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2025 Post Season Scouting Thread

woodsdog2

woodsdog2

Well-Known Member
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Jun 28, 2019
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Was out this am with my mutly. Found some great trail intersections and a nice creek crossing. Man were they hitting the red oaks. Every several yards in the woods everything was tore up under the reds. I kicked two sets of three does out they didn’t move until we were almost up on them. Like 15 yards. Felt almost sorry for them. No winter kill that I found yet.
 

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I tried to get out on snowshoes last weekend but I couldn't get the truck off the road anywhere. The roadside snow banks are still 3-4 feet tall and the snowmobile parking area I generally park at in the winter hasn't been plowed in a couple weeks and the snow in it was a good foot deep of snowmobile packed danger. If you drive out on it and break through it's not coming out on its own. :tearsofjoy:
 
This is the worst winter I can remember here in the last 40 years, arm pit deep snow everywhere and it just doesn’t stop, I shoveled roofs at my house all day again and my wrist is so spanked I can hardly type this out, the deer are getting hammered here for sure, I’ve hardly been coyote hunting but the few times we’ve gone we found fresh kills, the neighbors feed deer all around me and the roads are littered with deer every day just standing there with no where to go but standing in the plowed road, I have what looks to be a 1.5 year old scrawny doe basically hanging around my wood shed, she was bedded almost under the front bumper of my bucket truck that is buried by the snow, she was in there like a cave in the snow under the motor. If you told me right now every winter would be like this I would be moving this spring, I’ve had enough, we always get pounded here as I live right in the path of lake effect but this year is off the charts with no end in sight.
 
Topdog said:
This is the worst winter I can remember here in the last 40 years, arm pit deep snow everywhere and it just doesn’t stop, I shoveled roofs at my house all day again and my wrist is so spanked I can hardly type this out, the deer are getting hammered here for sure, I’ve hardly been coyote hunting but the few times we’ve gone we found fresh kills, the neighbors feed deer all around me and the roads are littered with deer every day just standing there with no where to go but standing in the plowed road, I have what looks to be a 1.5 year old scrawny doe basically hanging around my wood shed, she was bedded almost under the front bumper of my bucket truck that is buried by the snow, she was in there like a cave in the snow under the motor. If you told me right now every winter would be like this I would be moving this spring, I’ve had enough, we always get pounded here as I live right in the path of lake effect but this year is off the charts with no end in sight.
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We’ve been on the other side of the coin at my place. This winter has been constantly cold and snowless, which has been bizzare. We are just now getting into a snow pattern.
 
The snow was strange because mostly it was like walking on old rough pond ice unless you pushed through the deeper stuff. You boys that learned to skate like this farm boy know what I’m talking about. The deer trails were all, I mean all like rough slippery pond ice.
 
woodsdog2 said:
The snow was strange because mostly it was like walking on old rough pond ice unless you pushed through the deeper stuff. You boys that learned to skate like this farm boy know what I’m talking about. The deer trails were all, I mean all like rough slippery pond ice.
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We used to skate on anything we could find. There was a swamp next to my house that didn’t have any open water. Nevertheless we’d weave through the ice between the hummocks. Throw in some of that bumpy ice -or textured snow that got rained on and froze up solid: that was the making of some prime entertainment.
 
I went out three days ago to do a pig hunt/post season scout. I covered about 4 miles round trip and only got into a little pig sign about a mile and a half deep. No pig seen during the trip. I did go and thoroughly scout out a primary scrape spot that I found late season this year. I found it too late this fall to capitalize on, but I think I have it pretty well figured out for this upcoming season. There were a lot more scrapes off in there than I had previously seen during the season, I was careful slipping around in there during season but the other day I didn't care where I went so I found most of them. I found two big rubs beside each other that reminded me of door frames (pictured below).

I also found an old lock on stand that looked to have not been hunted in several years. It was perched about 30 feet up a big cypress tree. It was an illegal setup, consisting of screw in steps (now grown partly into the tree) with some missing. The stand platform had a good layer of dead leaves on it. At the base of the tree, under the platform, are a nice assortment of cypress knees jutting up from the creek bed ready to break a hunter's fall should he or the stand cut loose. I checked under it for skeleton.

I also found a nice hog skull in my wanderings. It was a fun day out.
 

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I just finished a stint of house sitting for my sister in NH. I’ve hunted near her place a few times in the past. During my stay I averaged 4 miles of scouting per day. The temptation was to follow the current deer trails in the snow. However, by and large there was little to no rut sign in the places the deer are currently bedding and feeding. I did see quite a few deer up close, as woodsdog2 experienced, the deer let me get really close before bolting. To the best of my knowledge I saw 2 mature bucks; one had antlers still on his head and the other had already shed.

I think I located a few places where I can catch deer in early October next fall and also a couple funnels that may be productive during the rut. But I’ll need to go in quietly at those times to verify that the deer are actively using those spots. It felt good to identify some locations for future out of state hunting.

I’m eager to get back in the woods in my familiar hunting terrain, but it’s not time yet. I like to combine post season scouting and shed hunting. Currently the bucks here are about 50% shed. I have a pretty good sense of where the deer have been and currently are and I don’t wanna blow them out of their winter hideaways. I’m gonna have to give it some more time.
 
Topdog said:
This is the worst winter I can remember here in the last 40 years, arm pit deep snow everywhere and it just doesn’t stop, I shoveled roofs at my house all day again and my wrist is so spanked I can hardly type this out, the deer are getting hammered here for sure, I’ve hardly been coyote hunting but the few times we’ve gone we found fresh kills, the neighbors feed deer all around me and the roads are littered with deer every day just standing there with no where to go but standing in the plowed road, I have what looks to be a 1.5 year old scrawny doe basically hanging around my wood shed, she was bedded almost under the front bumper of my bucket truck that is buried by the snow, she was in there like a cave in the snow under the motor. If you told me right now every winter would be like this I would be moving this spring, I’ve had enough, we always get pounded here as I live right in the path of lake effect but this year is off the charts with no end in sight.
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I think we're a bit above our long term average here but after the last couple of lean snow years it feels like a ton. I've got about 30" settled on the ground in the back yard here in town but if you go 10 minutes east of here the snow is easily a foot deeper. The lake effect has felt pretty non-stop this year but we've probably only had 3 or 4 serious snowfalls, we just keep getting it a couple of inches at a time.
 
Went to go get a stand the other night after work and look for deer/turkey sign. I completely wrote off the public right here by the house at this point. The habitat is garbage, the deer sign is gone and its no wonder with the way these woods look. Shot a few deer over the years here but the sightings are less and less every year. Im not sure what it would take to come back, every time they cut it doesnt come up with anything productive, it turns into a sassafras thicket. Over the last 5 years I find myself in creek bottoms more and more and less on the mountain.
 
jlh42581 said:
Went to go get a stand the other night after work and look for deer/turkey sign. I completely wrote off the public right here by the house at this point. The habitat is garbage, the deer sign is gone and its no wonder with the way these woods look. Shot a few deer over the years here but the sightings are less and less every year. Im not sure what it would take to come back, every time they cut it doesnt come up with anything productive, it turns into a sassafras thicket. Over the last 5 years I find myself in creek bottoms more and more and less on the mountain.
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What state?
 
I did some walking around in one of the areas I remote hunt in today. I had a couple of more remote areas I wanted to check out and I wanted to do some detail scouting on some spots I currently hunt. It hasn't greened up enough yet that last years sign is erased so it was good day. I did find this dude, talk about hardcore . . . :tearsofjoy:

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boyne bowhunter said:
I did some walking around in one of the areas I remote hunt in today. I had a couple of more remote areas I wanted to check out and I wanted to do some detail scouting on some spots I currently hunt. It hasn't greened up enough yet that last years sign is erased so it was good day. I did find this dude, talk about hardcore . . . :tearsofjoy:

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It would look funny at the parking spot but I'd hunt that stand in this...
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