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My 2023 post season scouting begins.

NMSbowhunter

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
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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.
 

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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.
Great time of yr to be out. Once it warms back up later this week I’ll spend the next 3 weeks gathering as much intel as possible for 2023

One thing is for sure you can never scout enough! I also like your idea of letting that camera sit all summer. Why not!
 
I don’t do much scouting in summer either. I am unable to use cameras so I rely more on my post season - February and then September - the season

I am unable to gain access from March till September on the military base I hunt. They shut it down for outdoor activities
 
I did a lot of post season scouting last February and March but really fell down on the summer scouting (intentionally). I hate ticks and red bugs and the heat but my lack of summer scouting new areas may have hurt me this past season.

Good on ya for getting out there already! I, like you (and prob everyone else), hate ticks and skeeters too so summer scouting is not as desirable. After 2 straight seasons of summer scouting in a row, I decided to not do it this last summer and it was my best season to date. If you are just starting out on a new piece of property I say scout as much as you can stand it, summer included. If you are starting to get to know it pretty well, summer scouting is not as useful to me. Because the doe groups pretty much will always be where you found them last year, and the bucks will pretty much always be summering by those large food sources and then disappear late September every year anyway.
 
I summer scouted the prior two years since i was leaning the property but laid off last summer after a lot of post season scouting up through turkey season. This year I plan to post season scout areas I am familiar with first and really dial about a dozen spots in for the pre-rut and rut, then focus my attention on brand new areas. I'm sure a lot of the new area scouting will spill over well into the summer months.
 
This is usually the season I do the majority of my scouting, from now till Turkey season when the leaves pop. This year I’m healing from a broken ankle and am going absolutely stir crazy. So, get out there guys and love every minute of it!
 
do you mean turkey season? Some of the best scouting I get is during turkey season
I normally scout hard from the end of season all through turkey season. I turkey hunt so scouting after a hunt is a natural, plus I usually put on a lot of miles during the actual hunts. I plan to scout all summer this year also, but mostly new to me areas.

I sure hope the turkeys gobble more this spring than they did last year.
 
This is usually the season I do the majority of my scouting, from now till Turkey season when the leaves pop. This year I’m healing from a broken ankle and am going absolutely stir crazy. So, get out there guys and love every minute of it!
I hate to hear you have a broken ankle. I can surely sympathize having broken both mine over the years and some pretty severe sprains to go along with all the usual injuries. Now would be a good time to dive into some cyber scouting and pick some really good spots to go check when the ankle heals up. I hope you heal up fast.
 
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I normally scout hard from the end of season all through turkey season. I turkey hunt so scouting after a hunt is a natural, plus I usually put on a lot of miles during the actual hunts. I plan to scout all summer this year also, but mostly new to me areas.

I sure hope the turkeys gobble more this spring than they did last year.
Man I wasn’t able to get out until late Turkey season annd they had anlready pushed the season back a little last year and I think I heard a gobble or two the first day I went and nothing the rest of the season. I had a few run ins with some Turkeys after that but it was just running up on them because they didn’t say peep where I was.
 
Man I wasn’t able to get out until late Turkey season annd they had anlready pushed the season back a little last year and I think I heard a gobble or two the first day I went and nothing the rest of the season. I had a few run ins with some Turkeys after that but it was just running up on them because they didn’t say peep where I was.
It was tough here. Where I decided to hunt the season didn't open until April 1st. I went out 2 hours before daylight that morning and I have never seen as many trucks in one place outside of an SEC football stadium parking lot. I drove 6 miles before I found some random place to pull off and listen. I heard one distant shot all morning and later I talked to the game warden and asked if he had checked anyone with a bird. He said no. It was just too many people in the woods. I just had to laugh it off. I waited a couple of days and the new wore off.

I went 6 more mornings after that and heard zero gobbles. I walked 5 to 7 mile loops those mornings, stopping, calling and listening. On the eight day I went out I had told my wife this was going to be the last day. I went to a spot that I had been seeing a bunch of trucks parked all season. I planned to just have an easy hunt instead of my multi mile hikes. Well, that morning I heard a faint gobble about 500 yards to the north and made a bee line for it. I got in to within 80 yards of the gobbler and somehow passed a hen. She was upset and cutting above me on the hillside. That got him fired up. While I was watching for the gobbler in front of me and calling softly, another one side hilled me and got to within 30 yards or so before gobbling. He almost gave me a heart attack, lol. I swung on him, and it was all over. My season ended well, but I would just about rather hear a lot of gobbling and chase them and not get one than to hear so little gobbling all season and get one.
 

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Now would be a good time to dive into some cyber scouting and pick some really good spots to go check when the ankle heals up. I hope you heal up fast.

This is a great idea! I’ve also got a list of antlers to seek. I’ll probably miss the window to get intel on the bucks who dropped them though.
 
Happy to see some other folks are fired up about the pre-season too. I guess to be accurate it is still technically season here through the end of the month but I am done hunting. So it's on to pre-season for deer and turkey. Actually picked up a box of 10 working trail cams a buddy of mine was not using since he switched all of his cams to cell. Planning to do long soaks with all of them too.
 
I'm pretty fired up this year so far. I went up and spent two days looking over a permission property I have up north since I posted earlier. It's a little over an hour's drive. I've been neglecting it for two years now, mainly due to the distance and sort of dreading how tough the terrain would be. Man is that place thick and wet. I had to don hip waders several times in order to get to some of the spots I wanted to go. A couple of times I just about overtopped the waders. I really haven't scratched the surface yet either. The place has some definite possibilities. There are open crop lands nearby and I'm betting bucks get pushed off into this thick stuff when the pressure mounts. The crops get heavy gun pressure. The west side, the back of the property, is a 75 acre swamp with several deep channels running through it feeding into a large creek that borders the property. So far, so good.
 

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I'm pretty fired up this year so far. I went up and spent two days looking over a permission property I have up north since I posted earlier. It's a little over an hour's drive. I've been neglecting it for two years now, mainly due to the distance and sort of dreading how tough the terrain would be. Man is that place thick and wet. I had to don hip waders several times in order to get to some of the spots I wanted to go. A couple of times I just about overtopped the waders. I really haven't scratched the surface yet either. The place has some definite possibilities. There are open crop lands nearby and I'm betting bucks get pushed off into this thick stuff when the pressure mounts. The crops get heavy gun pressure. The west side, the back of the property, is a 75 acre swamp with several deep channels running through it feeding into a large creek that borders the property. So far, so good.

This sounds like it has the makings of a honey hole. Are you the only one with permission?
 
This sounds like it has the makings of a honey hole. Are you the only one with permission?
Yes. It was leased about 12 years ago to a hunting club and a tornado came through and wrecked the place. It dropped trees on the road systems and food plots and the dudes who were leasing it went to the owner and laid out a list of all the work he was going to have to do if they were going to lease it. He told them to not let the doorknob hit them in the rear on the way out the door, lol. Since then, he hasn't been very receptive to anyone else hunting it, but he has known me forever and I'm not asking anything of him. My cousin halfheartedly hunted it a few years ago. He had one ladder stand but a tree fell on it, so he quit hunting out there.
 
Yes. It was leased about 12 years ago to a hunting club and a tornado came through and wrecked the place. It dropped trees on the road systems and food plots and the dudes who were leasing it went to the owner and laid out a list of all the work he was going to have to do if they were going to lease it. He told them to not let the doorknob hit them in the rear on the way out the door, lol. Since then, he hasn't been very receptive to anyone else hunting it, but he has known me forever and I'm not asking anything of him. My cousin halfheartedly hunted it a few years ago. He had one ladder stand but a tree fell on it, so he quit hunting out there.

Sounds like a recipe for late gun season buck sanctuary. is there access on the downwind side of the prevailing winds?
 
Sounds like a recipe for late gun season buck sanctuary. is there access on the downwind side of the prevailing winds?
Should be a way in from the south. That said I have a pretty good scent control regimen, so I don't pay too much attention to wind anymore. It's nice if the wind is in my favor, I'll take it, but it isn't a deal breaker.
 
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