In-Season Scouting Without Bumping Bucks

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comeback_kid
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Re: In-Season Scouting Without Bumping Bucks

Unread postby comeback_kid » Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:43 pm

Trout wrote:Last year I just scouted in-season like it was spring and disregarded spooking deer with the intent of using the intel I gathered for this year. I usually had a specific stand area in mind, but when I came across really hot sign, I hunted it. Spring scouting is great, but what I learned from increasing my in-season scouting was way better, certain areas had more sign at different parts of the season that would be tough or impossible to see when you saw it in the spring. This year I have a better idea exactly where I'm going but still plan to make adjustments as needed.


I’m curious as to what were the results were 1. hunting on the fresh sign and
2. What areas had more sign at different parts of the season.

You are for sure right about post-season scouting showing us all the sign at once.


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Re: In-Season Scouting Without Bumping Bucks

Unread postby Trout » Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:36 pm

comeback_kid wrote:
Trout wrote:Last year I just scouted in-season like it was spring and disregarded spooking deer with the intent of using the intel I gathered for this year. I usually had a specific stand area in mind, but when I came across really hot sign, I hunted it. Spring scouting is great, but what I learned from increasing my in-season scouting was way better, certain areas had more sign at different parts of the season that would be tough or impossible to see when you saw it in the spring. This year I have a better idea exactly where I'm going but still plan to make adjustments as needed.


I’m curious as to what were the results were 1. hunting on the fresh sign and
2. What areas had more sign at different parts of the season.

You are for sure right about post-season scouting showing us all the sign at once.


I'm almost reluctant to answer 1 as I am far from the guy who kills a buck every year, let alone a monster, but I was on deer like never before. I think the best example was my trip to Ohio. Never even set foot in the area, spent the first day of the trip scouting places that looked good on topo or google earth and saw 6 bucks over the next 5 days that were P&Y or bigger. All first sits where I couldn't help but stop and find a suitable tree to hunt out as soon as possible because I saw some kind of hot sign. Sometimes it was just an increase in rubs or scrapes in the area. But what Inwas really looking for was general deer sign like a well used runway or a bunch of fresh tracks in the area thinking that a bunch of does around would bring bucks. The two best spots had both a heavy amount of doe traffic and rubs/scrapes. For what it's worth I ate tag soup in ohio last year, so dont read the above and think I had it all figured out.

Back home in Michigan, I'd guess that of the 20 or so days I got out to hunt, 10 of them I didnt even hunt because I never saw what gave me that gut feeling to stop and get up a tree. I just walked and walked till dark and headed back to the car. Cool part was I didnt feel like those days were wasted at all. Learned a ton about new places and ones I've hunted for years and look forward to leaving where I left off at some of them this year. And saw more nice bucks (8 or better) while hunting than past seasons combined at home.

I'm not sure how to answer 2, there was a lot of stuff that seemed spot specific but maybe I just haven't put the pieces together yet. For example, I found an abandoned apple orchard in the middle of some public land. Probably 30 apple trees total spread or in the woods covering about 80 acres. Deer were all over it in mid october, and in the surrounding woods. But once those apples were gone, even activity in the surrounding woods was over. In another spot, hill country with scattered oaks, there was almost no active sign until late october, even though the oaks were dropping since late-september. But there are some huge agricultural fields nearby and that's where the bulk of deer activity was in that area. When that was done they were almost exclusively on acorns. I guess thinking out loud, the food sources really had the biggest impact on where the most bulk of deer movement was.

I would also say that ignoring summer sign helped me a lot last year. In the past, it's been hard to pass it up.
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Re: In-Season Scouting Without Bumping Bucks

Unread postby comeback_kid » Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:43 pm

Trout wrote:
comeback_kid wrote:
Trout wrote:Last year I just scouted in-season like it was spring and disregarded spooking deer with the intent of using the intel I gathered for this year. I usually had a specific stand area in mind, but when I came across really hot sign, I hunted it. Spring scouting is great, but what I learned from increasing my in-season scouting was way better, certain areas had more sign at different parts of the season that would be tough or impossible to see when you saw it in the spring. This year I have a better idea exactly where I'm going but still plan to make adjustments as needed.


I’m curious as to what were the results were 1. hunting on the fresh sign and
2. What areas had more sign at different parts of the season.

You are for sure right about post-season scouting showing us all the sign at once.


I'm almost reluctant to answer 1 as I am far from the guy who kills a buck every year, let alone a monster, but I was on deer like never before. I think the best example was my trip to Ohio. Never even set foot in the area, spent the first day of the trip scouting places that looked good on topo or google earth and saw 6 bucks over the next 5 days that were P&Y or bigger. All first sits where I couldn't help but stop and find a suitable tree to hunt out as soon as possible because I saw some kind of hot sign. Sometimes it was just an increase in rubs or scrapes in the area. But what Inwas really looking for was general deer sign like a well used runway or a bunch of fresh tracks in the area thinking that a bunch of does around would bring bucks. The two best spots had both a heavy amount of doe traffic and rubs/scrapes. For what it's worth I ate tag soup in ohio last year, so dont read the above and think I had it all figured out.

Back home in Michigan, I'd guess that of the 20 or so days I got out to hunt, 10 of them I didnt even hunt because I never saw what gave me that gut feeling to stop and get up a tree. I just walked and walked till dark and headed back to the car. Cool part was I didnt feel like those days were wasted at all. Learned a ton about new places and ones I've hunted for years and look forward to leaving where I left off at some of them this year. And saw more nice bucks (8 or better) while hunting than past seasons combined at home.

I'm not sure how to answer 2, there was a lot of stuff that seemed spot specific but maybe I just haven't put the pieces together yet. For example, I found an abandoned apple orchard in the middle of some public land. Probably 30 apple trees total spread or in the woods covering about 80 acres. Deer were all over it in mid october, and in the surrounding woods. But once those apples were gone, even activity in the surrounding woods was over. In another spot, hill country with scattered oaks, there was almost no active sign until late october, even though the oaks were dropping since late-september. But there are some huge agricultural fields nearby and that's where the bulk of deer activity was in that area. When that was done they were almost exclusively on acorns. I guess thinking out loud, the food sources really had the biggest impact on where the most bulk of deer movement was.

I would also say that ignoring summer sign helped me a lot last year. In the past, it's been hard to pass it up.


Certainly sounds like that Ohio trip was a success especially since you never scouted it before hunting it. Do you think you got on all those bucks b/c of the time of year(was it rut)? And what type of terrain was it in comparison to what you normally hunt?

Coming from a high pressure state like Pennsylvania, where I might not even see one P&Y buck on the hoof in a season... sounds like you were into lots of really good deer—really quickly.
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Re: In-Season Scouting Without Bumping Bucks

Unread postby Trout » Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:51 pm

comeback_kid wrote:
Trout wrote:
comeback_kid wrote:
Trout wrote:Last year I just scouted in-season like it was spring and disregarded spooking deer with the intent of using the intel I gathered for this year. I usually had a specific stand area in mind, but when I came across really hot sign, I hunted it. Spring scouting is great, but what I learned from increasing my in-season scouting was way better, certain areas had more sign at different parts of the season that would be tough or impossible to see when you saw it in the spring. This year I have a better idea exactly where I'm going but still plan to make adjustments as needed.


I’m curious as to what were the results were 1. hunting on the fresh sign and
2. What areas had more sign at different parts of the season.

You are for sure right about post-season scouting showing us all the sign at once.


I'm almost reluctant to answer 1 as I am far from the guy who kills a buck every year, let alone a monster, but I was on deer like never before. I think the best example was my trip to Ohio. Never even set foot in the area, spent the first day of the trip scouting places that looked good on topo or google earth and saw 6 bucks over the next 5 days that were P&Y or bigger. All first sits where I couldn't help but stop and find a suitable tree to hunt out as soon as possible because I saw some kind of hot sign. Sometimes it was just an increase in rubs or scrapes in the area. But what Inwas really looking for was general deer sign like a well used runway or a bunch of fresh tracks in the area thinking that a bunch of does around would bring bucks. The two best spots had both a heavy amount of doe traffic and rubs/scrapes. For what it's worth I ate tag soup in ohio last year, so dont read the above and think I had it all figured out.

Back home in Michigan, I'd guess that of the 20 or so days I got out to hunt, 10 of them I didnt even hunt because I never saw what gave me that gut feeling to stop and get up a tree. I just walked and walked till dark and headed back to the car. Cool part was I didnt feel like those days were wasted at all. Learned a ton about new places and ones I've hunted for years and look forward to leaving where I left off at some of them this year. And saw more nice bucks (8 or better) while hunting than past seasons combined at home.

I'm not sure how to answer 2, there was a lot of stuff that seemed spot specific but maybe I just haven't put the pieces together yet. For example, I found an abandoned apple orchard in the middle of some public land. Probably 30 apple trees total spread or in the woods covering about 80 acres. Deer were all over it in mid october, and in the surrounding woods. But once those apples were gone, even activity in the surrounding woods was over. In another spot, hill country with scattered oaks, there was almost no active sign until late october, even though the oaks were dropping since late-september. But there are some huge agricultural fields nearby and that's where the bulk of deer activity was in that area. When that was done they were almost exclusively on acorns. I guess thinking out loud, the food sources really had the biggest impact on where the most bulk of deer movement was.

I would also say that ignoring summer sign helped me a lot last year. In the past, it's been hard to pass it up.


Certainly sounds like that Ohio trip was a success especially since you never scouted it before hunting it. Do you think you got on all those bucks b/c of the time of year(was it rut)? And what type of terrain was it in comparison to what you normally hunt?

Coming from a high pressure state like Pennsylvania, where I might not even see one P&Y buck on the hoof in a season... sounds like you were into lots of really good deer—really quickly.


From what I saw, deer were definitely in the seeking phase. I kinda felt like I was lucky. Never experienced public land hunting like that before and I attribute that luck to stuff I learned from this forum and Dan's hill Country dvd. We will see if it was beginners luck or not, I'm going back around the same time this year. I'm actually down in OH right now for a week scouting and setting trail cams.


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