In-season scouting

[tgreeno]

I know in-season scouting is a huge factor in Dan's & many beast's success. IMO...many of my areas won't really let me "scout" them without intruding & leaving my scent. Alot of my good spot don't have adjacent crop fields to check for tracks. And the trails I could check are too far away from the bedding to give me good intel. I want to in-season scout more, but I just feel like in many situations I'm doing more harm than good. This season I really want to focus on it!

What am I missing? Any insights would be appreciated!

[magicman54494]

I just do it. mid day is best so your scent can fade by dark. I dont know of anywhere where deer dont smell people. they are used to it. just be smart about it. dont go plowing into bedding areas and avoid letting your scent blow inti bedding areas if you can. be prepared to hang and hunt if you find good sign then it dont matter if you leave scent because if you are right he will be dead before he knows you were there.
where I hunt bucks often walk right in my boot tracks that same evening/ night. they seem to know the scent is older and there is no danger.

[hunter_mike]

Another spot to walk that i think of when i in-season scout is all the areas where all the other hunters are hunting or basically any area that you aren't intending to hunt. Thats where i find a lot of the scrapes and rubs that are mainly made at night. This stuff is usually far enough from bedding that im not going to booger any bucks but often its location will indicate to me that one or two bedding areas are where the buck who is working the scrape is hanging out.

I really do this in season: i draw an imaginary 150 yd circle around all the beds in the area and that leaves me with plenty of space to walk and find nighttime sign that can help me zero in on certain bedding areas that are way hotter than others. I do this myself and it sounds dumb because we always preach to go where others dont go but if you think about it, it makes sense and i honestly think it helps me. And im not really adding pressure by walking where other people walk. There is buck sign all over these areas in many instances. Even when there is tons of hunters hunting right over top of it. Where is the one place you dont want to scout in season? A bedding area that is occupied by a big buck. You already know where the bedding is, so you want to read the land around the bedding to try and read which bedding is hot. Thats my take on in season scouting.

[Rob loper]

What a great thread. Keep going guys

[JRM KY]

Most of my in season scouting is done midday with my gear on me ready to hunt and I hunt it then. If I dont find what I'm looking for or the rubs I found in spring aren't opened up I move on. That's why it's such a must to have multiple locations ahead of time.

[jporcello]

i asked Dan about this in another thread about a month or two ago. i hunt marsh and swamp and after scouting post season finding all the buck beds i was scouting in season but my travel while scouting was letting them know i was coming from 200-300yds away. Dan said basically scout going into the bedding areas as if your going to hunt and if the buck isnt opening new rubs he isnt there, but if you find that new hot sign going towards where you know bucks bed set up. not his words exactly but thats how i took it.

[tgreeno]

I plan on doing much more mid-day scouting this season. I think that has been my biggest shortcoming the last couple seasons. I feel like I was always hunting behind the sign. I have a bunch of spots I never even hunted or scouted last season, that I need to get intel on this year. I'm of the mindset this season, I'd rather error being too aggressive, than not being aggressive enough.

Keep the discussion going!

[Dewey]

I would say that probably 75% of my buck kills were due to in-season scouting. Spring scouting is only a very small part of the puzzle. Every single hunt I am scouting while walking in and sometimes even after closing on my way out as well. Things change daily and you have to really pay attention to the details. I’m constantly fine tuning spots based on hot sign throughout the season. If you don’t stay on top of that stuff your not even in the game most of the time. It’s rare that I end up in the tree I originally plan on going to. Fresh sign always dictates where I set up. Scouting never ends.

[Swampbuck]

There were a couple seasons that I was extremely cautious about intruding into suspected buck core areas out of fear of busting them. I did poorly off those decisions so now I am aggressive and will scout unless I know I am on him. Most my kills are due to in season scouting. And some were the next season but from intel gained during the season. I think being cautious can work in some areas but it's very low deer density where i hunt so 9 times out of 10 the area is not the right spot and unless i scout it I wont know so hunting it is a waste of time. I'd rather go for it and blow him out and hope he comes back than sit on areas that are out of the game

[Brandonkinchen]

I just do it. mid day is best so your scent can fade by dark. I dont know of anywhere where deer dont smell people. they are used to it. just be smart about it. dont go plowing into bedding areas and avoid letting your scent blow inti bedding areas if you can. be prepared to hang and hunt if you find good sign then it dont matter if you leave scent because if you are right he will be dead before he knows you were there.
where I hunt bucks often walk right in my boot tracks that same evening/ night. they seem to know the scent is older and there is no danger.

Just do it... Best advice ever!

[Ack]

I tend to walk the areas where bucks are likely to make the nighttime sign, and then figure out where they are most likely coming from.

Rainy days work great for this as I probably won't be hunting those afternoons anyway.

And you really have to bump a buck hard for him to not come back to the area.....just stay back from the actual bedding and get the intel you need.

[tgreeno]

I just do it. mid day is best so your scent can fade by dark. I dont know of anywhere where deer dont smell people. they are used to it. just be smart about it. dont go plowing into bedding areas and avoid letting your scent blow inti bedding areas if you can. be prepared to hang and hunt if you find good sign then it dont matter if you leave scent because if you are right he will be dead before he knows you were there.
where I hunt bucks often walk right in my boot tracks that same evening/ night. they seem to know the scent is older and there is no danger.

I would say that probably 75% of my buck kills were due to in-season scouting. Spring scouting is only a very small part of the puzzle. Every single hunt I am scouting while walking in and sometimes even after closing on my way out as well. Things change daily and you have to really pay attention to the details. I’m constantly fine tuning spots based on hot sign throughout the season. If you don’t stay on top of that stuff your not even in the game most of the time. It’s rare that I end up in the tree I originally plan on going to. Fresh sign always dictates where I set up. Scouting never ends.

There were a couple seasons that I was extremely cautious about intruding into suspected buck core areas out of fear of busting them. I did poorly off those decisions so now I am aggressive and will scout unless I know I am on him. Most my kills are due to in season scouting. And some were the next season but from intel gained during the season. I think being cautious can work in some areas but it's very low deer density where i hunt so 9 times out of 10 the area is not the right spot and unless i scout it I wont know so hunting it is a waste of time. I'd rather go for it and blow him out and hope he comes back than sit on areas that are out of the game

This is exactly why I started this thread. And most likely why I haven't had much success the last couple beast seasons. I haven't done near as much in-season scouting as I should be doing! I try to be observant as I can, but usually don't have a bunch of time (especially during the week) to scout prior to hunting. So I end up just taking my "best guess", based on spring scouting, and hunt it. A big lightbulb for me..."not in the game" as Dewey said! Things are gonna change this season!!!

[JRM KY]

I am sure that stories aren't what you were looking for in this post but I will give you a little example of one of my most memorable in season scouting moments. On a piece of public in knew from previous year and spring scouting a nice buck was using the area. Towards the end of October I went in on an evening sit and the sign wasn't there. It was like a ghost town with the exception of a little feed sign in the oaks. So I wrote it off and did not even hunt that spot that particular evening. The next day a good buddy of mine had his grandson in the area squirrel hunting and walked right up on a big bedded buck on the next point over. Of course he bolted and ran off but that little intel let me know he was there now anyway. The next day I was gonna go look on that point but before I did I thought I might should take a look at the area I scouted 2 days prior. When I got there it looked like a war zone. All the rubs were freshened and several scrapes were opened up. I hung my set and killed him that day. I know that's hard to believe but in that 48hr time period that Buck moved to that area and done all that. This really opened my eyes as to how important it is to stay mobile and how quick an area can change. When that sign is found i cant express how important it is to hunt it right then because just as quick as that sign is made it can end in the same amount of time. That's been about 10 years ago but still fresh on my mind every time i think a buck has been killed or isn't in the area.

[backstrap19]

I am sure that stories aren't what you were looking for in this post but I will give you a little example of one of my most memorable in season scouting moments. On a piece of public in knew from previous year and spring scouting a nice buck was using the area. Towards the end of October I went in on an evening sit and the sign wasn't there. It was like a ghost town with the exception of a little feed sign in the oaks. So I wrote it off and did not even hunt that spot that particular evening. The next day a good buddy of mine had his grandson in the area squirrel hunting and walked right up on a big bedded buck on the next point over. Of course he bolted and ran off but that little intel let me know he was there now anyway. The next day I was gonna go look on that point but before I did I thought I might should take a look at the area I scouted 2 days prior. When I got there it looked like a war zone. All the rubs were freshened and several scrapes were opened up. I hung my set and killed him that day. I know that's hard to believe but in that 48hr time period that Buck moved to that area and done all that. This really opened my eyes as to how important it is to stay mobile and how quick an area can change. When that sign is found i cant express how important it is to hunt it right then because just as quick as that sign is made it can end in the same amount of time. That's been about 10 years ago but still fresh on my mind every time i think a buck has been killed or isn't in the area.

great story! way to be thorough and patient. i think your lesson can help everyone. sometimes a great spot needs time to become great. some of my better spots are horrible spots in the first week of october, but come halloween, they are fantastic! thanks for sharing that.

[NYBackcountry]

I am sure that stories aren't what you were looking for in this post but I will give you a little example of one of my most memorable in season scouting moments. On a piece of public in knew from previous year and spring scouting a nice buck was using the area. Towards the end of October I went in on an evening sit and the sign wasn't there. It was like a ghost town with the exception of a little feed sign in the oaks. So I wrote it off and did not even hunt that spot that particular evening. The next day a good buddy of mine had his grandson in the area squirrel hunting and walked right up on a big bedded buck on the next point over. Of course he bolted and ran off but that little intel let me know he was there now anyway. The next day I was gonna go look on that point but before I did I thought I might should take a look at the area I scouted 2 days prior. When I got there it looked like a war zone. All the rubs were freshened and several scrapes were opened up. I hung my set and killed him that day. I know that's hard to believe but in that 48hr time period that Buck moved to that area and done all that. This really opened my eyes as to how important it is to stay mobile and how quick an area can change. When that sign is found i cant express how important it is to hunt it right then because just as quick as that sign is made it can end in the same amount of time. That's been about 10 years ago but still fresh on my mind every time i think a buck has been killed or isn't in the area.

great story! way to be thorough and patient. i think your lesson can help everyone. sometimes a great spot needs time to become great. some of my better spots are horrible spots in the first week of october, but come halloween, they are fantastic! thanks for sharing that.

That's a good point to build on. It's important to understand when your spots are viable. For example, I have an early season bedding area off the back side of some private fields, the bedding is on public. In Sept. and Oct. it's crazy thick in there, as soon as the leaves start dropping and we get first snow the cover compacts and the area is wide open. This particular spot is probably 10 acres but doesnt see any activity in November. I think this applies in many different ways, some spots are great after rifle opener, some are great early season, some cannot be accessed when the water table is high, etc. Something to think about before the opener.