I've been trying to understand scouting for whitetail. It seems the best time to scout is after the season or early spring do to opening season is in the fall when leaves are falling off the trees. Early spring will you some of the same characteristics as the fall when deer will start to move. Their habits will change when the season change. Any advice.
I prefer scouting in late winter/early spring becauce when the leaves are off you can see a lot better than in late summer when there is thick brush/foliage everywhere and also beacuce the condidtions in winter are a lot more like the conditions in Oct/Nov/Dec.And lastly in the winter theres no ticks or chiggers to bother you.
I scout all year round. Winter taking down stands...squirrel and rabbit hunting. Spring...turkey hunting. Summer...hanging stands, working plots, trimming trails. Fall....during the deer season.
It depends on the type of property I'm hunting If it's farm country I do most of it in the spring shed hunting. If it is the big woods I scout every time I go into the woods, scrapes pop up that need to be hunted and you have to find them.
I find myself scouting year round. To me the whitetail is very much like a woman............................something that I will never be able to figure out. I'm getting a lot better at learning what a deer is likely to do but I still find myself learning more every year. (now if I could just figure out my wife!)
I scout year round as well. probably shed hunting in the spring has been the most beneficial for me. I usually find new spots that were overlooked, scrape lines from deep into the rut, rub lines, bedding areas, etc. summer is mostly trail cam work along with minerals this is just for buck inventory. early fall I find buck domains to hunt early on. then I move to the scrape lines that I found during the spring while shed hunting. then late October I will migrate to doe bedding and feeding areas that I also found in the spring. and there is where I generally hang out il the end of the rut. late season I cheat closer to the bedding to catch a buck on his way out to feed. this area I try to locate on the fly. this always depends on food sources each year. hope this helps.
I live where I hunt so pretty much every trip down the 1/2 mile driveway is a scouting trip, When I am home I am in the woods every day. I also like to do long range scouting glassing and watching in the distance.
I much prefer to scout mid to late winter while shed hunting. Spring and summer the woods are infested with baby ticks and mosquitoes, and besides, I'm too busy fishing. In fall I only do one final check of stand sites/shooting lanes.
I usually do my scouting now especially if I am tagged out...or first thing in the spring shed hunting or pulling stands down. I like to find those big rub lines, and I'm looking for buck and doe bedding areas. I also like to keep inventory of what made it through the season so I keep my cams going.
I think going out to scout with a little bit of snow on the ground, during season or the end of season, makes finding trails, rubs and scrapes a lot easier. They tend to stick out like a sore thumb when everything is white around them. Plus the snow helps knock down all the leaves and grasses that are left standing after fall, so it exposes everything. I've found a number of rubs I walked right past during the fall (pre-snow) and couldn't believe I missed them, but could tell they had been there before the snow fell.
I like the mid to late winter. Few mineral sites during summer months. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
It is had to predict where the deer will be next fall using the intel you gather late in the winter, sure you can find some pieces of the puzzle of information but just because the deer were bedding in a certain area in late winter does not mean they will be using the same area the next October-November.
I run cameras all year, shed hunt in the spring, glass all through summer, getting inventory of whats hanging around
Preliminary scouting for the next season starts towards the end of Rifle season and through the winter. Looking at their trails in the snow and checking on the bedding areas I avoid leading up to and through the season, also the wetlands freeze so I don't need waders to get around.
I start re-trimming my entry trails (mostly wild rose) in late summer and actually do my scouting beginning early Oct right on through Nov. I like to let my trail cams do the important work, as I don't like too much intrusion in my main hunting area. At this time I'll check them every 2 weeks, then once the rut starts I'll check them once a week. I try to make my trips into the woods around mid day, and preferably on a rainy day.
Right now if your season is over, the sign is still pretty easy to read and see. Otherwise in the spring too.
When there's a little snow on the ground, helps to locate well used trails Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
