Is there anything to be gained summer scouting?

[Bushman]

I'm talking big woods now, not out in the fields where some of our farm deer stand around like a Holstein.

[DaveHawk]

If you talking a new area then yes, if you are just looking for a big buck in an old area you have hunted for years just put a camera out. I'm not much for disturbing my hunting areas that I hunt year after year. But new areas I like to get in early and scout out trails , crossings, exc. So I have a good idea of where to place a stand to observe from a distance to see where the deer are coming from and going too. This will allow me to chose a stand site that will allow me to get close 25 yards or so to bow range.

[dave-t.]

I'm not a fan of feet on the ground scouting in the summer, but yeah, you can find funnels and travel corridors that are hardfast any time of year and direct deer movement.

Sheer bluffs, steep hills, windbreaks, water ponds, water barriers like big lakes and rivers, fence crossings, etc.

You can also find fall food hotspots this time of year if you know what food the deer are on when your season is open.

Of course, now is a great time for getting stands up in place at some of these hotspots.

You could also drop a tree or two to make a nice funnel even tighter.

[GF.]

You could also drop a tree or two to make a nice funnel even tighter.

Where legal, anyway.....:rolleyes:

Personally, I think that's cheating, since I'm opposed to manipulating the habitat...:D

I guess it just depends on how much foot traffic an area normally gets. Go around poking into security areas where humans don't normally go, and you can probably screw things up good. Travel areas, though, tend to be good travel routes for 2 leggers or 4 leggers and you probably won't scare 'em off too much.

I've noticed that the open & obvious travel lanes usually have a thick, choked, and highly secure travel lane running parallel, so if need be, you can make straight-line excursions off of the freeway and probably locate a trail at points A, B & C, such that you can infer the rest and choose a tree that's right up close to the secure route without stinking things up too much.

[Herne]

Good teritories tend to hold good bucks all the time. So once you have clocked a good buck, chances are there'll be a decent one there until the topography is changed.

For that reason I don't like off season scouting, because mostly off season scouting turns into off season practise hunting (just to see), and that winds the deer up for no purpose.

Off season scouting for me is - take a book and a pair of binos + telescope, and sit in a point of observation. Then leave once one has the info one needs.

Of much more use is crop patterns etc, and that comes from talking to farmers.

Big woods - most deer are creatures of the edge? Best food is farmland. Pain there is you know where they'll feed - but often nocturnally, so they leave the open in the dark and arrive too late, which forces a woodland ambush. I like the rut for that sort of deer. Mind you, if you can catch them they are not difficult, because they are not expecting humans. But its not easy to get a handle on them. My plot there has usually been to note where one doesn't see ANY bucks, but which is a good territory. So you can be certain a big fellow is in residence. Then wait on the edge for a warm morning after rain. Thats been deadly, so long as the animal hasn't been pushed around by unsuccessful attempts.

Fro me, less (scouting) is much better.

[LampLighter]

For me- No. Anything past 9:30 am right now and you will get drenched standing still, and carried away my mosquitos. If I have to go rescue a stik ladder or something like that- well yes I will do that.

September and early October I make one slow pass through my best areas real slow and total camo- head net and gloves included. Binocs, and I stay well off the edge of grassy roads. I see alot of deer like that and they rarely see me. Just part of keeping tabs on current movement. Where were they coming from ? Why ? The ag fields usually. Where they going when i saw them ? They heading up in that cane thicket where Todd killed that big one in 06 :D . That is about it.

Come February though, I cover alot of real estate. I want to jump them up. I catalog any fresh rubs and scrapes. But summertime- No not me, unless it is part of a big plan, like I need to cut a hidden path through a thicket.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When I leased, I used to ask the guys to have their stands set and any work to be done around them finished by end of September. Then if they wanted to mess around with their own area they could but they were not to drive through or go around anyone elses area. Just a matter of mutual respect. They didn't always do this which is a main reason why I don't lease any more.

I seldom go out and scout an area for deer. I am out and about doing other ranch stuff though. I think the deer know what people are doing to a greater extent than we give them credit for. If they see us sneaking around they associate that with a predator hunting. I fthey come up on us doing other things (chopping brush, fixing fence, even quail hunting) they will be curious but cautious.

I think it may be another story in areas where deer are only hunted by people and have little contact with them otherwise. National forests and other public lands where limited activities take place except during hunting season probably produce deer that are much more skittish than those in farm or ranch country and therefore be more sensitive to human activity during the off season.

Alan

[ncboman]

Sunday before last was cloudy and rainy off and on. It was cool for this time of year too. I took advantage and walked some gameland tracts I'd never checked out before. Noted where what crops were planted where around the area and where I saw deer and/or tracks showing regular travel.

This past Sunday I checked out some different spots basicly from riding the paths and when it cooled I went back to the previous trip's hotspots and walked a little of the drainage (damp swamp). I picked and marked a couple of trees.

Both trips I saw deer and had deer run from me but I ain't bothered em. I was doin somethin else and they know it because I all but ignored them as I moved along on my way. When I'm scouting, or hunting for that matter, I'm lookin for hunt trees in the right spots. I don't bino the deer or pay them much attention. I believe they soon sense I'm no danger, probably why I'm seein so many. :confused:

I like being in the woods when the woods is fit to be in. I find their tracks and trails and I look back and look ahead. Obviously I'm between two things they like. What and why? :rolleyes:

[Bill Gunn]

This 4 point and doe were in my yard this afternoon. They both (4 point fawn from this year, and the doe mother) ended up 15 feet from my computer room window! There's usually 3, doe fawn isn't with them today.
The TONS of deer flies in the woods seen in back bite through socks, and tee shirts like they weren't even there. We check and set some stands at the farm we hunt at this time, then leave the deer alone. But that doesn't mean others don't walk through our hunting area. I don't hunt around my house very often.

[ncboman]

the three in the pic all appear to be bucks. :)

[Phil T]

I would say yes. My neighbor from back in our duplex living days was perhaps the best bow hunter I'll ever know. He drove a bakery delivery truck, so his hours were from 6AM to 2PM, M-F. Every evening, he drove around in his old car with a window mount spotting scope and a three-ring binder. He recorded every deer he saw, and recorded the time as time before sunset.
He hung a lot of big bucks in his garage, and his wife and jr.high age son shot some very big does.
Deer hunting was his only serious hobby, and I'd say he "hunted" year around.

[venado]

Phil T, that method of your neighbor is basically the same one I use off season. Where I hunt a truck does not cause a significant disturbance to deer, they may spook but it does not seem to have any lasting effect. The country I hunt is low brush, with senderos and is completely different than what forest guys hunt. A spotting scope on the window works great. What I have found here is that where I see bucks in the summer when they are often in batchelor groups and where they are in December in our rut is two entirely different things. What this summer/fall scouting does is tell me what targets exist (or do not exist..!) for hunting season. If an especially good buck is seen early on then he becomes the goal and lesser bucks get a free walk by for me. It isn't at all unusual for me or any of the hunters I hunt with to NEVER see that summer buck again, he becomes that "ghost buck" that we look for.:(

[southtexas]

"...NEVER see that summer buck again, he becomes that "ghost buck" that we look for."

BTDT!!:)

[Fuzzball3]

"Is there anything to be gained summer scouting?"

Not on the public lands where I hunt. First, there is far too much "summer scouting" and that changes patterns so much it's virtually meaningless. Then the surge of people in the woods the first week, banging away at God knows what just for some action, destroys any patterns that remained. But on private or remote land that isn't over run by hopeful dummies it should help a lot.

[LampLighter]

"Is there anything to be gained summer scouting?"

Not on the public lands where I hunt. First, there is far too much "summer scouting" and that changes patterns so much it's virtually meaningless. Then the surge of people in the woods the first week, banging away at God knows what just for some action, destroys any patterns that remained. But on private or remote land that isn't over run by hopeful dummies it should help a lot.

Geographically, that may be true. However generally, anybody out scouting in the summer has some level of dedication and is likely to be woods wise and know about deer behavior. Around here, public or private, our locals are not about to set foot in the woods for many reasons:
a) leased land they don't have to. They don't even set foot in the woods DURING the season. They hunt out of box stands with corn and plots.:o

b) Public land, the 4 wheeler trails are closed. They ain't about to walk.
c) Most are jack of all trades and master of none. They are out fishing and doing other things.

[Bushman]

It's getting on past summer now and I'm hatching a plan to get into the National Forest to get some waypoints established. I hunted that area years ago and saw the biggest buck and some of the biggest sign that I have personally ever seen. The tree I have in mind needs a visit to make sure that it is still live and well. A 185 class buck coming out of a green swamp toward you makes for an indelible memory.

[ncboman]

I have an expanse of big woods I'm learning.

web page (http://www.nature.org/initiatives/freshwater/work/roanokeriver.html)

I'm workin on the 21,000 acre sections but haven't scouted the main woods this summer at all. I'll be into it this Sunday if possible. Big woods in summer is a good place to get lost and et by bugs. :cool:

I think summer scouting in big woods is good for learning the woods and how to get around in it but things are changing fast now and being in the woods with the deer is the only way to keep up with what's goin on where.

I doan buy into the theory of 'staying out so as not to disturb the deer',

but I don't disturb them unless by accident or broadhead. :D

[DaveHawk]

Geographically, that may be true. However generally, anybody out scouting in the summer has some level of dedication and is likely to be woods wise and know about deer behavior.

Wise statement.

NC wrote:
I doan buy into the theory of 'staying out so as not to disturb the deer',

I found over the years that spending time in the woods during the summer deer are less paranoid with human intruders and are more curious. Indian use to hunt deer by the flicker of a the light given off by a small fire. Deer would venture in to inspect the intruders to what many time would be fatal.

[LampLighter]

flicker of a the light


I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who hunted with a candle & reflector raised on a pole on the bow of a dugout boat. It was dubbed " Jacklighting" as it was jacked up on a stick. They paddled around the edge of lakes, I believe around the Atirondeck ( spell :confused: ) area.

[dave-t.]

I doan buy into the theory of 'staying out so as not to disturb the deer',


I do.:o

Funny how different folks after the same thing take different paths.

I typically hunt some pretty small properties though, and sometimes one little push can leave the land empty of deer for an undetermined amount of time. And yes, my buddies think I'm nuts about it. They may be right.:D

[Bushman]

There are deer and then there are 4.5 year and older buck deer. One group is curious and the other group is absolutely paranoid. It is like you are hunting a different species. I've seen big butter fly shaped splayed out buck tracks in the snow walk up to a set of man tracks and do a 180 degree turn never to be seen again that season.

In the summer I like to take a small street legal trail bike (a Honda CT110 is perfect) around on the dirt roads in a big section just to get a good overview of the lay of the land topography, timber types and the size of the deer tracks in the soft dirt. That does not bother the deer much and gives me an idea if I want to look it over more. It always takes me a couple of years to sort out an area.