Post season scouting

[Swamp Fox__On The Run]

I started this past Saturday even though our season is still open, I am pretty much done. I started trying to learn the mountain area nearby three years ago. Had never been there and had never hunted mountains. Decided I was not going to rush into it but would use cams, take my time and do way more scouting than hunting until I felt like I was getting a handle on things there. It's about a 2 million acres chunk of public ground so I carved out a roughly 10k acre area to focus on. Some cams only hung a spot for one season and some spots have had them a couple. After pulling cams a couple weeks back, I made the decision to stop looking and scouting over big chunks and focus my efforts around 4 cam spots that have had multiple mature bucks. So since pulling the cams, I deleted tons of pins and started dropping new pins based on the areas "around" the cams. This focus area is roughly 1500 acres. This past saturday I went to the area around my best cam out there. I had marked 3 different areas in proximity to the cam site that were of particular interest. Three of the four spots had great sign both rut and current use sign. One spot showed a good bit of people pressure and there was almost no sign in there. Found no evidence of hunting pressure in the other three. The buck sign was of particular interest because it was hands down the best size sign I have found out there to date, including two of the largest rubs I have ever seen in AR. Here's a fun note about the cam site though, that I have found, there is no buck sign within 2-300 yards of the cam and almost no deer sign period. But that cam had 4 mature bucks and 13 racked bucks total this past two seasons.

The take away for me has been dont let a cam site that has been getting a good buck or even multiple bucks you would be happy with distract you from really learning the area. When you get a cam that produces, remember you are looking at the woods through a straw and that those deer are going to cover a good bit of ground, like 5-600 acres or more depending on location. Map scout around that cam site and then go puts boots on it between now and green up. You might find some other spots that arent getting boogered up with people that you can kill that buck or at least have options for how you hunt him given wind, food or rut location changes.

I think it's a key point that a lack of sign in a particular smallish area can be deceptive.

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

I've seen this in my own experience and since the rise of trail cameras, I think more people are noticing it and I hear about it more often.

Terrain and how deer use it is really the key, and I think sign and even food (in big woods) take a back seat in a scouting strategy. This is against-the-grain to say. (See what I did there? )

Everyone wants to discover and hunt sign, and we've been beaten over the head for 50 years in the hunting media about some version of "find the food, find the deer": hot oak trees, food plots, bed-to-feed/feed-to-bed patterns, etc.

Not that "find the food" is wrong. It's just that I don't think it's the place to start (in big woods). I think it works great on the edge of big woods, though, LOL. Edge habitat or Farmer Brown who butts up to the NF can provide "Easier Buttons."

And finding fresh sign is a good thing.

Apart from that, though, I think studying terrain and learning how deer move over it comes first, so mapping and smart camera placement, management and rotation are justifiably popular first steps before boots hit the ground.

 

[woodsdog2]

I want to get a camera drone and fly all my spots to see the convergence of all the trails. I want to do it once a week from now until snow melt and while leaf out allows you to make out the trails. Mark the convergences with the most trails necking down to a narrow spot to set up and hunt those spots based on the wind and time of year. Add a new dimension to super efficient post season scouting. How to do it over public is the other issue.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

That doesnt even come close to solving all the problems lol.

Absolutely. This was really brought home to me this past season with membership in that new club. It is the classic plant food plots, put out spin cast corn feeders on every plot, put up big box blind shoot houses overlooking the plots and put up cell cameras to tell you when the deer come in. In spit of all that, and relatively low hunting pressure, only two deer were killed off the club this season, one being a good buck, and the other a late season doe the club president shot. The club is 360 acres, has 8 members including me, has about a dozen shoot houses over green fields, ladder stands, etc and only really gets hunted by a couple of guys on weekends. I was talking to the club president the other day and he was at a loss to explain the deer's lack of interest in the corn. He told me he usually goes through 3 pallets of corn and he struggled to go through one this season. That doesn't count what the others put out. Early season I'm sure they were on white oak acorns. Deer will walk over a pile of corn to get to a white oak acorn, but late season they usually will opt for the easy meal.

I plan to stay in the club, more out of a enjoyment of hanging out with the guys and working on little projects out there, and the cookouts. If it was for the deer hunting alone, it would be a no go. It is also close to home. I can be out there in 10 minutes, tops, so it makes a lot of sense for quick trips to hunt on days I'm not hunting, lol. I do think I will have a much better early season out there this fall since I can scout it out post season and will have a much better grasp on the property going in to this upcoming season. Deer were out and about early season out there, and I had several good hunts.

 

[Jammintree]

I want to get a camera drone and fly all my spots to see the convergence of all the trails. I want to do it once a week from now until snow melt and while leaf out allows you to make out the trails. Mark the convergences with the most trails necking down to a narrow spot to set up and hunt those spots based on the wind and time of year. Add a new dimension to super efficient post season scouting. How to do it over public is the other issue.

All you need is a simple navigational app that allows you to record and save tracks. I use different color tracks to note the season and I particularly note the tracks left by mature bucks during the rut.

 

[mschultz373]

Some in law told me he used to hunt deer over bait at his club and, coming from mostly waterfowl hunting, would set up wit the wind to his back. He said he skunked a lot early on until the guys told him….

 

[rutjr]

I envy you guys that have thousands of acres to roam for hunting. Or anything for that matter.

I hear ya. I didn’t even hunt 2025 mostly because I had a hard time finding a spot and kind feeling sorry for myself. This year will be be my year I have a decent spot for around here just got to get into climbing shape. Plenty of time!

 

[BTaylor]

All you need is a simple navigational app that allows you to record and save tracks. I use different color tracks to note the season and I particularly note the tracks left by mature bucks during the rut.


View attachment 125376

Looks pretty normal for travel sign around saddles here too. Seems like the best sign around a saddle is always 30-50 yards off the point to one side or the other.

 

[BTaylor]

Made another scouting loop Saturday to look at another area where I had dropped several pins between a couple of cam locations. I didnt have real high expectations for this area and the sign for the most part confirmed that suspicion. I did however find the best ditch funnel that I have seen out there so far. Just have a couple of small areas left to check with 2-3 pins each and will be wrapped up with my post season scouting out there.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that I need to focus my scouting on several areas that have been consistently good year in year out and really get those areas thoroughly scouted out first. Where I had those buck encounters late season was on the edge of an area I have hunted for about 5 years. I preliminarily scouted it last year, saw the sign and that is what had me back in there this fall. Now I need to make a deeper dive into that area and walk out every inch of it.

One problem i have is I move around a lot, meaning spot to spot, area to area, property to property. I'm too mobile, lol. I'll be in one area for a few days, then I might be 5 miles away the next, then 25 miles away two days later. I know good areas, the 1% of the land 99% of the deer use, so I need to really dial those spots in and max out the opportunities in those spots first. Be systematic, and ruthless, lol. Kill the deer or burn out the spot, then move on. I need to make a list, prioritize the locations, then systematically work those spots best to worse, having enough wiggle room to hit a hot spot if I happen to discover one mid season.

 

[Westdesign03]

I hear ya. I didn’t even hunt 2025 mostly because I had a hard time finding a spot and kind feeling sorry for myself. This year will be be my year I have a decent spot for around here just got to get into climbing shape. Plenty of time!

That sucks man. I’ve moped around plenty before feeling sorry for myself in years past. If it weren’t for the one spot I have on private that would be me every year. The spot is finally starting to produce fairly consistent for me in the last couple years. I just have to hit it at the right time based on the weather for the year.

Public is hard around me. Only a couple spots I’ve ever found may be good spots at the right time. And hopefully no one has ruined them by then.

 

[mschultz373]

I’ll cry in my beer, too: this season looks to be 2nd year in a row skunking in LA. (I am 2/2 for in Nebraska, but to me, that’s a candy land hunt). I have another week on tiny 15 acre private tract, but that’s not looking promising.

The big difference, though, is there are hundreds of thousands of acres of public to access locally. My biggest goal is to figure out what my blind spots are (in and of itself, a tough proposition* - determining what it is that you don’t know or understand), narrowing in on having preset spots and committing to wandering less next season. Looking for that elusive feed tree, in my area and observation anyway, has not produced consistently for 2-3 seasons now. I plan to hone in on terrain and habitat in my post season scouting.

*okay, it’s not that tough because yall have essentially given me the game, I just need to implement it in a way that is effective.

 

[gcr0003]

Southern fellas, what’s our opinion of cedar knobs or knobs full of cedar saplings. I’m talking about a small area slightly elevated above the rest of the low land, is usually thick and has a bunch of cedars on it. The buck(s) seems to mark every cedar sapling on those knobs. I’ve walked slap through them several times and never bumped a deer or found a discernible buck bed. Never fooled with hunting them either but have been curious. I’ve wanted to place cameras on them to verify but never have. Another case of night time sign?

For example:

 

[BTaylor]

Cedars are pretty much the exact same as pines, the only good ones are on a truck headed to the saw mill.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I look at those cedar thickets as possible year round bedding and cover when it is windy/cold, especially if they are on the leeward side of a hill. You just have to dive off into them and see if they are using them. I like the ones that have the foliage all the way to the ground. It just seems like a place that deer would hang out for cover and to get out of cold/harsh winds.

I also like lone cedars in generally open areas like along the edges of cutovers or out in overgrown fields once all the other foliage has dropped. I think deer use them as visual guides when moving from point A to B in grass that is higher than they can see over.

 

[rutjr]

I look at those cedar thickets as possible year round bedding and cover when it is windy/cold, especially if they are on the leeward side of a hill. You just have to dive off into them and see if they are using them. I like the ones that have the foliage all the way to the ground. It just seems like a place that deer would hang out for cover and to get out of cold/harsh winds.

I also like lone cedars in generally open areas like along the edges of cutovers or out in overgrown fields once all the other foliage has dropped. I think deer use them as visual guides when moving from point A to B in grass that is higher than they can see over.

I had one spot years ago where I got night pictures just at the limit of the camera. I got several pictures of the deer standing on their hind legs so I took a walk to see what they were doing and they were eating a lone cedar tree, all the low limbs were gone so they had to stand to get more.

 

[OSUTodd]

One problem i have is I move around a lot, meaning spot to spot, area to area, property to property. I'm too mobile, lol. I'll be in one area for a few days, then I might be 5 miles away the next, then 25 miles away two days later. I know good areas, the 1% of the land 99% of the deer use, so I need to really dial those spots in and max out the opportunities in those spots first. Be systematic, and ruthless, lol. Kill the deer or burn out the spot, then move on. I need to make a list, prioritize the locations, then systematically work those spots best to worse, having enough wiggle room to hit a hot spot if I happen to discover one mid season.

I understand this completely. I think I'd be more successful at killing bucks if I'd focus on two or three areas and REALLY learn them, but I think I'd get burned out a lot faster. A huge part of the excitement I feel about hunting is exploring new areas, and revisiting places I've hunted but haven't been into in several years.

I rarely hunt the same tree twice in a season, though I might set up within 100 yards or so. I could learn from my youngest brother, who kills way more deer than I do. Part of that is because he doesn't let many adult deer walk by, but he also stays in good areas. He'll sit in the same tree three days in a row if he knows it's the right area, knowing eventually one will slip through.

 

[raisins]

I haven't started yet.

I hunted an antler restriction area with a lot of pressure during the rut.

It really underlined for me how the bucks and does were using the topography. The antler restriction meant I got to see a ton of smaller bucks and what they were doing.

But every spot, no matter how far in, that looked interesting on the map had hunters and stands.

If I go back to that spot, I'll probably use that knowledge to find good spots that don't look interesting on a map.

I'm not the type to hunt where I know other people will be. Seeing another hunter kind of harms my day.

I have a Pac Seat now and will consider deeper locations, where I wouldn't want to walk with my pack and then climb (like well over 3 miles in).

Also, I'm really enjoying the Lidar on OnX. Worth the steep upgrade to me.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

"Seeing another hunter kind of harms my day." The deer feel the same way, lol. I'm the same way. I think with everyone having maps on their phones and the internet educating people to topography that those easy to see on a map spots will be hammered in most places. I like to find micro spots that don't show up on a map. The fact that you can only do that with boots on the ground and there isn't an app for that gives me an advantage since I will work harder and walk farther than most folks.

Micro spots aren't always topographic. Sometimes they are temporary spots created by a food source, or an external factor like a hot doe, or a response to hunting pressure nearby. Sometimes they are physical features like a little swale in a marsh, a creek crossing or a brushy shallow draw or a break in a fence line. A lot of these only show up when you are standing there looking at them.

 

[boyne bowhunter]

I had one spot years ago where I got night pictures just at the limit of the camera. I got several pictures of the deer standing on their hind legs so I took a walk to see what they were doing and they were eating a lone cedar tree, all the low limbs were gone so they had to stand to get more.

Cedar is the primary winter browse here. Deer all migrate into the cedar swamps and yard up there. The cedars provide cover, food, wind break and limit the snow depth to a degree.

 

[BTaylor]

Cedar is the primary winter browse here. Deer all migrate into the cedar swamps and yard up there. The cedars provide cover, food, wind break and limit the snow depth to a degree.

It's a different cedar though, isnt it? Dont yall have white cedar rather than eastern red?