2018 Scouting Reports

[Jonny]

Wouldn’t be a jonny scouting trip without finding an illegal stand.

Bunch of small trees sawed 3’ off the ground and a tree with bolts to hang steps

[Net Guy]

At least you're finding out where NOT to go.

[Jonny]

At least you're finding out where NOT to go.

Found another tree all trimmed up for a climber.

And yeah this spot is hard to get to, but it did look pretty obvious on a map. So I guess I’m not really surprised to find people back here

[<DK>]

went and used the tactics I just learned from swamp bedding DVD boy is it a game changer . Narrowed down a huge swamp dogwood red brush and cattails to 2 points found allot of beds and what I think looks like a good buck. None of the beds had rubs in them but they were big and lone beds. Pretty easy access I'm really excited about this spot trails were insane

Very impressive sir! Stealing that track pic for wallpaper

[ihookem]

I had a good scout today.I walked in a mile and found my 1st shed of the year, it was 4 points form a 1 1/2 yr old deer from last spring. I found a few more buck beds too. It was a long walk in at 1 .5 miles. Nothing for some of you animals but for me it is a hike. I found a tree I want to sit in. The problem is there are so darn many trails coming out of that marsh that every tree I sit in has a trail right under it. I have scouted 34.8 miles so far and have not seen a deer, except a dead nubby with a deformed hoof. Oh ya , I also found a dead opossum today and found myself waist high in muck . The phone is fine and so is my $1,300 camera . I checked my Ruger lc9 out and water poured out of the barrel . Already cleaned up so no harm done.

[Lockdown]

Good Lord!! Those aren’t fawn tracks to the right of my hand.

[<DK>]

Day 1 of the season is always a tough one... but it gets the heart going good. I gotta get moving though. Short on time and too many new spots to checkout

[Wannabelikedan]

Got out for a quick trip to an overlooked spot and follow up on an area I threw a couple sits at this past season. This is a slew with fairly good marshy grass and tons of giant ragweed. Lots of early season and rut rubs. Should be best early season when all the majority of vegetation is standing. Pin pointing beds is kind of a crap shoot since it all lays over when it dies.


Kind of an island inside a plum thicket. Not a lot of deer sign in this spot but these thickets house bobcats and coyotes at times. Very defined trails going in and out of thickets that deer can’t get into. Still going to try a sit here early season.

Found this interesting rub up in a cedar tree between plum thickets. Buck was literally rubbing blind. Not to mention I’m 6’3” and these were up around my chest.


I kicked a shed buck out of this bed. I literally walked all around this dude before he abandoned ship. Crazy enough I even found a handful of hairs but still far from worn to the dirt. You could see that does clearly use this bedding too but this one spot was prime for a buck. Bed is up and right of center.


Satellite bed about 10 yards away. Bed is center frame.

Another satellite/doe bed.

I couldn’t help but snap a pic of this boar bed. Looks like an awesome buck bed from the pic but 2 things say otherwise. The ground is turned up from rooting and there is no way a buck with any headgear can blow out of this spot. Only a hog can barrel through that tangled mess.

[yungbuck]

put on 5 miles the other day- walked past 3 bedded deer at 25 yds they never moved just stared at me while I pretended to not stare at them
found a nice buck bed on a hard to access ridge! going to hit the area a few more times to really pick out hunter access and deer exit trails and to see if I have missed anything since I havent hunted this ridge system- great start

[Wannabelikedan]

Turned out a little over 6 miles today. Wanted to check an area I saw a big boy twice in November. Kicked him up with a doe once and had him cruise through one evening a week later. I placed a cam that week hoping to get a better glimpse. Plan was to find as much of his sign as I could to zero in on some beds. This stretch of river bottom has very low deer numbers so it took a lot of digging just to find his sign. Never found any for sure beds but I know more now than I did. Gonna hit the cams in July and see if I can pin point him a little better.
Only pic I got out of this crappy cam. Batteries died after only a month.

Think there is some early season bedding in this area. A lot of good rubs and it’s a lot denser vegetation during that time.

Marked all the piles of poop and big rubs that had his name on them. Very evident what’s his.




Oh any I found some of jonny’s stands at the end of my walk

[Dewey]

Interesting rub I found yesterday. It’s not impressive size wise but the height of it at the center was eye level.

[JAK]

I know this wasn't really boots on the ground scouting. But I've had a small parcels I found about 1 hour from home. Low and behold were working a shut down 3 miles from this parcel . So I talked the boss into taking a drive for lunch gave it the once over from the truck looks good enough I'm going back first time I got paid to scout. Looks like it could be really over looked and allot of ag around it.

[Rob loper]

I cuber scouted all day and tomorrow is boot time baby

[Net Guy]

I know this wasn't really boots on the ground scouting. But I've had a small parcels I found about 1 hour from home. Low and behold were working a shut down 3 miles from this parcel . So I talked the boss into taking a drive for lunch gave it the once over from the truck looks good enough I'm going back first time I got paid to scout. Looks like it could be really over looked and allot of ag around it.

That’s awesome. I could get used to that!

[hunter_mike]

Got out scouting for the first 45 min of daylight this morning. I had gotten a bunch of buck pictures over a scrape that i found in october. I started walking the suspected bedding right at first light and found what i was looking for. Big rubs right in the bedding. This would agree with what dan says about bucks competing for bedding because i got pics of lots of different bucks here. Had enough time to pick a few potential kill trees. Looking forward to giving the spot a try.