Why should I scout in the summer?

[greg728]

I hunt public big woods in PA. I scout from February to April looking for sign that was laid down in early season, pre rut and peak rut time frames. During that time it’s pretty easy for me to distinguish between the three and it’s obvious to see what was laid down that year and what is historical. I pay attention to anything that gets my spidey senses going and anything with a couple years of sign. I also double check the areas I previously scouted to see if the same sign was repeated.

Once May hits I stay out of the woods for the most part other than hanging trail cams and some light scouting. I’ve gotten some good deer on summer cams but as soon as the season opens up the first week of October it’s like a light switch. Bucks that were still on a summer pattern two weeks prior now are MIA once bow season comes in.

I think some areas lay out better for early season and some are better for the rut phases. In the big woods I have a tough time finding bucks in early season, although that’s probably when they’re the most patternable. Food sources change so much from year to year and the bedding game can be tough to play as the best bedding is in areas that you can’t get close to without being detected.

I guess my question is a two part question.

How do you guys approach early season in the big woods?

How important is summer scouting in your hunting approach for the season?

Not a fan of snakes and yellow jackets but I’ll do what I have to do if it helps me improve my game.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Here's where I am on summer scouting. I'm in Mississippi and it is a little warm here from time to time. When I first started hunting public ground I scouted a lot during summer...really all year...but now that I know large blocks of land and have a good idea where I can find deer generally, I have drastically cut back on summer scouting. This pre season I haven't been out since the end of turkey season. I do plan to go out one day next week and hit an area I had never been in before late season last year. I found a lot of great buck sign, but I surmised it was all laid down in early November or late October. I want to get a better lay of the ground, not look for anything specific at this point. It will likely be so green I won't be able to see much. Part of that though is I just like to be in the woods.

I plan to devote the miles and gasoline and tire rubber to trips in season this fall when I can actually run an arrow through something. I would say if you don't know the area well, then summer scout. If you already know it, wait until season.

 

[woodsdog2]

I “struggle” with early season here too! I wish our season opened on the 15 th of September but then I remember wishing it would open on the 1st of October (which it does now) when it opened for decades on October 15th and my early season prowess still hasn’t increased. Sure, they are on cams and/ or I’m glassing them in fields all summer to late summer on a pretty consistent pattern, then as you said, it’s like a light switch goes off as October arrives. There are a lot of theories.

I’m convinced it’s a function of changing food sources and pressure. The Whitetail Research guy (who sat out a whole deer season to conduct private deer research for his yucktub channel), had a video on the natural change in a deer’s stomach to begin taking woodier browse. He says the lull may be indicative of that that switch up. Here’s the video.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

One thing I've seen around here early season when it is really hot is that sometimes deer will bed down low in thickets in shaded creek bottoms with a creek that has fast flowing water. I found one spot like that several years ago and I busted deer out, and when I walked in there it was probably 15 degrees cooler than the surrounding area. It was enough to really stop and take note.

 

[Lucky13]

I just drive around the national forest gravel roads and look for places to park and new spots that look decent in the summer. Basically with the mindset of if a find a truck here I can go there. I'll park and make a mile loop, mark some access points, food trees, previous sign, get bit by mosquitoes, loose 4 pounds of water weight, and maybe hang a camera up high. My real intel comes from observation sits bow season.

 

[greg728]

I just drive around the national forest gravel roads and look for places to park and new spots that look decent in the summer. Basically with the mindset of if a find a truck here I can go there. I'll park and make a mile loop, mark some access points, food trees, previous sign, get bit by mosquitoes, loose 4 pounds of water weight, and maybe hang a camera up high. My real intel comes from observation sits bow season.

I’m with you. Aside from ticks, dodging yellow jacket nests and rattlesnakes, the majority of my summer scouting leads to cool pictures that don’t do me any good in season. I decided to shift my approach this year and care less about trail cams and getting pics in the summer vs use my post season scouting intel from March along with current in season scouting when season opens. I think my biggest mistake in the big woods has been not scouting enough in season. Intel from last season is great especially if it’s repeated every year but getting on it when it’s happening is a different story.

If anyone else has any big woods feedback I’d appreciate it. How mobile to be, when to sit a spot a couple times, etc.

 

[nomads-11]

My only perspective is that, yeah, I'll "scout" in the summer, but. It means I'm revisiting land I already know. Which is to say, whether it's winter or summer, I already know it. So, this is just tweaking it. Move 25yds left or right or 50m this way or that. I'm going through that right now with a couple of places. But, overall, summer sucks for new territory - yeah, not the time to do it. If there is no alternative, go ahead, something is better than nothing, but late winter will really paint a picture. Summer sucks for scouting IMO, still you may have to do it...realizing, you may well have to redo it later.

 

[OSUTodd]

To me, summer scouting is more for the soul. It gives me new stuff to dream about until October.

 

[woodsdog2]

I’ll give you an example from late Spring early summer of 2025, big woods public.

I was spring turkey hunting, we can only hunt until noon so I was up in this area before first light. Terrain is rough, a lot of steep ravines in a small area. The roadway into the area mainly runs north-south but then makes a hard 90 degree turn to the west then continues. Public on both sides. The roadway basically follows the ridge top terrain. At that corner is a thick swath of almost impenetrable brush and old cutover tops. Then as the terrain gets steep it drops down and turns into more mature forest. I went in along that transition heading west along the brush line but below the road-ridge top about 50yards. It was an old lane. As I came to the first ravine listening for gobbles, I noticed I was about 30 yards from the head of the ravine which was above me and only maybe 20 or so yards from the ridge top road. I caught movement as three nice bucks with wide bases made their way across that ravine top and they began to follow the drainage down right toward me. The wind was from the south, but the ravine I was standing atop had morning thermal up flow from the north. Yep, I felt that thermal and they buggered off. I’m going to hunt that this fall early season. I need to get a camera in there.

I think those bucks were going to bed on that north facing ravine with their backs to the southwesterly wind and the brush chocked ridge top, facing north able to watch the mature forest in the ravine below them and catch the rising thermals. Perfect mature buck bedding.

 

[BTaylor]

I’m with you. Aside from ticks, dodging yellow jacket nests and rattlesnakes, the majority of my summer scouting leads to cool pictures that don’t do me any good in season. I decided to shift my approach this year and care less about trail cams and getting pics in the summer vs use my post season scouting intel from March along with current in season scouting when season opens. I think my biggest mistake in the big woods has been not scouting enough in season. Intel from last season is great especially if it’s repeated every year but getting on it when it’s happening is a different story.

If anyone else has any big woods feedback I’d appreciate it. How mobile to be, when to sit a spot a couple times, etc.

Something I think that gets missed with these "big woods" discussions is the actual make up of the woods a person is hunting. We have big woods here and they vary considerably because some is mountains that are mixed pine/hardwoods that are predominantly white and red oak as far as mast goes. There are literally millions of oaks in every direction. Tough to zero in on hot feed trees in woods like that on a decent to good mast year. The other big woods we have are river bottoms. This is an entirely different ecosystem and mast trees include oaks such as water, white, overcup, nutall, swamp chestnut, plus persimmon and honey locust. They dont all grow in the same places and drop sequences vary which moves deer around a lot but when a particular tree is hot it can be smokin hot.

From the what I understand from hearing about the woods up in PA, I think I would try to focus on early season travel to and from bedding. Rather than trying to hunt in the bedding, I would hunt off of it just enough to be able to access cleanly but close enough to hopefully catch daytime movement. I would take the same cam approach of full season soaks and keep adjusting them each year until I found spots that offered reasonable opportunities.

 

[greg728]

Something I think that gets missed with these "big woods" discussions is the actual make up of the woods a person is hunting. We have big woods here and they vary considerably because some is mountains that are mixed pine/hardwoods that are predominantly white and red oak as far as mast goes. There are literally millions of oaks in every direction. Tough to zero in on hot feed trees in woods like that on a decent to good mast year. The other big woods we have are river bottoms. This is an entirely different ecosystem and mast trees include oaks such as water, white, overcup, nutall, swamp chestnut, plus persimmon and honey locust. They dont all grow in the same places and drop sequences vary which moves deer around a lot but when a particular tree is hot it can be smokin hot.

From the what I understand from hearing about the woods up in PA, I think I would try to focus on early season travel to and from bedding. Rather than trying to hunt in the bedding, I would hunt off of it just enough to be able to access cleanly but close enough to hopefully catch daytime movement. I would take the same cam approach of full season soaks and keep adjusting them each year until I found spots that offered reasonable opportunities.

Honestly a lot of the bigger tracts in PA are a lot of browse feeding. Acorns can be hit or miss but they always browse. I’m with you on hunting close enough to bedding to be in the game but not so close that makes access a problem.

I have one area that has the best bedding I’ve ever seen and I know there were good bucks in the area last year. I found the bedding during post season scouting this year and found access and exit locations from the bedding. It’s a matter of hunting higher vs hunting lower and morning vs evening.

 

[Sbrammer]

For me, my style and my area, the only useful scouting is during spring gobbler. I've gotten some really good historical 'hints' of where deer are going to be during a given time during season.

About 90% of my scouting is in season. I have never seen deer from May to the end of September that are in the same place in October. Even further, I've never seen deer in an area the first week of October that are still that area the second week October.

 

[gcr0003]

What if one had the opportunity to hijack a family road trip for a quick hour or 2 speed run scout of a small parcel and hang a cell camera or two in an out of state location one may or may not get to hunt this year?

It is probably not worth much but it would surely get me pumped to put some boots down and maybe get some out state buck pictures, even if it is less than helpful come hunting time.

 

[greg728]

What if one had the opportunity to hijack a family road trip for a quick hour or 2 speed run scout of a small parcel and hang a cell camera or two in an out of state location one may or may not get to hunt this year?

It is probably not worth much but it would surely get me pumped to put some boots down and maybe get some out state buck pictures, even if it is less than helpful come hunting time.

I’d say go for it. The only thing I really do in the summer time is open scrapes up more. Not your average scrape, but a well worn beat down scrape near or in cover with multiple trails coming and going. Paw the ground with a stick, take a leak in it, little buck fever forehead spritz on the licking branch and hang a cam somewhere high and hidden.

 

[bigmike23]

I don't bother anymore

Most of the bucks are long gone and moved back into their fall range before season.

And being in the woods sucks. I have no tolerance for mosquitoes, snakes, spiders, tripping over logs hidden in ferns, spiders, heat, sweat, and all other sorts of nonsense I don't have time for. Did I mention spiders?

 

[greg728]

You and me both man. I hear people talk about summer scouting like it’s the missing link or something but I don’t really see how it translates. If you have an early opener then I get that but what they do in July means nothing to me in October. I’m always open to being wrong though.

 

[woodsdog2]

I don’t know. Deer in general and bigger bucks especially like to be homebodies. I’ve looked at many of the studies and deer research, but at the end of the day, if that buck is feeling safe he’ll be within an area he feels most comfortable in. I say all scouting adds to your data set in your mind to help you make educated decisions. But I totally agree, late winter scouting or early spring scouting is the most productive and enjoyable for me personally.

 

[bigmike23]

You and me both man. I hear people talk about summer scouting like it’s the missing link or something but I don’t really see how it translates. If you have an early opener then I get that but what they do in July means nothing to me in October. I’m always open to being wrong though.

I certainly can only speak for myself and the habitat I hunt.

I do not hunt ag or farm country. Never have and likely never will. But have friends and co-workers who do. I hunt big woods/low density timber.

I have heard stories from them on the ag, that some bucks will stick around. They have the food to stick around, and if not pressured may have no reason to relocate.

That isn't remote reality for me. The 5.5 year old buck I killed last season was over 3 miles away during the summer where my cousin managed to get him on cam. MOST of the time, when I put my cams out mid to late September I will get nothing decent on cam for close to two weeks to a month. Then like clockwork I'll start seeing nice bucks start showing up mid October. Right as they shift into their fall range.

Every habitat you hunt will produce wildly different results.

Another thing is I have never EVER had success the first 25 days or so of October on shooting let alone seeing a mature buck. It's never happened in hundreds of sits. They simply do not move enough in daylight to give me any opportunity. Hence why I don't bother hunting most of Oct anymore.

The same cannot be said for people I know who hunt ag. They can slip in to a nice unpressured food plot on a cool October evening and get it done.

 

[DroptineKrazy]

Summer scouting for me is running a bunch of cell cams to find multiple shooter bucks. Deer hunting in general is an odds game and if I can find several shooter bucks in the summer, at least I can concentrate on those particular areas. My opener is September 12th this year, so I'm better positioned than most to take advantage of early season scouting. I concentrate my efforts on white oaks in acorn years and water in general in the early season.

 

[BTaylor]

Every habitat you hunt will produce wildly different results.

And this is the answer. For the most part, our persimmons and honey locust drop early season and I would rather go scout them in august rather than right before or as season opens. I want to know well ahead of time where the trees are that are going to have a crop of fruit so I am not burning a ton of time to find a good spot to hang. I can just go spot to spot quickly to verify if a particular tree is hot and hunt when I get to it. I have already picked trees to climb. at least that is they way I have tried to do it in the places I have historically hunted. Changing that up this year though. Gonna post a challenge in a different thread to see who is game.