2023 Scouting Report

[Blade2016]

2 miles into some area today that I think is heavily over looked. It’s a huge parcel near a hiking trail but not too far from a popular spot to shoot guns. Lots of good sign.

On another note, we found the first tick on my youngest daughter today. Does that permethrin stuff really work? I don’t mind picking ticks off too much but my girls will quickly sour on hiking and scouting if it keeps up. Going to be a brutal year for ticks

I started using permethrin during turkey season a couple years ago. 100% works. Highly recommend

Big fan of it, used it for the first time this pass turkey season and it worked great!

[Dpoole90]

Got out for a few hrs after church, found some good bedding. Lots of does in this area so should be good around rut, found 2 buck bedding points that are monitoring the does. Should be a exciting place come end of Oct and throughout Nov.

[mpernest]

Checked out an old logging road I’d marked for investigation late last summer right before archery season.

Plenty of signs that deer have been in there, though no clear buck sign. There were a couple of historic runs, but otherwise nothing obvious.

The trail - such as it was - will clearly be underwater as soon as the rainy season starts here in Florida. I’m going back to Cal Topo to try and figure out where I might want to look once things get wet.

All-in-all I feel like I am getting generally better at knowing where I should be scouting. Just slowly piecing together a body of data and learning to interpret what I find.

[MOtgrinMI]

So I’m breaking down a new to me public area that is around 10,000 acres total but they are really just smaller blocks scattered over a wider geographical area. I like the looks of the area as there are lots of books and crannies and some pieces are pretty tough to access because there is no parking area immediately by them (i.e., you might have to walk down the road for a piece before you can get into the area.

I’ve only got about 300 acres of it scouted so far but it’s been rough to find anything exciting other than historical sign that a good one worked his way through there a year or two ago. There are a few rubs that looked to be maybe 2.5 or 3.5 yo’s that were made early season. Almost no mid-late season sign. Very few scrapes. Some good doe tracks but I haven’t come across a single good buck track (not too strange because there’s lots of folks using feeders or that have good winter food sources on private just off these areas). It was also a super weak acorn crop in this area last year and these parcels are all marsh and timber so might be why the sign seems so absent. Also thinking that not many bucks survive here, meaning less big sign is and less overall sign due to lack of competition in general.

Not crossing it all off yet but not jumping for joy at my finds on this piece yet. Crazy to say but 300 acres and not one spot I’d be super excited to sit. Marked some trees stand spots and historical sign anyway so when I go in to check again at some point in hunting season I won’t be wondering where to set up should should no doubt hot sign appear.

Had I walked a similar public piece where I used to live in Michigan I would have already marked at least 30 stands left up but so far on this piece I’ve only marked 2!!! How the heck is there not more sign here?!? Strange.

Lots of folks say this area gets pounded and is not worth it but I just look at that as a challenge to find em. I gotta believe they are there somewhere considering the lack of other hunter stands and sign (unless the folks that use it in this state are really good at removing their stands or dnr is good at removing them) In this case the rumors of impending doom for this area might be true lol!!!

What do you all think might be going on here with regards to lack of sign both hunter and buck sign, and how much more scouting would you guys do on a piece like this before you just write the place off? Definitely going to break out the kayak to get to some of the hardest to reach areas before I throw in the towel on this area. It just takes finding one overlooked or hard to reach spot to hit paydirt!

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Spent three days out of state scouting.

Left shaking my head. The amount of garbage people throw in the woods left me sick.

Started with the intent of picking some up. Then quickly realized that's would be impossible to carry it all around.

[Jake Z WI]

Yup doesnt take long to end up driving around with a pickup truck full of trash. This deer season i carried out a grocery bag full of 16 empty glass mini titos bottles neatly put back in the case they came in. Which was hung in a tree 10 yards into brush off a trail. Like why is that a thing and who was able to crush 16 shots of titos in the woods and walk out during deer season... thats just my weirdest thing this year, generally love picking up used handwarmers, candy wrappers, the standard issue pack of swisher sweets, soda cans, etc. Its 0% harder to take it back out with you if you carried it in that far...

[Brokenarrow1980]

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Went scouting my new piece of property today, there are other people hunting it and they cut down the woods around their sets. Deer are filling in the voids. I found this primary scrape near food and bedding, I'm only going to have one maybe two hunts till the jig is up so I'm saving that for the first southerly wind at the tail of October.

[Danny boy]

We had some heavy snow cover the last couple weeks, and now it’s melting fast. I cruised some roads and seen a lot of deer coming out feed. They are all healthy looking , and numbers seemed good. I seen a couple big bodies, and that makes me happy. I think I’ll take 1 more scouting opportunity while turkey hunting , and just go over the game plan so it’s fresh in my head and I’m ready.

[Trav]

Got in around 8 miles over the winter. Snow is finally starting to subside. Found a few spots that look promising. One spot I seen shooter walking in season wouldn't you know it a Balloon on the ground. I am still searching for primary scrape areas. Found quite a few beds and left some cams on exit trails. Several chest high rubs so I know they're around.

[nsmith253]

5 mile day yesterday, I'm at about 25 miles boots on the ground for this spring. About 50/50 old and new public. Behind where I'd like to be, but the snow hanging around has made it tough. Gonna have to really cover some ground before turkey season starts. Focusing further away from home this year on more diverse, mixed vegetation swamps that don't have the blatant features or visible trails on the aerials, where you have to get in there to figure them out.

Less hunter sign which was the idea but also having a harder time finding buck bedding. Seems like all the sign is more spread out than the predictable pinpoint kind of beds and concentrated rubs you see in cattail marshes in the SE part of the state. Interesting given these are higher deer density areas at least on paper than what I've hunted in the past. More deer but also more high ground in the cover to bed on I guess?

[Usi05]

I have been getting miles in every weekend. Taking daughters usually and have been tick free after taking some advice from y’all.

Actually spotted a buck with antlers last week which surprised me.

Have marked about 8 beds. Spent a bunch of time in hill country to understand bedding better and feel like I’m getting it down.

[nsmith253]

Headed up to the North Central part of Wisconsin for a big scouting weekend and will be going back next weekend as well. May have to deal with some snow this weekend but will make the most of it. Highs in the 70s next week (!?) should melt everything. The more I poke around along the central farmland / big woods border the more I'm liking it.

[Jackson Marsh]

Headed up to the North Central part of Wisconsin for a big scouting weekend and will be going back next weekend as well. May have to deal with some snow this weekend but will make the most of it. Highs in the 70s next week (!?) should melt everything. The more I poke around along the central farmland / big woods border the more I'm liking it.

Sounds like fun. Good luck.

[ihookem]

There is still 30" on the ground in Prentice WIs. I have a cabin on the west side of Price co. and I doubt I will be there for 3 more weeks.

[Groundhunter@1]

Times have changed for me ...all scouting is good, but 30 years ago, spring scouting was very helpful. But now with the pressure, cameras etc I find that in season scouting produces the best results.

Of course I have private to hunt tried and true, not much changes. However I like to hunt new areas on public as much as I can. I am not looking for the big one as much anymore, just more solitude.

I will scout 3 days for every 1 day I hunt. But that one day usually yields some action.