is in season scouting the missing link?

[brancher147]

In season scouting is extremely important and has been my biggest flaw the last couple years. I spent so much time scouting post season and summer that I thought I was good to go once season got here and slacked off on my in season scouting. Both years I found the spots I was looking for but not until post season because I was not scouting enough in season. I killed plenty of deer both years just not the one I was looking for. This year I have quit summer scouting completely and will focus a lot more on in season scouting.

[Crazinamatese]

Im not an "elite" beast hunter but I set up primarily on steaming fresh sign.

[greenhorndave]

Im not an "elite" beast hunter but I set up primarily on steaming fresh sign.

Like so? Or something else?

[Swedishbowhunter]

This is a good thread!!

[Dewey]

Spring scouting gets me in the general area but in season scouting gets me in the exact tree I need to be.

Thinking back every single bigger buck I killed was due to adjustments made based on in season scouting.

[Redman232]

2010-Observed an old doe with buck locked down in 1 tiny thicket. Shot a scrub buck trying to get in on the action, after sneaking in on foot.
2012-Killed buck, locked down with an old doe,in same location, the same week as 2010 observation.
2015-Crawled thru a cedar thicket to get to open hard woods, crawled right thru a fresh scrape line, setup and killed buck in Ohio a couple hours later, buck came out of a bed on the point the scrape line lead to.
2016-Jumped buck, from bed after being informed by the farmer they had seen a good buck on the pond dam, cut buck off and killed him 15-20 minutes later.
2017-Cut fresh tracks coming/going in a creek bottom withing 50 yards of known bedding. Setup and killed buck at about 10 ft going back to bed.
2018-Initial setup was in a location with this historical heaving rutting activity 1st week of November. Got lazy and setup even with lack of sign. Moved 30 minutes and scouted most of an 80 acre property. Found 2 high, very fresh rubs on hard maples, killed buck the next morning.

I would say finding the Beast, Dan and the whack masters on here in 2011-12 was the missing link for me. In season scouting is extremely important to how I roll now.

[greenhorndave]

2010-Observed an old doe with buck locked down in 1 tiny thicket. Shot a scrub buck trying to get in on the action, after sneaking in on foot.
2012-Killed buck, locked down with an old doe,in same location, the same week as 2010 observation.
2015-Crawled thru a cedar thicket to get to open hard woods, crawled right thru a fresh scrape line, setup and killed buck in Ohio a couple hours later, buck came out of a bed on the point the scrape line lead to.
2016-Jumped buck, from bed after being informed by the farmer they had seen a good buck on the pond dam, cut buck off and killed him 15-20 minutes later.
2017-Cut fresh tracks coming/going in a creek bottom withing 50 yards of known bedding. Setup and killed buck at about 10 ft going back to bed.
2018-Initial setup was in a location with this historical heaving rutting activity 1st week of November. Got lazy and setup even with lack of sign. Moved 30 minutes and scouted most of an 80 acre property. Found 2 high, very fresh rubs on hard maples, killed buck the next morning.

I would say finding the Beast, Dan and the whack masters on here in 2011-12 was the missing link for me. In season scouting is extremely important to how I roll now.

That is good stuff right there my friend.

[Lockdown]

I made hot sign a priority last year. I’m glad I went through the hunt and hope phase though. It just drove home how important hot sign is that much more. When I’d set up on bedding and hope, most often it yielded little. Does and small bucks most of the time. When I did see hot sign from a nice buck on the way in (by chance), guess what... I typically had a great hunt! It’s no coincidence.

The sooner you make hot sign a priority the better off you’ll be. I’d rather have one full day to find hot sign and hunt that evening vs having 3 hunts where I just pick bedding and hope for the best.

[jmaas07]

Theres a place for all types of scouting and it all can be important. Once you know properties well or have enough knowledge to apply commen trends to other properties in season scouting is very important to be in the game. For me in season scouting is huge

[headgear]

I made hot sign a priority last year. I’m glad I went through the hunt and hope phase though. It just drove home how important hot sign is that much more. When I’d set up on bedding and hope, most often it yielded little. Does and small bucks most of the time. When I did see hot sign from a nice buck on the way in (by chance), guess what... I typically had a great hunt! It’s no coincidence.

The sooner you make hot sign a priority the better off you’ll be. I’d rather have one full day to find hot sign and hunt that evening vs having 3 hunts where I just pick bedding and hope for the best.

Very important here! Unfortunately I had some luck just doing some scouting and hitting bedding areas early in my beast career. Deer numbers were better then and I was seeing a lot of nice bucks so why change, hit some harder hunting in recent years and only the fresh sign has kept me in the game. Trying to ramp that up this season and do a lot more ground work.

[BorealBushMN]

Here's example of the importance of "in-season" scouting and a "lesson learned"..... (sorry so long winded)

End of last rifle season in far northern MN, (weekend before Thanksgiving), I was up hunting with my in-laws near Crane Lake on the MN/Ontario boarder. Saturday AM. It was COLD! Everyone was up and ready well before sun up with plans to set out to their same stands they have hunted all season. My FIL had plans to put me on this stand or that stand that so and so was hunting previously. I told him that I didn't feel like stand hunting and was just planning to poke around and look for some hot sign and see where the deer were (if there were even any in the area at this point). Figured in the process, maybe I could kick a few up to get them up and moving and possibly push some deer to people on stand.

So everyone headed out while I lingered well past daybreak enjoying my coffee before setting out in the fresh snow looking for tracks. After slowly walking the northern perimeter of his land along a creek bottom/swamp, and not even cutting a track, I eventually made it onto the vast public land adjacent to the property. I made my way through an old clear-cut that eventually ended on a snowmobile trail. It wasn't until I finally reached the bottom of that clear-cut when I finally cut some fresh deer tracks. I got out on the snowmobile trail and Eureka! I found some tracks! And a good one, too! I ever so slowly inched along down the trail, pausing much longer than moving. The tracks were meandering around the trail and were clearly made over night. I got to a point on the trail where I had good field of view, so I sat for a while and pondered my next move. It was late morning at this point. I never ate breakfast, and not having much for expectations, I didn't bother to bring any snacks or water with me. After my morning wanderings, my hunger and thirst became apparent and the thought of sitting it out the rest of the day there, or especially pushing on was out of the question. I figured I'd hightail it back to the shack and get my but back out there ASAP.

So, I got back to the shack a little after noon, ate and relaxed a bit. I figured if I got back to the trail around 3, that'll give me about 2 hrs before dark. My strategy was going to be, sit on the trail this evening and observe/hope some movement occurs before dark, then get aggressive the next day and push deeper and look for bedding, etc....at the very least, maybe learn some things for next season. Well, I got antsy and made my way back out there a little bit earlier. I got back on the snowmobile trail and wouldn't ya know it.... as soon as I rounded the corner to where I was going to sit, a large bodied deer bolted off the trail back into the woods along the edge of the cut. Damn! I was too late! Not sure if it was a buck or not, but we had a doe tag in camp, so it didn't matter. I screwed the pooch! So, I sat my but down the rest of the evening hoping for another chance and didn't see anything.

Conclusion: In-season scouting allowed me to find an area actively being used by deer, and had I come prepared and wasn't half checked out, I very well could have had a deer on the ground by 2pm that day. The stands my FIL wanted me to go to were dead. Not a track to be found anywhere near them. Staying mobile and scouting at least gave me a chance.

Lesson learned... Always keep your head in the game, and always be prepared for the possibility you may not get back for "lunch" (I normally do, but I was half checked out on this day and wasn't mentally there). Anything can happen at anytime when you're in the woods. If I had a bottle of water and a granola bar and beef jerky (like I normally do), I would have been there!

As for the next day, I never did make it back there to scout deeper. Plans changed that brought me to a different area and no tags were filled that weekend. My FIL is too stuck in his ways sometimes!

[MrT]

I've hunted mobile for years, but often would hunt in areas because they "looked like" they would have deer in them despite there not being any deer sign at all. Sometimes I recognized that fact, yet would rush to get in a tree anyways in fear of not getting a hunt in. Good job, stupid. What a waste of time.

This season I'm not getting setup on a spot unless the sign tells me to, even if that means walking out of the woods without ever getting in my stand. I'll be more productive marking an area off my list than sitting in a tree hoping for randomness.

[Lockdown]

Summary of my progression:

The first few years my success went up substantially. I couldn’t believe I wasted all those years hunting rut spots all year. Bedding is where it’s at!

Now, success has increased even more. I can’t believe I wasted all those hunts just setting up on bedding and hoping. Hot sign + bedding is where it’s at!

[Tim H]

Off season scouting helps me learn the land and where to scout in season. In season scouting tells me where I should be hunting.

I’d pick in season scouting every day if I only had time for one. And I’m terrible at hunting instead of scouting. I see lots of people do this as well. Only have the weekend and people would rather hope and pray than go find the best stuff and maybe not sit at all

^^^^^This is huge! I really like how you worded it!

[Crazinamatese]

Im not an "elite" beast hunter but I set up primarily on steaming fresh sign.

Like so? Or something else?

lol. Usually scrapes but sometimes come across a nice shiny pile of milk duds.