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Need some more help with scouting concerns

@Topdog, it’s my pathetic attempt at a little humor. I agree that putting the requisite scouting in both via maps, digital maps and other related apps AND mostly boots on the ground scouting is the single most important factor for success at finding deer to hunt. But to answer @kyler1945 ’s question…. The person spending the most time learning what the deer are doing in real time in and on a particular property. I personally believe there are more or less efficient ways to figure that out and technology has a role but in the world real observation is definitely the most important skill set. Being able to close the deal once you’re on deer is a whole other ball game.
 
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@Topdog i haven’t heard that but I have heard Aunt Kathy is doing a lot of tyrannical type gun grab stuff and so I’m just kind of waiting for the dust to settle. I’ve not heard anything official from the HEP program yet about it though either. Some sad days for individual freedoms in this state I’m afraid. We can talk more via pm when I get more info. At this point I’m hearing a lot of stuff but I want to read it myself.
 
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I think there's a lot of good suggestions here, and a lot to digest. But I think digital scouting has been a bit undervalued.

I don't know what OP's situation is, but I don't have a lot of big public nearby. I've moved about some and this has been the case more often than not.

Time was always the biggest obstacle for me, but gas prices being what they are, I can see why seeking efficiency via digital research is quite sensible. I believe there is often a lot to be gained from doing so, even if it's not a magic bullet.

Similes can be troublesome, but I'll risk one. Take a lake you've never fished. You can aimlessly troll. Or you can cast docks and stumps and target surface vegetation, hit points and bays, basically respond to what you find while you're fishing. Or you can study lake contour maps, and marry that with your on site observation and effort.

I wouldn't sell short the potential of any approach. I've been successful going in blind often enough, but I think digital scouting can be a huge advantage. And I'm confident careful study can often set a hunter up for his/her best chances by knowing some of the options before showing up to the game. A hunter picking a spot off a map and succeeding isn't exactly unheard of. We're not all a bunch of dolts and our game a bunch of boogeymen. Just, sometimes.

Some folks advocating boots on ground as "the way" will toss about how high level data analysts will out hunt us all.

Take it all in, sift, make your choices, take your lumps, learn, enjoy. I'm pulling for this to be your year.
 
This would be my compromise for anybody new deer hunting and not willing/able to do what @kyler1945 recommends.

If you wanna use the computer, pay $30 to get access to P&Y records. Make a spreadsheet with the following collumns:
  • Counties in your state
  • acreage per county
  • human population per county
  • P&Y record entries per county
  • Human population/acreage
  • P&Y entries/Acreage
  • P&Y entries/Human population
Bonus points if you can get DCNR trophy/harvest information.

I'd use that to identify the top 10/20% of counties in your state. You should be able to do it in half a day.

Then, look for huntable land in those counties. National Forest, Forever Wild, WMA, COE, utility, school board, indian reservation, large tracts owned by a california-based commercial real-estate firm...whatever.

From those tracts, look for and give preference to:

  • bow-only
  • Lottery draw
  • restricted season (example: a local wma only allows rifle hunters Thursday-Friday and it's bucks only. another can only be deer hunted Saturday-Monday)
  • tracts with exclusive water access (if that's a thing in your state, buy a boat. Alternatively, you can try to buy a boat.)
That should leave you with 99% of the acreage in your state(s) weeded out as sub-optimum and not worth the boot leather. Congrats.

Once you've identified a parcel, start walking. Notice I haven't said anything about a topo map or scouting app yet. In order to avoid getting lost, you will need to simply locate the signs and paint blazes around the property. Then, follow them in a big old polygram until you get back to your truck.

Alternatively, start walking any parcel you can legally hunt that's boat-access only.

Mark every deer you see. Hunt the stretch of property where you see the most deer during daylight scouting hours. If you have enough experience to identify stuff like feed trees, scrapes, etc, then you're permitted to use those in your criteria for stand selection, with one caveat. Experience means you have at least once located that sign, hunted it, and killed a deer there. Otherwise, assume you don't know enough to hunt anywhere except where you know you've seen deer during daylight.

This approach lets you weed out potentially millions of acres of sub-prime habitat from the comfort of your living room. Once you start walking, you're walking what's most likely the least pressured areas in an above-average (for your region) tract of land. Anybody can do this, and I would place my $100 bet on the hunter using this "tactic." I feel confident he'd outhunt both the "walk a straight line" hunter and the "ask the interwebs" hunter; keeping time, money, skill level, and days afield equal.

If you absolutely refuse to consider any properties not close enough for you to drive out, hunt, and return in a half day, Don't make the spreadsheet. It'll most likely just hurt your feelings. Just get the harvest/trophy data for whatever's within an hour or two's drive, choose a parcel based on the criteria above, and walk the
 
Part 2

If you really wanna "take a shortcut,"

  • hunt the opener, the first cold front of the season, and the peak week of rut. If you have harvest results, you can narrow that peak period down to a couple of days by asking a biologist when rut is, and fact-checking/fine-tuning his recommendation by comparing it to the largest harvest day within that timeframe.
  • Hunt half days (ie morning til noon or noon til dark) vs typical morning/evening sits or all-day slug-fests. You'll get extra stand time and midday movement without burning out or irritating the wife.
  • Hunt with the most effective weapon legally permitted. You'll be plenty excited and challenged killing your first several deer with a gun/crossgun/compound.
  • Shoot the 1st legal deer you see. And the 2nd...and the 3rd. Do this until shooting deer is like shooting targets.
  • Do not take advice from anybody who hasn't killed at least twice as many deer as you and who hunts the same area you do.
 
For myself, scouting only gets me in the ballpark. It takes me a season or two of hunting an area heavily to get a feel of how the deer are using it and why.
This piece of public I hunted kicked my arse throughout all of October last year. I just couldn't get on game no matter what I tried. The cameras didn't lie as I had over 10 shooters in a 600 acrea area so they were there.
I started to get it at it around November how they used it, and had a buck encounter 3 outta 5 hunts rest of the season.
Even Infalt said in a video it's takes him 2-3 seasons to understand a new location
 
The most success I have is really identifying edges… It takes a lot of time in the woods…it can be the edge of a 2-3 yr clear cut or a hardwood to swamp edge… I find more sign and cover more ground this way… from there you have put the puzzle together… food water and security… I hunt a big WMA and it gives you a good starting point…
 
Kyler is a hard to swallow pill sometimes. But he’s not wrong haha. What state are you in by the way?
 
Nutterbuster said:
This would be my compromise for anybody new deer hunting and not willing/able to do what @kyler1945 recommends.

If you wanna use the computer, pay $30 to get access to P&Y records. Make a spreadsheet with the following collumns:
  • Counties in your state
  • acreage per county
  • human population per county
  • P&Y record entries per county
  • Human population/acreage
  • P&Y entries/Acreage
  • P&Y entries/Human population
Bonus points if you can get DCNR trophy/harvest information.

I'd use that to identify the top 10/20% of counties in your state. You should be able to do it in half a day.

Then, look for huntable land in those counties. National Forest, Forever Wild, WMA, COE, utility, school board, indian reservation, large tracts owned by a california-based commercial real-estate firm...whatever.

From those tracts, look for and give preference to:

  • bow-only
  • Lottery draw
  • restricted season (example: a local wma only allows rifle hunters Thursday-Friday and it's bucks only. another can only be deer hunted Saturday-Monday)
  • tracts with exclusive water access (if that's a thing in your state, buy a boat. Alternatively, you can try to buy a boat.)
That should leave you with 99% of the acreage in your state(s) weeded out as sub-optimum and not worth the boot leather. Congrats.

Once you've identified a parcel, start walking. Notice I haven't said anything about a topo map or scouting app yet. In order to avoid getting lost, you will need to simply locate the signs and paint blazes around the property. Then, follow them in a big old polygram until you get back to your truck.

Alternatively, start walking any parcel you can legally hunt that's boat-access only.

Mark every deer you see. Hunt the stretch of property where you see the most deer during daylight scouting hours. If you have enough experience to identify stuff like feed trees, scrapes, etc, then you're permitted to use those in your criteria for stand selection, with one caveat. Experience means you have at least once located that sign, hunted it, and killed a deer there. Otherwise, assume you don't know enough to hunt anywhere except where you know you've seen deer during daylight.

This approach lets you weed out potentially millions of acres of sub-prime habitat from the comfort of your living room. Once you start walking, you're walking what's most likely the least pressured areas in an above-average (for your region) tract of land. Anybody can do this, and I would place my $100 bet on the hunter using this "tactic." I feel confident he'd outhunt both the "walk a straight line" hunter and the "ask the interwebs" hunter; keeping time, money, skill level, and days afield equal.

If you absolutely refuse to consider any properties not close enough for you to drive out, hunt, and return in a half day, Don't make the spreadsheet. It'll most likely just hurt your feelings. Just get the harvest/trophy data for whatever's within an hour or two's drive, choose a parcel based on the criteria above, and walk the
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Hunter 3 you generated here has the option of hunting other property. OP already selected his property. Everything downstream of choosing property I think we agree on. Good dirt trumps most everything else you can do to increase odds. Besides getting my rocks off hunting new dirt, the reason I travel to hunt is dirt. Good, black, Mississippi mud. Preferably hard to access.
 
kbetts said:
Until I found success, I would ditch the big woods and look for something more condensed.

Big woods deer hunting is difficult even for the experienced.
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We have been hunting a 9000 acre area for 8 years. it took us 7 to zero in on good buck. last year was had opportunities at 2-3, 140" deer in PA. We walked miles on miles and spent 100's of hours not seeing a deer until we were able to figure it out. This is all from my dad and broth and i. My dad has 30 years and i have 20 years of experience. It is definitely a challenge but rewarding when you finally figure it out. We ended up hiking a long way back and hunting edges. Whether along a ridge line or clear cut or swamp.
 
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