I didn’t have much time to scout before the season this year (just busy with life, wife and kids!), and though I really liked one spot that I found, I need more than one for sure. I personally find scouting public land difficult, primarily because the hunting area is so large, even when compared to most large tracts of private land. There is just a ton of possible areas to cover, and it’s not always easy to find the areas that the deer are using “now.” And of course, you don’t know who is trekking in and out and “disrupting” things when you aren’t there.

The other thing that’s difficult is that, during the season, I would never go into the woods to scout without a gun. But when I’m in the woods and on the ground with a gun, I can’t just bring myself to tromp on through in order to find a good stand site, so I end up still hunting while looking. The problem with that is you simply don’t cover much ground when you are still hunting. Maybe 100 yards every 2-3 hours.

So what do you do? How do you cover a large enough area that you are able find current sign and plan accordingly? Is it best to dedicate yourself to a scouting session and forget worrying about being busted by nearby deer?

Midwesterners, keep in mind that I’m talking about east coast woods here, where many times there are no significant topographic features you can spot from a satellite image or topographic map.