Scouting methods

[12-point]

My early season revolves around scouting, I have five key mineral spots i check out.
I put my cuddeback up at five different spots for a week at a time and take it down and move to the next its a ideal way to figure when there traveling, day or night, the time and how they respond to the weather and moon phase.
At my first spot i had 25 pics in a week.
The second had none.
Now im on week three just got it set up on a natural salt lick.
The first spot only had does early morning and late afternoon.
After these five weeks i see which one is having the most buck activity and doe activity then put the camera on other important travel routes that have no minerals out. Around bedding areas funnels edges or crp feilds and water sources.

Whats do you all do to scout for that big buck in early season???

[fly]

I don't use camera's because they would just get stolen. I use my off season scouting time to find new areas to hunt. One can never have too many places to hunt.

[12-point]

thats for sure man. I do a lil of everything and as far as the stolen part goes i know about it too this year we had my cuddeback no flash stolen and my new api lock on too. Least to say i wasnt happy, i mean thats why ppl work to buy stuff they want you shouldnt have to steal.

[camoman1]

I put out a trail cam in different areas throughout the summer. My favorite way is to sit behind one of the farm sheds and just glass the fields...see if/where a buck is coming out and back track from there.

Unfortunatly, there is a good amount of activity near/in the woods from farm practices. The does and young bucks dont mind it much, but I often dont see any good bucks until the rut. So, I usually set up a few stands to shoot a early season doe from and the rest I set up in likely rut travel routes.

[Tominator]

Scouting is an excuse for hunters that can't hunt, but feel compelled to get out in the woods because they can. Totally unneccesary.

[Rhino]

Scouting is an excuse for hunters that can't hunt, but feel compelled to get out in the woods because they can. Totally unneccesary.

Dang Chris!...get up on the wrong side of the bed?...burr in your saddle or something?

Maybe it's not in your neck of the woods but down here hunting big woods it sure helps, especailly if you're looking for wallhangers.

Long range scouting on my home turf is virtually impossible. My 4 trail cams help a lot in determining where mature deer are more apt to hang out and obvioulsy what kind of head gear they're wearing. Knowing that allows you to spend your hunting time where those big ones live. It's certainly easier to kill big ones if you hunt where they're more apt to live.

Scouting to me is a lot more than just making trail cam sets. They are great tools but you still need to identify what food sources are going to be available during the season as well as when they are available, locate bedding areas, identify potential stand locations along travel corridors, funnels, edges, corners, and so on. Some of this can be done with the aid of aerial photos and topo maps. Reviewing maps is scouting too.

I prefer to take a low impact approach with my scouting to cause the least amount of disturbance to an area. For that reason I also like to prepare well in advance when possible and then leave the area alone until it's time to hunt. Some scouting during the season is necessary but during the season I try to be as sneeky as possible. I know hunters that don't understand that and more often than not they are their own worst enemy. The more you invade a mature bucks domain, the more apt he is to become nocturnal or worse yet, vacate the area.

[12-point]

wow someone is a lil over confident. Plus it does help anywhere bc no one can walk out into the woods the first day of season and be like well i know where to hunt patterns change and if anyone wants to bet against it come to kentucky and i will hand you a 100.00 if you can kill a deer thats a wall-hanger within five days without scouting! ha impossible

[Rhino]

BTW 12 point with trail cams I put mine on mineral licks and food sources during the pre-season. I've found that if a mineral lick gets rain right before or during the week of a set, I get a lot more pics on them than when they don't. As mineral licks dry up they get used a lot less than when their wettest in my neck of the woods. Don't necessarily write one off a mineral lick just because you didn't get many pics or just does at one of your 5 either. I rotate my 4 trail cams along with 2 or 3 others for friends of mine around during the pre-season and hit everyone of our mineral licks more than once before October 1st. We have 19 mineral licks to cover too. Last year I had an early set on one mineral lick and only got about 40 pics of young bucks and does on that 1st week's run. About 6 weeks later I ran a set on the same lick and had two 3.5 year old bucks visit it 2 to 3 times during that week and ended up with over 300 pics there during that week. You just never know.

During the season I typically set my trail cams on scraps and food sources. It's only on rare occasions that I'll set one up on an actual trail crossing. Like I said before though I prefer to choose those sets based on picking low impact locations within that particular area. If I have a food source with a scrape or scrapes on the edge I'll try to set up to best cover both.

[12-point]

your right i bet the 19 mineral sites is a tuffy to handle.

[Tominator]

Dang Chris!...get up on the wrong side of the bed?...burr in your saddle or something?

Nope. Just stating my opinion.

How long does it take to walk in the woods, find a trail, or scrape or two and set up? Not long.

Patterns change constantly.

Impact on deer while you're scouting is probably impacting them more than you think.

How many "wallhangers" can you specifically say you killed because of your scouting efforts? And the question is directed to 12pt, not Alan. Alan is a legend to me and one of my heroes.


Scouting = market hype that drives a certain segment of the industry. Period.

[Randy]

This is how I do my scouting. I sit up here and watch with binos. If it wasn't for this tower......

I'd of never shot this "big wallhanger" the second day of the season. ; )


Here he is the first time I saw him from the tower. (far right)

[Rhino]

How many "wallhangers" can you specifically say you killed because of your scouting efforts? And the question is directed to 12pt, not Alan. Alan is a legend to me and one of my heroes.

Thanks for the comment Chris. I will say for a few seconds there I was putting together a mental list to begin typing.

I seem to recall you saw your 2008 buck from a backyard a time or 2. JMO but wasn't that low impact scouting?

BTW...great example of how you got it done in WI Randy.

[Ohiobucks]

I do all of the scouting for Chris.......

Guess I don't need to be sharing any of the trail cam pics that we get from this summer then.

[Tominator]

Thanks for the comment Chris. I will say for a few seconds there I was putting together a mental list to begin typing.

I seem to recall you saw your 2008 buck from a backyard a time or 2. JMO but wasn't that low impact scouting?

LOL---well, if you consider sitting on the deck swing with my wife after a cookout scouting, yes.

Now consider this--I see those two bucks, I go out there and set up a trail cam and a stand and pester that area until season. Do I see that deer? Who knows. I do know that I don't go much beyond my fence starting in mid August or so while all the other "scouters" are out there pestering deer right on to me, and I appreciate it. You wouldn't believe the deer my little 3 acre patch holds come gun season if nobody goes back there.

Scouting, unnecessary.

Guess I don't need to be sharing any of the trail cam pics that we get from this summer then.

For scouting purposes? Nope, you can have them. For novelty items to see what the neighbor's gonna kill, sure, I'll take a gander.

I do all of the scouting for Chris.......

Debatable, but I'll keep my mouth shut seeing as you have my 3 biggest deer--that I got in the absence of scouting, btw.

[ILAntlrAddct]

Nope. Just stating my opinion.

How long does it take to walk in the woods, find a trail, or scrape or two and set up? Not long.

Patterns change constantly.

Impact on deer while you're scouting is probably impacting them more than you think.

How many "wallhangers" can you specifically say you killed because of your scouting efforts? And the question is directed to 12pt, not Alan. Alan is a legend to me and one of my heroes.

I agree to a certain extent, however finding sign in the woods and setting up on it can sometimes be rather useless granted that its not a fresh rubline. That sign can be a beat down trail thats been run for years (bed to feed) and now changed due to the crop rotation. Also, if your hunting for a mature buck, Ill garantuee you that buck is not going to be running that trail, that most does will frequent in early season.

You said it yourself...patterns change but thats when scouting comes in handy. If you scout right you will not have a negative impact on the deer herd, and this means glassing with binos from a far distance. Also its safe to enter the woods months before the season opens to get an idea of new property. Topo's & Ariels will help you to an extent but nothing gives you a better lay of the land then being there and seeing for yourself.

Scouting also depends upon the area and pressure it receives, the higher the pressure the harder it is to scout and find what the deer are doing. Most of these areas the deer dont get into the field until at/near dark making deer more tricky to pattern or pinpoint their enter/exits