Day of Hunt Scouting Question

[rs2893]

When you go into an area with the game plan to locate and setup on fresh sign:

If you locate a deer trail you want to follow, do you avoid stepping on the trail?

What other tips/advice/rules of thumb should one utilize to avoid busting up the area while scouting for a day of hunt?

[Grizzlyadam]

Most of the time I'm forced to walk on deer trails because it's too thick off the sides of them. I don't worry about it, I probably will not be going back there again any time soon. The biggest thing is to access the place you intend to hunt without walking where you believe the deer will be approaching or passing through while you're sitting there.

[Chooch2.0]

What other tips/advice/rules of thumb should one utilize to avoid busting up the area while scouting for a day of hunt?

When & where it IS possible, I’ll always try to keep my boots in water. No surprise to anyone I’m sure, but my hunting/scouting success drastically increased once I incorporated close-vicinity-to-water into everything. A target buck last year slipped under me at 8 yards, about 5 minutes before legal (then proceeded to bust me ). He was JUST on dry ground, pond on his leeward side, big thicket on his windward side as he worked toward his bed. I have to believe if I hadn’t made the extra effort to walk THRU the pond (staying on his leeward side/keeping ground scent virtually eliminated) and rather used the dry ground, he wouldn’t have ever made it close to 8 yards. Yes he eventually busted me, but had he been 5 minutes later he would’ve never had the chance. Quite frankly the closest I’ve been yet to taking a mature buck with my bow took a lot away from that hunt.

[justdirtyfun]

This is a bow hunter rule.... Don't let your smell blow to them.
That is not always easy OR simple.

[Lockdown]

If I can avoid it, I do. Often times it’s thick and I have no choice but to walk on the trails. In that case I’m being extremely careful to avoid walking in spots that will compromise my set up.

You have to leave scent somewhere… but I always prefer that it’s directly down wind of my set. Pay very close attention to where you walked and where you didn’t. Open hardwoods isn’t AS big of a deal, but anywhere that brush or grass is touching your legs… pay close attention.

[mipubbucks24]

One thing I had to get rid of is this thought of walking on egg shells in the woods so I would not spook deer where I walk. Well that’s all bologna. When I scout through the woods on public land I am making my way to a bedding area. There is about a .000001 % chance I would kill a mature buck outside of that bedding area unless it’s the rut and even then the odds are still not very good. So why would I worry about walking on deer trails up to that point?
I scout my way in getting more stealthy as the sign picks up and we get closer to the destination area. This is what I did on both my bucks last year, one in the morning one in the afternoon. I also did this on the 2 bucks in 2020 but the second one was a multi day deal because I was hunting my parents small piece of private.

If you are just hunting for deer, you don’t want to be walking on the trail you are going to set up over. But mostly likely in that situation you are not going to see a mature buck. I hunted public land from 2011 till 2015 without hardly seeing a deer, let alone a mature buck. It’s because I was hunting these really good looking convergence areas that were all on dry land and even the does know not to walk there in daylight. In all those years did it matter if I walked on a deer trial? NO because I was not in the game. Deer are used to human scent in the woods especially in the fall. Yes they can freak at your ground scent but mostly what I have seen is they freak when they actually catch your scent.

Now I am not saying don’t have a plan of access, always have a plan of access. Also I am not speaking on hill ground as I have never hunted that stuff. I’m talking marsh/swamp public ground with small elevations changes but nothing extreme.