Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How do you guys scout?

Pretty much year round I look at a ton of maps. I like the program Maptech makes and it offers 3D views and a variety of other options. Programs like these really help to narrow down the geography before you strap the boots on.

November here is all about bucks cruising to locate hot does. I mostly focus on travel corridors this time of year and I also scout areas likely to hold doe populations.

Sometimes people also get too much into the boat fisherman mentality. Launch the boat and motor at warp speed 20 miles from the launch for those special spots.

I've seen more than my fair share of nice bucks close to the 'boat launch' and in little pockets of woods.

Case in point, I've seen some dandy bucks on the neighbors property within 75 yards of the road and frequently during the season. I've never seen anyone hunt near that area as they are always headed a 'mile' back in.

No matter how bad you sometimes want critters to be in the 'right spot', they ain't always there. Deer are where you find them.

What Scott mentioned is true. Don't overlook good places just because they aren't what's expected...

If you're scouting on public land, especially WMA's with set hunting days/dates, one thing that can't be (or is at least hard to) factor in is the change that an influx of hunters makes for a Fri/Sat/Sun hunt. When I was growing up in AL all I hunted with my Dad were the WMA's. We would bow hunt then rotate between 3 WMA's on the dates that they held hunts. It's a whole new ball game when 400 gun hunters start hunting an area that on a normal weekend would have 20 bow hunters. ...it's not all bad, you'll see a lot of deer that you might not have seen otherwise...but maybe not the one you were trying to pattern.

With the nice buck George jumped this morning I believe we are on the right track. I'll let him tell the story.

Indeed; Matt and I went through a spiritual experience putting up a 20ft ladder stand. Once we brought the stand back a mile or so, we decided to scout about to see where the stand would have the best impact. Matt went one way, I another. Moving westward from the area he and I had scouted previously I jumped up a really nice buck. I caught a glimpse of of his rack, dark colored with great mass. The straight out, then up type, rather than the basket shaped.

Really affirmed that our spot was a good one, or as they say in Alabama, a goot' one.


Tons of new sign since our last outing, and gigantic turkey tracks! Check em' This wasn't even the biggest. John Holmes was strutting his stuff in the back nine; this one is Justin Beiber




Here is a video from the stand:

Scout? Um, walk along, "theres one!" BOOM!

Thats about it...

Yeah, If I had a rifle with me it it would have been a different write-up

Scouting is like foreplay; the act is extended. Plus it helps you find horns, big ol' gnarly horns.

"Scouting is like foreplay"


love it

I have my moments

I dont mess around with foreplay... I get right to the point. Going bang!

Well I don't scout my property at all, its to small a piece of land. What I do know is that, the Bucks that get past 4 years old, tend to go nocturnal. And in the State of CT, we can hunt till dark like we use to, we have to be out of the woods at sunset. We lost the best half hour of the day. And the yearly harvest numbers show it. The best thing you can do is set your self up were they bed, and hope you catch him going to water or food. That is what I do, If I see a buck, during the season, I am most certain that it will only be once. The bucks in my area then to move after dark, and go to the bedding area, well before sun rise. So for me to even catch one during shooting hours, means I get to spend every day of the season on my stands. I have a 60 day rifle season. I will fill my tags, but I also put in a lot of time out in the woods too. Last year I put in some 360 hours worth for the two I shot.

If you know where the beds are, why not just stalk your way in there and shoot one on the ground? We hunt like that all over around here. Very effective.

I scout about 250 days a year, because I love getting lost in the mountains.

Sort of a hobby of mine.

To get to bedding areas here in most places would require kevlar chaps and a full on attack mode to get 5 feet thru it and sound like a sherman tank rolling thru the woods. About the most effective way to get in there is a skidder and that's not really an effective hunting tool lol.

The closest I hunt to the bedding areas is to get ont he edge of a cutover before season and cut a lane about 40 yards long, 4-5ft wide and 4-5 feet tall and sit on one end and watch for the deer to cross out of the thick cover where they are bedding into a more open area.

Except for when the acorns are falling, the rut, and to water there's really no reason for a big buck to get out of that thick stuff here. It provides cover and food, he'll get up and water about every 4 hours and that's it if the pressure is high.

When I did radio collar work there were lots of bucks that were holed up tight in the thick stuff I never could find even with a receiver in my hand. You literally just couldn't get into it even wearing chaps and heavy shirts or leather sleeves. I could work around the outside of a block of thick stuff/cutover and know they were in there but they wouldn't budge even if they knew you were there and I couldn't get in there to get a visual on the deer.

The reason they don't is because you are the poster child for provincialism.

My favorite way to scout is to go squirrel hunting.

Found some of my best deer hunting spots while chasing squirrels from oak tree to oak tree.

I saw your pics from your 'campfire deer hunt' (congrats again btw) lets just say the terrain is vastly different down here. Someone else already hit a pretty good visual description of how thick it can be making stalking pretty hard. Not that it can't be done, we just have a lot less area that can be stalked through without making way to much noise.

The area George and I are hunting for the most part is best hunted by catching them moving from cover to food/water. We have a 2.5 month season, of which the rutt is going on only 1.5-2 weeks if you are lucky. (they are slowly shifting our season start/end dates to allow better line up with their rutt) Those 1.5-2 weeks are the only real time you can catch a buck doing stupid things, other than that they spend 90% of their time bedded down.

Mess with a bedding area and you better kill him, if you don't generally it will just push his bedding area back further into hell holes.

Here are a few pictures for a visual reference.


This is after the leaves have fallen opening it up a little more:






The few places where stalking is a bit easier is along the smaller creeks we have. The running water covers your sound very well. Walking on our dry oak hickory and other hardwood leaves is unbelievably noisy.




Here is a view from one of my favorite spots, the bottom of this valley is a well worn travel route where I've taken a few bucks.




This is one of my favorites from that area.