2021 scouting reports

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Lockdown
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:34 pm

Lockdown wrote:
Dhoff wrote:
Lockdown wrote:
Dhoff wrote:
Lockdown wrote:Made a quick trip into one of my old faithful spots tonight. Late planted crop has me excited so I snuck in and made some adjustments. I picked one new ground blind location and also got a kill tree ready. That property has some potential but it’s dead right now. Most of the trails were very faint.

I observed at a different spot after that. Tonight is the 2nd time in a row Mr Big didn’t show :think: I even camped out for 2.5 hours, but no dice. I saw a bunch of does and a few little bucks... learned quite a bit about how they use this piece though so that’s a win.

The only decent buck looked like a stud two year old. His beams came up really high and he’s probably 16” inside. He only has 2 inches of g2 and g3 on each side.

I think I’m gonna have to switch gears for a bit. I’ll check back with this spot in 3-4 weeks and see if the big one decides to come back home ;)

What is your criteria and setup for a ground blind location?


There’s no criteria really. I’ve hid in deadfalls, thickets, cattails, corn fields, random clumps of brush, anything I think I can hide in. This particular spot is some dogwood next to cattails. I will be watching a grassy (but hidden) travel corridor that connects corn to alfalfa with a tree line adjoining it.

There’s a tiny little gap in the wall of dogwood that I’m going to tuck into. Early season with leaves on there will be plenty of cover. I’ll clear the ground so I can move my feet quiet, maybe shove some branches in the ground to add some leafy cover in front of me if needed, then impersonate a statue as best I can.

No trimming necessary. As far as set up is concerned, it is about as simple and easy as a kill set gets.

I pick spots i think will make for a good ambush spot but always feel naked or to risky and talk myself out of it.


Roll those dice, man!! I always try and find the best SPOT to kill one, and often that means ground set. Sometimes they aren’t comfortable, and sometimes everything works out WAY easier than you think it will.

The only time I don’t hunt a set is if I KNOW it won’t work. If I’m not sure what will happen, I hunt it and find out. That’s how I learn and improve.


Look at it this way, if I get SUPER aggressive and hunt 5 ground sets that I’m unsure of, if I fail miserably 4 of them and kill on one, I WIN.

Tag punched!

Mission accomplished!

Season over!



(Don’t be afraid to fail)


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Quest1001
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Quest1001 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:53 pm

Went for a hike and noticed a lot of acorns on the ground. Seems the oaks are dropping due to the dry year and high heat.
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby austin1990 » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:55 am

Coming live from the woods while I'm taking a breather. Finally drew a permit for a premier area here in AR so I'm scouting for it, found a good still being used community Scrape, and a well used buck bed not far from it. Their is a ton of buck sign in the drainages and creek/wood fingers but for this area you have to kill a doe before a buck, so I'm trying to ignore the buck sign for now...

20210718_071008.jpg
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby greenhorndave » Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:56 am

austin1990 wrote:Coming live from the woods while I'm taking a breather. Finally drew a permit for a premier area here in AR so I'm scouting for it, found a good still being used community Scrape, and a well used buck bed not far from it. Their is a ton of buck sign in the drainages and creek/wood fingers but for this area you have to kill a doe before a buck, so I'm trying to ignore the buck sign for now...

20210718_071008.jpg20210718_065850.jpg

Still promising tho!
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby austin1990 » Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:42 pm

greenhorndave wrote:
austin1990 wrote:Coming live from the woods while I'm taking a breather. Finally drew a permit for a premier area here in AR so I'm scouting for it, found a good still being used community Scrape, and a well used buck bed not far from it. Their is a ton of buck sign in the drainages and creek/wood fingers but for this area you have to kill a doe before a buck, so I'm trying to ignore the buck sign for now...

20210718_071008.jpg20210718_065850.jpg

Still promising tho!



No doubt! I ended up covering 5.4 miles yesterday and bucks will not be a problem imo. There was so much buck sign every where you went it was hard to ignore. Now it was a little lacking on the doe sign, but I did find a couple spots I think a doe can be killed at once acorns/persimmons start dropping. I've got a handful of other spots pinned I'm gonna check out over the next few weeks, season opens on Oct 2nd.
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Prairie Sasquatch » Tue Jul 20, 2021 12:54 pm

Went out to glass some fields last night after the weather cooled down. I saw 11 bucks with one bachelor group having two bucks I’m going to have to try and keep an eye on. Everything was coming out of corn fields and hitting soybeans.

Saturday morning I saw a good bachelor group in a soy bean field that bedded down in the soybeans for about 30 minutes then got up and moved to a cattail slough nearby. Don’t overlook soybeans for bedding when it’s hot. I see a lot of bucks bedded in soybeans in summer and into early October when its warm.
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby austin1990 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 5:18 am

I found a spot about 175 yards from the parking lot on sunday that had a lot of small scattered beds in the prairie and tall grasses, figured it was doe bedding, and since I have to harvest a doe first I hung a camera on the best group of trails to monitor doe numbers. Heres the only deer that's came by lol
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby austin1990 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 2:44 pm

And some more action...
8dbaf697-8ec4-456c-ac43-8479151ae0a2.jpg
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Jackson Marsh
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Wed Jul 21, 2021 2:51 pm

austin1990 wrote:And some more action...8dbaf697-8ec4-456c-ac43-8479151ae0a2.jpg



Awesome buck 8-)
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Tennhunter3 » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:38 am

Covered about 200 acres today.
Hung a camera.
Hotter then wildfire in July oh wait it's July.
Never give up Freedom for imagined safety.
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Moose » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:44 am

austin1990 wrote:And some more action...8dbaf697-8ec4-456c-ac43-8479151ae0a2.jpg

Nice bucks
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Jul 22, 2021 11:15 am

Moose wrote:
austin1990 wrote:And some more action...8dbaf697-8ec4-456c-ac43-8479151ae0a2.jpg

Nice bucks


x2

That’s a good looking group
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Mgaspari » Thu Jul 22, 2021 11:51 am

austin1990 wrote:And some more action...8dbaf697-8ec4-456c-ac43-8479151ae0a2.jpg


Arkansas got some nice bucks
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby MitchB » Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:47 am

Got out for a quick session mostly to inventory what crops were planted on a piece of public I scouted in late winter/early spring. The ground was wet and I was pretty disappointed in the lack of tracks around some fields, but I did come across some really large tracks so hopefully there’s a giant living where I think he is.

The more interesting part to me right now is I think I may have stumbled into an overlooked bedding area. This was my second time in within 2 months or so. There’s one parking lot and a main trail into the area. The first time in I heard some rustling as I walked past a certain spot. It was late and I was in a hurry so I didn’t investigate but it caught my attention. Well, last night I heard the exact same thing in the same area. I am going to go back soon and see if there’s a bed in there and if so what the escape routes are. I’m pretty sure if there’s a buck observing in there that I can sneak around a long way, and with the right wind I should be able to get him on the way out. So hopefully if I get in early enough someone else will bump him for me.

Season opens October 1 so I don’t want to wait long. If I go back this weekend is that too soon and will I really scare him off? I can wait a couple weeks but don’t want to do much more than that.
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Re: 2021 scouting reports

Unread postby Lockdown » Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:40 pm

First time scouting this area this year. 56 miles traveled, 6 deer seen :violin:

Off night I guess! I did see a nice up and coming two year old buck.


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