skeeter 7MM

I agree directly following the close of the hunting season till late spring I will scout inside my area, looking for trials, sign, etc. During the summer I may take a walk I have noticed a change in patterns in deer movement while scouting from a far with bino's. However for the most part I use the summer to watch food/water sources and determine what I'll be hunting in the fall and which spots seem to provide the best chance. I do not use treestands but rather hunt from the ground, so I usually don't enter the woods anytime after august. When I did use treestands I would scout opening day of archery to determine stand placement, then set up my treestand and start hunting the following week. For me scouting continues while I hunt, often I will set up in the am and then stroll around slowly during the heat of the day using the wind in my favor. While any scouting is valuable, I feel the fall scouting is what really makes the difference in adapting to the pattern changes. My theory is I am going to be in the woods so my presence is required, as long as I don't put additional pressure and use my smarts(ie wind direction, etc) I will do no harm just further my chances at connecting. However I will say caution must be used in areas that have small staging areas, pressure here will force deer to change and that will only make you start the process over. For me most of my areas I hunt are pretty extensive wood lots which makes for lots of ground to cover, of the few smaller ones I simply go on my offseason scouting and what the summer glassing has told me to start with but will react to changes I see happening(being smaller this is much easier done after the fact with less inside cover knowledge). The main constant I use when scouting is determining bed, staging, food/water and natural attraction areas(funnels, draw, bottlenecks, etc), once this has been determined finding the spot becomes a lot easier.