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Favorite time to scout?

Seekbigger

Seekbigger

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2022
Messages
430
Location
Means, Ky
Just wondering what everyone’s favorite time of year and conditions to do their scouting?
Here is mine, I prefer to scout at the end of season, mainly because I don’t want to pressure the bucks that I am targeting during the time of year that I could possibly hunt them. I also love to scout after a fresh snow, for me it’s easier to read the sign and travel directions with fresh snow, every track you find tells you that deer was close by within a specific timeframe. This time of year it seems like the bucks group back up and head to their home areas which allows me to find buck bedding much easier! Just the way I like to do it, how about you fellows? We just got about 5 inches of fresh snow and I’m planning on hiking several miles in the morning on a big piece of public land to see what I can find in preparation for this fall hunting season! God Bless
 
I like post season starting in February through the end of turkey season in April. February is probably the best time since deer are still in those safe zones where they went to avoid gun season. I scout all year long, though, post, during and pre-season. Time in the woods learning the land is very valuable.
 
Post season, before green up. I try to wait until after antler drop because I like to find sheds. If I disturb and run bucks off the property prior to the drop, then those bucks may very well shed on the neighbors property.
I'm always torn on whether I like snow or not. I think a lot of their fall patterns have changed by late winter so I like reading sign on bare ground. Snow covers up a lot of info. Snow also reveals some info too so it's a little bit of a trade off.
Snow can be exhausting to walk thru especially in hilly terrain. I can walk many more miles in a day without snow on the ground. Boot chains and hiking sticks make snow travel less tiring. And due to the ash borer, our woods are a disaster of downed ash logs and branches. Walking thru that mess with snow covering it is a recipe for a twisted knee or ankle.
 
Late or post season is good because you can see the accumulation of sign for the season. Just prior to season is good for confirming mast crops and how that might play with what was found during post season hikes. Other than that I am putting a lot more effort and study into escouting and really refining how to identify spots where I think a buck will walk and then either hang cams and let them soak and/or hunt those spots. All of that info helps prepare for the next season.
 
Since you said favorite time to scout I would say the day I’m hunting. I really try to not even bother climbing a tree or setting up to hunt without some kind of reason to be there. Being able to react to what is happening in real time has been the ticket for me.

Post season is a close second place.
 
Right after the snow melts out but before the swamp fully thaws. No better time to see the lay of the land and being mostly frozen you can walk across ground that you can't later in the year.
 
late February to April 14th. I'm lazy, and like to pick up shed's while I do it. I try to stay out of the woods I hunt as much as possible once I have a plan to hunt an area, and don't want to scatter them from their safe spots. April 15th I start harassing the trout.
 
Lots of good strategies, main reason I like the snow is that to me the bedding areas show up much better, no trouble spotting from a distance where deer are bedding, naturally looking for doe bedding areas to hunt during the rut and where the bucks might be leading up to the rut. I will then slip back in to these areas sometime late summer to hang a few cameras and see if these areas are still being used, throw up some presets paracord along the way. While scouting I’m constantly marking places I find good sign away from hunters, I then take all this info and spend countless hours on onX during the summer escouting these areas to better identify travel corridors between feed and bedding! After the snow melts here I like to go back to those areas, late February or March and shed hunt the areas I discover while on bare ground! I enjoy scouting almost as much as hunting!!!
 
My favorite time to scout is right now! This time of year is AWESOME! You can easily determine what part of the season the sign was laid. They are still in late season quarters, so bonus if you kick one up or find a fresh shed. (Scout the area and mark it for late season next year.)

No crawly things, you won't die of a heat stroke and you can get a leg up on Spring Gobbler.

In all honesty, I think I enjoy the finding sign and piecing the puzzle together more than knocking them down and dragging out. I really just sit in a spot during season for verification.
 
Probably immediately following the rifle season so I can see the sign as fresh as possible. But I'm usually so burnt out from hunting I don't want to see the woods again till Feb-March
 
I need to wait until snow melt, effectively turkey season here locally. This time of year the deer have migrated to their winter yards and that doesn't help me with respect to normal season. The best time to determine "normal" local deer movement is right after the snow melts and before green up when beds and trails are really evident in the ground. Fortunately this coincides with early turkey reason so I can combine turkey hunting with scouting. My daughter, who prefers turkey hunting over deer hunting, is always calling me out on deer scouting when we're supposed to be chasing birds. Her: "You're doing it again." Me: "What do you mean?" Her: "I see you checking out those oak leaves . . . you're deer scouting not turkey hunting." :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
 
Now…. I like to scout w/ fresh snow and no snow. Same areas. Snow shows tracks and beds and how they move through an area. then come back through looking for scrapes etc when snow is gone. Or in reverse order if the snow isn’t there The 1st time through.. Helps you put all the pcs together. Look hard and have an open book. Let the sign tell you what it tells you. Sometimes you’ll miss something. in the past I have avoided areas cause I thought no deer in their right mind would be there and yet the tracks in the snow told me different.
 
1simplemann said:
Now…. I like to scout w/ fresh snow and no snow. Same areas. Snow shows tracks and beds and how they move through an area. then come back through looking for scrapes etc when snow is gone. Or in reverse order if the snow isn’t there The 1st time through.. Helps you put all the pcs together. Look hard and have an open book. Let the sign tell you what it tells you. Sometimes you’ll miss something. in the past I have avoided areas cause I thought no deer in their right mind would be there and yet the tracks in the snow told me different.
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^This.

In Tennessee we only get one really good snow per year and it only lasts 1-2 days on the ground, so id better drop everything else and get out there. I feel like im cheating its so easy to follow tracks back to bedding areas I never knew existed. The only bummer is that it's easy to miss scrapes with snow on the ground, so important to be looking up for licking branches. We got a 7.5 inch snow this last weekend and I made it out twice to 2 different pieces of public. So much useful bedding info. Found a bedding area 40 yards from the parking lot behind a wall of vegetation so thick you could barely press through it.

Also: you northerners prob know this, but us southern guys dont have the snow experience. When you find a track so big and spread out you think this buck is the size of an elk, google what bunny tracks look like in the snow and make sure. A rabbit track with all 4 legs down together can look an awful lot like a big splayed out hoof and dewclaws. Laugh all you want.
 
Done some scouting today on a farm I got to hunt that joins my farm where I killed the big nine this season! I found a very heavy used trail leading up to a thicket on a point, across the point is undoubtedly a well used bedding area which now explains a lot of where the deer are coming from. Also found one bed just below the point but looked like a small buck or doe bed because it was fairly small. I then found two different trails leading around a point that was about all buck tracks. Found a great tree, put a paracord preset in that is within range of where the main trail is and where the two buck trails crossed heading down to my farm! Learned a lot today about the travel routes coming to my place.IMG_1920.jpegIMG_1923.jpegIMG_1922.jpegIMG_1921.jpegIMG_1924.jpeg
 
philsanchez76 said:
^This.

In Tennessee we only get one really good snow per year and it only lasts 1-2 days on the ground, so id better drop everything else and get out there. I feel like im cheating its so easy to follow tracks back to bedding areas I never knew existed. The only bummer is that it's easy to miss scrapes with snow on the ground, so important to be looking up for licking branches. We got a 7.5 inch snow this last weekend and I made it out twice to 2 different pieces of public. So much useful bedding info. Found a bedding area 40 yards from the parking lot behind a wall of vegetation so thick you could barely press through it.

Also: you northerners prob know this, but us southern guys dont have the snow experience. When you find a track so big and spread out you think this buck is the size of an elk, google what bunny tracks look like in the snow and make sure. A rabbit track with all 4 legs down together can look an awful lot like a big splayed out hoof and dewclaws. Laugh all you want.
Click to expand...
Exactly my point. You found an overlooked spot. you Have to take advantage of the snow when it’s on the ground. It,s a road map. Now go back when snow is gone,you’ll learn even more.
 
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