The 2023 post season scouting begins.
I took some time yesterday to go out and thoroughly walk an area that I have hunted the periphery of the last 2 seasons. Earlier this year I found a primary scrape in thick security cover that needed to be hunted. I hunted it once even though the set up was not ideal and then slapped up a camera in there as I left to get an inventory of the activity. I went in yesterday and tromped the whole place down thoroughly and pulled the card off the camera. As I suspected this scrape seems to be the focal point for the area. I walked all around the scrape and picked the best tree to hunt from. I also picked an entry and exit to access the spot.
From the look of the spot the does are primarily running a north to south trail leading right by the scrape and the bucks are running it primarily east to west. It looks like a small family group of 4 to 5 does are frequenting the scrape and 4 bucks are hitting it too. One is a pretty decent deer. The rest are spikes and fork horns, but maybe they will grow up at some point. If that decent buck survived, I am sure he will be better this fall. I have him on camera the 23rd just before dark (time stamp is an hour fast) so his chances are better than average. I may just let that camera soak in there all summer and see how that goes. I am not big on running cameras so letting one soak in a remote spot all year sounds like a plan.
I'll try to post more as I get more done. I hope to get out again early next week before the rain come back in. I did 3.3 miles yesterday.
I took some time yesterday to go out and thoroughly walk an area that I have hunted the periphery of the last 2 seasons. Earlier this year I found a primary scrape in thick security cover that needed to be hunted. I hunted it once even though the set up was not ideal and then slapped up a camera in there as I left to get an inventory of the activity. I went in yesterday and tromped the whole place down thoroughly and pulled the card off the camera. As I suspected this scrape seems to be the focal point for the area. I walked all around the scrape and picked the best tree to hunt from. I also picked an entry and exit to access the spot.
From the look of the spot the does are primarily running a north to south trail leading right by the scrape and the bucks are running it primarily east to west. It looks like a small family group of 4 to 5 does are frequenting the scrape and 4 bucks are hitting it too. One is a pretty decent deer. The rest are spikes and fork horns, but maybe they will grow up at some point. If that decent buck survived, I am sure he will be better this fall. I have him on camera the 23rd just before dark (time stamp is an hour fast) so his chances are better than average. I may just let that camera soak in there all summer and see how that goes. I am not big on running cameras so letting one soak in a remote spot all year sounds like a plan.
I'll try to post more as I get more done. I hope to get out again early next week before the rain come back in. I did 3.3 miles yesterday.
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