scouting for whitetail deer

R

rr41mag

New member
Just thought about something today and figured I would pose the question to yall. I believe in prescouting but was wondering how often and how much do you scout before you actually go out into the woods. The place I hunt is 200 miles away so I can't go after work. Then again 200 miles would be almost too far to drive there and back in one day. What do yall think? :confused:
 
rr41mag,
We hunt about 60 miles from home. There are a lot of big fields (beans, cotton, corn). So scouting before bow season is pretty easy. during the summer we can generally run down there before we run out of light and glass some fields and see where they are moving. We check them everytime we go down there, whether we are fishing, camping, whatever.

If I lived 200 miles away Id probably try to go up for a weekend every now and again during the summer to try to get some patterns down. This is assuming you are bowhunting. If you gun hunt do it a little later. I think two mornings and evenings of scouting at a time would give you a better picture of whats going on than a tough 400 mile haul round trip in a day. Good luck.

[This message has been edited by CD1 (edited September 28, 2000).]
 
I never scout the area I hunt. There's always deer there because it's private land :D

When I actually want some challenge, I usually scout the area 4-6 times throughout the summer and fall.
 
I've learned the most about deer movement and habitat a month or two after the season -- that would be January through February and possibly into early March where I hunt. By that time, the leaves have all fallen and most of the underbrush is dormant -- so trails, rubs, scrapes, etc. are much more apparent. Scouting on foot gives me the opportunity to carefully look the area over.

Also, since we usually hunt the same area during the spring turkey season, I use some of that time afield to observe deer movement and patterns.

Like you, I have to travel some to get to the place where I hunt, so I try to make my visits on weekends. Then, I can scout in the evening, the next morning and midday -- then head back home in the evening. This gives me a look at things in varying light conditions and circumstances.

Good luck with your scouting and hunting.
 
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