• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Wait until snow melts to post season scout?

greg728

greg728

Active Member
SH Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
197
Location
Pennsylvania
I’m itching to get out and scout new pieces but most of the snow is half melted in my state. Just curious what people’s experience is with timing for post season scouting. I would hate to commit to a drive out to a new piece and not be able to see the sign under the snow.
 
I'm a lot more productive if I wait until after snow melt.
I can put on twice the miles without snow than I can with snow.
Can't see scrapes or scrape related trails with snow but if you are observant, you can still locate the overhanging branches, but you just can't see the approach routes.
Beds are easier to see with snow but that assumes deer have not changed bedding areas or travel routes.
Nothing wrong with scouting either with or without snow. Both have their attributes. Do both if you can.
I just put on a lot more scouting miles during a 6 hour walk on bare ground. I find more sheds too.
 
If it’s only a few inches I will go out and look for trails and beds. Otherwise I wait till the snow is gone.
 
Where I am the deer migrate to wintering yards. There's just no winter deer activity in the hardwoods where I hunt most of the season. There quite simply isn't enough food to sustain them once there's more than a foot of snow on the ground there. You could walk miles around there right now and you'd never cut a set of tracks. In those areas I have to wait until snow melt (and before green up starts) to scout the sign left from last year. Its pretty well preserved though as it has been packed under the snow for 4-5 months.

However, I do scout my late season spots while snow is on the ground as the deer are in those spot currently. The issue with that though is that I have to take the sign with a grain of salt because they are more concentrated in the wintering yards. Deer population in these area will not be as heavy come fall next year.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I'm a lot more productive if I wait until after snow melt.
I can put on twice the miles without snow than I can with snow.
Can't see scrapes or scrape related trails with snow but if you are observant, you can still locate the overhanging branches, but you just can't see the approach routes.
Beds are easier to see with snow but that assumes deer have not changed bedding areas or travel routes.
Nothing wrong with scouting either with or without snow. Both have their attributes. Do both if you can.
I just put on a lot more scouting miles during a 6 hour walk on bare ground. I find more sheds too.
Click to expand...
My biggest concern is seeing trails and scrapes. I like seeing rubs but I’m definitely a more scrape oriented hunter.
 
My favorite time to scout new places is when that last little bit of snow from winter, lets say 3“-6” is frozen solid, I use trekking poles and can cover a lot of ground fast, often times it‘s easier to traverse those uneven, swampy spots faster in conditions like this, visibility is better, you can see tracks, find which saddles they actually use versus guessing from just a map, once I get a better understanding of what exactly is going on, I narrow my search the next time I go, right after the snow melts, and look for things like scrapes, anything I mite have missed when the snow was on, and then I go home and connect the dots.. attempt to get a better understanding of why those scrapes are there in relation to the active pinch points, funnels, saddles, that I found from the previous trip!
 
I wait till the snow leaves. You might see tracks but that might be their winter range and movement and not fall movement
 
kbetts said:
Do you think the deer float above the snow?
Click to expand...
I think he's talking about snow covering up seasonal sign that was made during the rut period. Deer patterns are not static throughout the course of the year. By mid-late winter, deer patterns shift more toward food and thermal cover and aren't necessarily the same as they were in November.

Hey, there is no such thing as a "bad" time to scout in the post season, except for the need to keep out of deer yards when deer need to conserve calories. So get out there when you can.
A good time to scout is any time that you can. The best time to scout is when you can be most productive.
 
For me, snow is one of the most valuable scouting tools. The intel I gather needs to be grounded in a timeline - meaning that sign made mid winter can’t be used solely on its own merits - it requires follow up during other times of year. Snow can show us so much detail that is hard to come by so rapidly by any other means.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top