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Did you scout enough this pre-season?

neonomad said:
Whatever happened to the good ol days when dad wasn’t around much.
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This Saturday is our opener and my daughter has a huge XCountry run all day that day. My wife works this weekend as well and although my kids are old enough now I don't need to be doting on them all the time, life just happens. Its killing me not to be able to get out but the weather is looking sucky here anyway so I'm probably not going to feel too bad. Plus I still have so many other things to do to get ready for winter. I burn wood so there's that.
 
I usually get some decent post season late winter scouting sessions in which helps a lot but I call this scouting, "clarifying scouting" missions on current property I hunt. I'm the type that never completely feels like I am fully prepared no matter what I do. My wife says its a good quality because I'm always thinking of contingencies but the OCD in me makes me feel like I'm at a disadvantage. I have to have things a certain way with my equipment, my access, my locations...... or I don't feel "right" about the hunt. Once I get that out of my system I start the more raw process of going on intuition and gut feelings mostly likely derived from past experiences, my previous scouting missions and other factors. I long for those text book hunts where I know a buck is going to do such a thing on such a day at such a time but man o' man, it never seems to happen that way for me. Randomness kicks in within each hunt cycle that makes it both fun and challenging to me. I hope that makes sense.
 
I never get enough scouting in. Mostly I scout in late winter or early spring,I feel like summer scouting is pretty useless for me. I don't have much for fields to glass either. Most of the public around me is woods and very few have adjacent fields.
I do love to scout with my saddle on and the bow in hand though when the season opens and get real time intel on what's happening in the woods.
 
Spend 2 days, maybe 3-4 hrs each trip. But it was mostly rechecking areas that I was already planning to hunt. Still need to learn how to scout efficiently, but with upcoming season already planned to be limited, I didn't see the point of expanding to different spots. Hopefully I'll get more hunting time in a few years after last kid is out of diapers.
 
When last season ended until now, I have at-least 75 miles logged, and I currently have 18 cameras out, 13 of them are on public. I’m never satisfied and always feel in a tizzy as season approaches…. I always hope to fill my buck tag, but once the season is here, I start questioning things. :sweatsmile: I put in the most work I ever have this past year, I hope I didn’t burn myself out some either.
 
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I love to scout and just be out in the woods. That said, this year I planned to do almost all my scouting post season and look for rut buck sign, so that is what I did. In year's past I scouted a lot in the summer. This was especially true my first year on public since I was not fully 100% decided I was going that route until about June of that year. I had to scout in the summer that year just to learn some of the land.

Now that I have a feel for some very large areas, I plan to do my early season scouting in season and search out hot feeding sign and hunt that. That seems like the most efficient way to do it. Then, later as the pre rut and rut kicks in I can take the intel I got from the post season scouting in February and shift my focus into areas where I found hot rut sign in dense cover from last season.

I do plan to go out and do a speed tour of some areas that have produced very early season in year's past in the next day or two. The idea is to locate some hot feed sign to hunt once the season opens.

That's the plan anyway.
 
I scout just after the previous season. One I hate to be in the woods this time of year with the ticks and heat. Two I think for the most part it just messes up the early season hunting. First couple of hunts are typically walking in to known areas trying to find the hot white oak for that area to set up on.
 
Exhumis said:
Ha! Every season end I make a list of pre season things to accomplish and then I promptly accomplish zero of those things. Maybe next season
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The first task on that list needs to be “write list of pre season things to accomplish” and then you can check it off when you finish your list so you have at least one thing accomplished!
 
I was able to make it out once for a few hours. Primary goal was to replace batteries in the cell cam and put out a couple of standard cameras that I haven't touched since. I'll grab them the first time I head out, or at least swap cards and see if any bucks are in the area.

We also made a trip up north for a back backing overnighter to an area I plan to hunt early November. I didn't get much scouting accomplished as I was just trying to familiarize myself with the region as big woods PA is very different from the farm land of south central PA. Also didn't help as there was a total of 6 kids with us.
 
Bowmanmike said:
I never get enough scouting in. Mostly I scout in late winter or early spring,I feel like summer scouting is pretty useless for me. I don't have much for fields to glass either. Most of the public around me is woods and very few have adjacent fields.
I do love to scout with my saddle on and the bow in hand though when the season opens and get real time intel on what's happening in the woods.
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I had some scouting time in August, but, like you, it's just not that tempting. It's way harder to see anything, I'm afraid of spooking deer closer to season, and the bugs/ticks can make it stink. I like to go as soon as the snow is all melted and it is above freezing.
 
Not at all. Our season opens this Saturday and I feel like there's only a 1-2 week window to gather useful intel that will apply the first week as deer are constantly in transition from now until late season really. I would like to have gotten out more the past couple weeks but life keeps getting in the way. Trying to get things in order with work and family, and had a wedding last weekend.

I'll scout more than I hunt until about October 25 and hopefully have enough intel built up to kill a buck in the rut if I tag out before then it's all gravy. All my historical info and post-season scouting is really geared more toward those rut hunts. To make it happen early season I feel like your best best is to hunt a bunch of days in a row and keep hunting super fresh sign. I never get the chance to do that so I put all my eggs in the rut basket.
 
I scouted a decent amount in the hills trying to dial in buck bedding locations and just generally trying to figure out how deer use this particular piece of public... wind hasn't been right for those spots yet so I scouted my way into a piece of new public and filled a doe tag second sit of season. I think you can find good information from cyber scouting and if u scout ur way in you can get yourself a deer... however if you're looking for a mature buck, I think you need a better understanding of the area... or just get lucky... note... I've not killed a big mature buck to this point.
 
I did some scouting over the weekend for next year or maybe inline season this year but I don't really scout before the season. I usually scout in season for next season and it usualy takes me one-two+ years of scouting a spot before I start to hunt it. Rifle season is where I do most of my scouting.
 
cville_bowhunter said:
We all hear how important it is to get "boots on the ground." I heard it so much and from so many different sources that I knew darn well that it was the only way to up my hunting game. I think I spent somewhere between 12-15 days of pre-season scouting this year (Jan-early Sept), and although it's way more than I've ever done in years prior (a day at most right before opener), I'm still wishing I did a little more.

Do you feel like you did enough scouting this pre-season? What does "enough" feel like to you?

Thanks!
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Awesome question. I think it changes a little every year. Just looked back at my notes: 2 years ago I scouted 22 days (some half days and some full days) across 2 different pieces of public land. Man I felt ready for that season! This last off season I only scouted 8 days on the same 2 pieces and 4 of those were me actually turkey hunting, so slightly distracted. I felt equally as ready... until I actually started hunting. Then I realized all the little things that can change in one season. For me in TN that usually means bush hogging. Either an awesome thick area that held deer was bush hogged and now it holds zero deer or the opposite. The trails I use to get into places have not been hogged thus making it infinitely harder for me to get around. Nothing like walking 1 mile through briars. The deer I killed last night was in a spot I used to have an easy drag out of. Well, since I hadn't been in there all season, I didn't realized that the road was closed so I had to walk an extra 3/4 mile down a gravel road and that all the walking trails had not been bush hogged and were 6-8 feet tall with grass and briars. Was an interesting night.
 
Got a good amount of post season scouting in then got to work on my rental house/hunting lodge all summer. Finally got out both morning this past weekend, found a few red oaks dropping but not any whites, that should change shortly and so will the sign. Looking forward to the opener on Saturday.
 
philsanchez76 said:
Awesome question. I think it changes a little every year. Just looked back at my notes: 2 years ago I scouted 22 days (some half days and some full days) across 2 different pieces of public land. Man I felt ready for that season! This last off season I only scouted 8 days on the same 2 pieces and 4 of those were me actually turkey hunting, so slightly distracted. I felt equally as ready... until I actually started hunting. Then I realized all the little things that can change in one season. For me in TN that usually means bush hogging. Either an awesome thick area that held deer was bush hogged and now it holds zero deer or the opposite. The trails I use to get into places have not been hogged thus making it infinitely harder for me to get around. Nothing like walking 1 mile through briars. The deer I killed last night was in a spot I used to have an easy drag out of. Well, since I hadn't been in there all season, I didn't realized that the road was closed so I had to walk an extra 3/4 mile down a gravel road and that all the walking trails had not been bush hogged and were 6-8 feet tall with grass and briars. Was an interesting night.
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..an excellent point..I've got a few places I've hunted over the past 4 years and randomly on the third year I was like "how the hell do I get through here"... A large tree had blown down and all the undergrowth went bananas and I had to find a new way to where i like to hunt.
 
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