Kicked off my scouting for the year yesterday by spending the day on a piece of Elk County public land that I have been hunting for a few years. My goal was to thoroughly walk the parcel I had outlined to try to and improve my general knowledge of how deer are using this section, confirm food sources, and confirm bedding areas. Also was hoping to be able to identify 1-2 stand sites for rifle season hunting. With 3-5" of snow on the ground, I knew I would need to look at it another time when the ground was bare to better scout it for bowhunting stand sites.
Overall it was a successful day. I saw a lot of sign and was able to confirm good stands of red and white oaks and several laurel thickets, steep hills, and benches being used as bedding areas. I identified two trees to be set up as stand sites for rifle hunting. In my travels I saw 5 doe, 2 bucks that still had both antlers, and a third deer traveling with the two antlered bucks that did not have any antlers. Not sure if it was a shed antler buck.
While I have taken a 3.5 year old, 115" 9 point and a 9.5 year old doe from this area over the past few seasons, I could definitely see how I was not fully understanding how deer utilize this particular area. This is the first time I actually made it a point to walk the area in its entirety, almost as if I was grid searching it, to get a more in-depth understanding of all the nuances.
I exclusively hunt big woods public land areas and one theme that keeps jumping out at me over the past year is how deer seem to key as much on topographical features as much or more than cover in regards to where they bed and travel. My scouting trip yesterday reinforced this.
Post Season Scouting
- Precision Whitetails
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Re: Post Season Scouting
Where do you set up your stands? Are you focusing on bedding, the trails or the food source? And how does wind play a factor in your decision?
“From the point of ignition, to the final drive, the point of the journey is not to arrive.”
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Re: Post Season Scouting
PA60 wrote:Where do you set up your stands? Are you focusing on bedding, the trails or the food source? And how does wind play a factor in your decision?
Good questions, I’m interested as well.
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