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First time summer scouting

Jwiggins762

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
1,203
I live in south Alabama where right now it's hot as hell. I've been trying to get early starts for scouting right at day break to get in the woods for a couple of reasons. The first is snakes, I tend to see less when its early in the morning. The second which probably has something to do with the first is the heat. It's my first year scouting for the most part out of deer season and especially in the summer. I got a late start yesterday and I didn't see any snakes but the heat got to me and I only took one bottle of water thinking I had two in my book bag. I almost didn't make it back to the truck before passing out and felt that way for a few hours. When I got home I took a cold shower that helped me out a lot. I am glad I went because I did find some beds and good sign and can even do an observe hunt from over 300 yards away before I setup. Anyways my question is what are some of your summer scouting tactics when it deals with the heat and do you only scout to a certain time in the day?
 
I pass on midsummer scouting. By the time the season opens here their patterns have changed. We open in mid to late October. If a state had an early Sept opener I could maybe see some value though. IDK what the situation is like in the south either. Here in MA, the leaves are falling right around our opener so the cover is changing, food sources have changed, etc. Just makes any mid-summer intel of very little value. I find the best scouting is either in season or postseason right until it starts to green up - say mid-March here.

So my summer tactic is to go fishing. :)
 
Oh - if you do want to scout in the summer, bring a life straw. You can get them on Amazon. If you ever run out of water you can use the life straw to drink from any water source you can get to in the woods.
 
I’ve always limited summer scouting to simply familiarizing myself with new properties by riding roads and trails or checking/moving trail cams. I also sit inside and stare at maps until I go cross eyed.

I lived and hunted in Alabama most of my life. With the extreme heat, deer are bedding in entirely different locations than they will during the fall. And those summer beds have never really produced for me.

But if you are going to be out busting brush, there’s a good little product that you can stick on the back of your neck to cool your body temp pretty quickly. Makes things bearable. Keep a few in the ice chest and swap as needed.
 
I am riding my bike to the areas i want to check out before sun up and im done by lunch. I take a gallon jug of water and keep it with my bike where ever i lock it up. I carry 2 military surplus water bottles+ a platypus style water bottle. Even if i finish those bottles on my person i know ihave a gallon waiting on me when i make it back to by bike. No camo....i wear the lightest clothing i can. Pants, long sleeves, and a big brim straw hat to keep the sun off my skin....go slow and dont over exert myself and take lots of breaks in the shade. Whenever i find fresh clean water i saturated a bandana and keep it around my neck.
I haven't tried it yet but i met a guy who spent a lot of time in the middleeast and he said people in the desert cultures over there drink hot tea in the middle of the heat to raise their core temp and therefore make the outside temp feel cooler..... Not sure if that would work in 300% humidity
 
I love fishing as well but my mind is strictly on hunting right now, within less than a year I've learned that public land isn't that bad. So I'm trying to learn it as much as possible and am excited that I have somewhere I get to hunt without over hunting it. The one area I went to the gate was shut and it wont open till September. So I walked a little over half a mile to where I wanted to go. Which isn't that much because usually I walk 4 to 5 miles in a day when I scout, I wanted to scout what I believed were overlooked spots close to roads because i did get a late start. Anyways the beds i did find were old probably from late season, they were matted down but I couldn't find any hair until I pushed the grass and leaves aside to the dirt. I found old and new rubs, along with trails. I do think a bike would've helped out a lot and may go to goodwill soon.
 
For me, summer scouting is
- glassing fields
- running cameras for inventory only
- walking new pieces to simply familiarize myself with access, anticipated routes etc

I'm trying to figure my way around and identify that a buck I want to pursue is on the property.

Nothing like hunting a ghost...

So I feel like if I can learn one single thing from each and every outing, it's been worth the time investment.
 
I like to scout whenever I have the time, or need to feed my outdoor itch. In summer I go early AM like you said. I can see old sign. I can find bedding areas and old beds. I see all the stands people leave out...which is a lot. I really want to get a velvet monster on one of my cams.
 
I have only have one camera and its $40 wildgame. I had it in my pack but never put it out, I guess because i only have one camera, I'm waiting to find that perfect trail and tree placement to put it up on so it can get good pics but also not get stolen. I think next year I am going to invest in 4 or 5 more so I wont be as picky on the placement.
 
I do very little summer scouting as far as walking around in the woods looking for sign in the summer...I spend a lot of time during the winter and early spring scouting and looking at the sign from the previous fall(rubs, scrapes, trails, beds)...Our season starts in early September so about mid-August I have a couple of observation stands I will sit early in the morning or the last couple of hours of light in the afternoons on soybean fields or low growth first year cutovers to see what's moving and maybe establish some patterns and find a shooter buck. Once the season comes in I do some mid-day scouting looking for fresh rubs and other sign to fine tune the spots I found in my winter/spring scouting based on current sign....If I am going to hunt a new property that I didn't get to scout in the winter/spring then I will do some walking in the summer but I don't really like to do that...As far as time of day in that situation I would prolly scout mid morning to noon or so.....
 
I do very little summer scouting as far as walking around in the woods looking for sign in the summer...I spend a lot of time during the winter and early spring scouting and looking at the sign from the previous fall(rubs, scrapes, trails, beds)...Our season starts in early September so about mid-August I have a couple of observation stands I will sit early in the morning or the last couple of hours of light in the afternoons on soybean fields or low growth first year cutovers to see what's moving and maybe establish some patterns and find a shooter buck. Once the season comes in I do some mid-day scouting looking for fresh rubs and other sign to fine tune the spots I found in my winter/spring scouting based on current sign....If I am going to hunt a new property that I didn't get to scout in the winter/spring then I will do some walking in the summer but I don't really like to do that...As far as time of day in that situation I would prolly scout mid morning to noon or so.....


Yea all this land that I'm scouting is public that I've never hunted before and am not familiar with. So I'm trying to learn and find spots so I can be mobile, but also I am looking forward to hunting some spots I've never scouted and setting up based only on cyber scouting.
 
Oh - if you do want to scout in the summer, bring a life straw. You can get them on Amazon. If you ever run out of water you can use the life straw to drink from any water source you can get to in the woods.

Does it taste yucky? Always wondered that.
 
Summer scouting is for the birds. It was 96° last weekend, with a realfeel of 107°!! Those temps in the swamp can be downright dangerous.

Plus, as has been mentioned, most of the stuff you see is useless. You for sure wont be seeing old scrapes or licking branches (rut sign, which in my mind is best sign), and even tracks and scat will be harder to see with all the growth. Post season scouting and in season scouting is where i get my actionable intel.

That said, I still get out there. I focus on getting to know tracts I've never been to before. I'll ride as much as I can in my truck, and get out and walk or ride my bike when I can't drive it. Just trying to get a feel for an area so I know where to start looking for sign during and after season.

I make it a firm rule to be out by 9am. Usually I'm up by 4-5am, and can get a good 3-4 hours in before its time to split. I carry 2 liters of water with me, and keep more in the truck. Don't screw around with hydration! Permethrin on my clothes and high concentration DEET is a must too. I don't carry much else, other than 2 compasses and a GPS.

Hard work is great and all that, but the time to really tromp the woods is the day after season in my mind. If you're playing catchup in the summer, you deserve the skeeters, snakes, poison ivy, and heat stroke.;)

Stay safe, and enjoy the woods!
 
Summer scouting is for the birds. It was 96° last weekend, with a realfeel of 107°!! Those temps in the swamp can be downright dangerous.

Plus, as has been mentioned, most of the stuff you see is useless. You for sure wont be seeing old scrapes or licking branches (rut sign, which in my mind is best sign), and even tracks and scat will be harder to see with all the growth. Post season scouting and in season scouting is where i get my actionable intel.

That said, I still get out there. I focus on getting to know tracts I've never been to before. I'll ride as much as I can in my truck, and get out and walk or ride my bike when I can't drive it. Just trying to get a feel for an area so I know where to start looking for sign during and after season.

I make it a firm rule to be out by 9am. Usually I'm up by 4-5am, and can get a good 3-4 hours in before its time to split. I carry 2 liters of water with me, and keep more in the truck. Don't screw around with hydration! Permethrin on my clothes and high concentration DEET is a must too. I don't carry much else, other than 2 compasses and a GPS.

Hard work is great and all that, but the time to really tromp the woods is the day after season in my mind. If you're playing catchup in the summer, you deserve the skeeters, snakes, poison ivy, and heat stroke.;)

Stay safe, and enjoy the woods!

I am playing catchup, trying to learn all this public land in mobile and baldwin county. But I am having a blast doing it and can't wait for the bow season to start.
 
I have a lot of small public tracts that I've never been to. I'm cyber scouting to narrow it down to maybe a couple dozen that I'll walk/Hunt this year. I'm mainly trying to get a feel for potential access in to certain areas, making notes of food sources and and setting up a trail cam if I feel good about it. It's an hour and a half drive minimum so I'm going out late afternoon, walking for a few hours then glassing/shinning fields from my truck looking for a shooter.

Mosquitoes don't really seem to bother me as much when I'm covered in poison ivy
 
It's a good form of exercise, mental and physical. Learning small details about areas, logistics of parking and access, locating places that hold water or cooler temperatures, things like that.

I very rarely scout summer, but when I do, I'm not paying any attention to fresh deer sign or sightings. I'm there to research the pieces of the puzzle that don't change with the seasons.
 
Summer scouting makes me think 2 things. Late winter scouting is awesome and spider webs in the face suck. Glad your feeling better. I had to take a shower and a nap myself.
 
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