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Post season scouting

I'm planning to put out some cameras in areas where I know there had been bucks of interest. Just kind of a survey to see what is still alive. But that's going to have to wait for next weekend. I have a long list of things to finish up that have been on hold or in-progress at a snail's pace for a few months.

My other plan is to get out and walk through areas I've never been into. That gives me ideas for where I might want to put my cameras to soak next year. The two areas I targeted this year turned up mixed results. One had some decent bucks, but almost zero daylight activity. The other area has some real promise, though I know someone else hunts it because I found a stand in there.

This was the plan after last year, and it led to the buck I killed this year.
 
I spend a LOT of time looking for areas to go and scout. After the season (now) I go in and match real sign with expected sign. If it’s what I want to see then I’ll put cameras in there late June to early July to verify what’s there. With what I’m looking for I expect deer to be there more than just during the rut so I put them in early and leave them throughout the season to pick up bucks that may not “live” there, but that come for a visit during the season as the rut progresses.

There’s usually a community scrape involved with what I’m looking for and if I choose to leave a camera on a particular area for a second season that’s where it will be. I tend to start with two cameras minimum in a new area. One on the community scrape and one on what I feel is the most likely buck travel route. If I didn’t find what I feel was the predominant access trail I may move the second camera to a new trail for the following year if there’s enough buck activity to keep me coming back to hunt.

That’s pretty much the cycle of my scouting, Identify on maps, ground truth, camera truth, rinse and repeat. I always have spots in one of those phases. My only regret is keeping spots in my head instead of documenting on quad sheets back before we had all the tech that’s available nowadays to catalog what we find.
 
I am going to be watching a trail convergence area which has shown a lot of buck activity from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. It's in an area with thick cover on three sides and looks very promising. Not sure if I will shoot another buck but might if it's a dandy.
 
Snowing and blowing with temps in the teens right now. Going to be a bit before I get in scouting mode. Last weekend it had melted enough to make a run to deer camp and shut it down. Been inaccessible since Thanksgiving and there was still plenty of snow in the woods. A total snow globe with all the snow this week. I have some spots to walk after ice out. Dang logger hacked my GPS again and have 2 prime stands all painted up. I love the cutting but they sure seem to target my spots.
 
michigandrake said:
Snowing and blowing with temps in the teens right now. Going to be a bit before I get in scouting mode. Last weekend it had melted enough to make a run to deer camp and shut it down. Been inaccessible since Thanksgiving and there was still plenty of snow in the woods. A total snow globe with all the snow this week. I have some spots to walk after ice out. Dang logger hacked my GPS again and have 2 prime stands all painted up. I love the cutting but they sure seem to target my spots.
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Never get to liking a spot. As soon as you start liking it, they will come cut it. Never fails.
 
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Nice trail running along side the remnants of that old log.
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This one looked to still be pretty active. It goes let of the close tree then bends a little to the right and goes just left the second tree on the right and then starts bending left just a tad heading towards those young pines. It turn up at the pines and goes around that little point of saplings. That's about as heavy of a trail as I have seen out there in over 250 miles of scouting.

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BTaylor said:
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Yes, and I have found that it is hard for a picture to capture what you can see when you are standing there looking at the trails. A lot of detail is just not captured. Those would constitute very heavy trails around here too. It's hard for one or two deer to beat down a worn path.
 
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NMSbowhunter said:
Yes, and I have found that it is hard for a picture to capture what you can see when you are standing there looking at the trails. A lot of detail is just not captured.
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True but the difference is crazy to me. If I took a pic of a trail with the same level of travel down in the river bottoms, it would be glaringly obvious because it would be tracked up mud. Here it's just a trail where the leaves are ground up in and on the rocks.
 
BTaylor said:
True but the difference is crazy to me. If I took a pic of a trail with the same level of travel down in the river bottoms, it would be glaringly obvious because it would be tracked up mud. Here it's just a trail where the leaves are ground up in and on the rocks.
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Yes, wet grounds shows way better sign. I find the most sign at creek crossings and slough headers in low country.
 
Here is picture of the heavy trail I found yesterday leading off downhill out of a thick draw coming off a sloping ridge. This is where it opens up into woods. The tail is down the middle. Note how the rotted log in the picture is missing a section. Up to the right is a beech with a couple of scrapes under it.
 

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BTaylor said:
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Pretty sure this is from a hog but wasn’t 100%. I wear an 11 boot.


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May be hog, but the pellets look more deer like. Hogs usually make big, like 3/4 to 2 inch pellets. Did you check around to see if there was a Little Debby wrapper nearby?
 
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NMSbowhunter said:
May be hog, but the pellets look more deer like. Hogs usually make big, like 3/4 to 2 inch pellets. Did you check around to see if the was a Little Debby wrapper nearby?
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That's what threw me was the some of the pellets looked more like compressed hog turds but a lot of them looked more like deer to me.
 
I found this right at the end of the trail where the thicket opens up into the bottom below. I am hesitant to label it a buck bed, but that may be what it is. I looked closely and did not see any hairs in it. Maybe its a buck bed. It was a lone spot, right along a trail with great visual cover just behind it with open area to the other. It's right in the area where I smelled strong tarsal and I hunted yesterday evening.
 

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BTaylor said:
That's what threw me was the some of the pellets looked more like compressed hog turds but a lot of them looked more like deer to me.
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Most of the time hog poo looks more fibrous, and deer poo looks smoother, more "processed" if you know what I mean. Made of smaller particles and shinier and more dense.
 
In the hills, where trails are harder to see, if I suspect a trail but the leaves obscure the tracks, I will take a stick and clear out a little bare spot where I suspect the trail to be and then I can get a much better view of the actual tracks in the ground. Then, if it is in season, I toss the stick far away from the trail since it has my scent on it. Post season I'm not so careful, but it never hurts to do little things to keep from educating deer.

Often I can see a trail from one angle but not another. The way the leaves are kicked up, punched into the ground or disturbed will show better from one angle than another due to the light source...the sun, casting shadows. Another thing to look for is leaves cut by deer hooves. They will often snap them at sharp angles, clean lines, and points.
 
I have started finding myself less excited about obvious trails in the woods. Too often I'm following one, and it terminates at a hole in the ground.
 
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