I see a lot of guys scouting the ag fields from their trucks with spotting scopes and other things. I was wondering what can a guy do if he does not have these ag fields to park his truck by and watch over? can i sit in a stand in areas away from hard deer traffic or should i not smarten the deer to my presence. Thanks, Paul.
I just scout. The times I've tried to go into a stand and watch from a distance I've jumped deer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Glass as big of an area as possible. Don't head into known bedding areas and be careful not to go to the same spot too many times but be discreetly out there.
personally I stay away from my stand/blind locations not wanting to get busted there but scout the outlying areas to get a sense of what deer are in the area. Also I'm shifting to blackout type game cameras as I've found the deer will avoid an area after seeing the red glow on my current game cameras.
Start walking your hunting lands right now and look for deer sign. Ive never had any ag fields to scout. Just good old fashioned boot leather and observations.
x2 in the big hardwoods you have to get out and walk, the sooner the better. Start by looking for sign and then identify potential stand sites. Observation stands aren't a bad idea either.
Most of my scouting in the woods or swamps occurs during Spring or late Fall (when I'm done hunting). I'll put out some cameras sometime in August though. I don't hunt field edges even though ag fields are available to me.
Hang observation stands where you can see long distances. Hang them as far from where you intend your hunting stands to be while still being able to see that area. Make sure you use scent control. I video deer from many different observation stands throughout the summer, using this info to decide where I need to put hunting stands. Trail cams work well but as mentioned above deer can become sensitive to cams that alert them (I also use blackout (primos), and no-glow (stealth) cams) and these don't seem to bother the deer (with the exception that I pull my primos cams when it gets real cold, as you can hear a slight click as they activate in extreme cold).
I just mainly use a lot of trail cameras. I put them out during mid day when movement is low and don't go into bedding areas.
I love to scout the big woods in February/March when there is snow. You can really get a good idea of the deer numbers and routes just from their tracks. I seldom use trail cameras because in PA I hunt mostly public land and people are scumbags and I don't like throwing money away.
Like others have said scout now, find where they are likely to be bedding, find what they are eating, find a nice trail or better yet a hub of trails pick a tree and hunt. Adjust off what you see. Kill. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Best time to scout hardwoods is when the leaves are off post season. At this point I'd look at aerial maps and topos and try to locate funnels. In late summer grab some binoculars and locate mast trees holding acorns. Hunt mast trees and trails leading from bedding areas to mast tree's. Also, if you find a small pond or spot that's holds water deer will hit those up when eating acorns. You'd do well to see more than 30 yards in the woods here during the summer so glassing for bucks isn't really an option like in a bean field.
Remember though that depending on when your season opens those patterns could change. Especially when the bachelor groups start busting up.
My only advice is stay the hell out of the woods as much as possible and never sit in a stand to scout unless it's season.
About 70% of my big wood scouting is done with a topo, 10% previous knowledge, 10% cam recon from the previous year and 10% boots on the ground the previous fall/winter.
Trying to scout in the hardwoods depends on what the undergrowth is like. For me once it reaches the end of may, you can't see anything so trying to put up a scouting stand would just be a waste of time and energy. And when the undergrowth is all in leaves it is almost impossible to see where clearings will be during season. this is a current picture of where I am making a kill plot. If it wasn't for the area I sprayed, you couldn't make out anything. Here is the same area from my stand in November. The only way to really know what a woods will be like during hunting is to be in those woods during season and learn over time.
