plan ahead of time to take an entire day and walk everything you want to walk and take a notepad and write down notes on what you see and where you see it, any sign that looks promising, scouting is best done right after season closes, if you scout in the summer you are scouting summer feeding patterns which could dramatically change come fall time in some areas or on some farms, scouting right after season gives you fresh sign to follow up on, giving you ideas on some areas you may have missed during season, I say take one day so your not in and out of there many times, once you take notes go home and take time to study them and relate them to what you saw during hunting season and get a good aerial map of the area and draw travel routes and where you saw sign and you can begin to see patterns forming and you'll be able to put together killer strategies for harvesting giants, could go into more detail, but theres my short version, but to your original question sorry i kind've got carried away but scout right after season for, i only summer scout from a distance just to see what kind've bucks are running our properties.