RE: Off Season Scouting
 

peak here is my setup, notice the river, how I get in behind the deer. I have a boat with a Eletric trolling motor. Works like a charm!!

Go ahead and mark it up, we will discuess later tonight!!

North is staight up!!

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

I scout late-January to mid-February. Hunt for sheds from mid-February to mid-March, scouting all the time. Place game cams from March to September along deer trails and develop stand placement strategies from all of the above.

In the past seven years, I have only changed a stand location once or twice. The deerin the area have maintained a steady yearly pattern and ever-growingpopulation.

I use aerial photos for reference only. The real scouting information is in the woods. My youngest daughter has hunted with me for the past three seasons and can now scout better than I can!:)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

subscribing for future reference

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

hay i think that arreal pictures are great to but i really dislike hunting in stands so i glass for animals on the ground. using arrieal photos is a great why to survey the land because you can see things that you can't on the ground

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

I love it...............this is exactly what I had in mind. Hopefully we can mix in just a LOT of random advice as well as specifics. I am taking my camera out with me tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be a really good day for me. It is rare not to have snow yet around here and the ground is so soft and muddy that I should see some awesome runs and sign.

I am gonna post the aerials of this farm as well and show you guys my access points because getting to and away from my stands as stealthy as possible is my goal for next year. I don't think I did a good enough job of that this year and I payed for it late season.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

I agree 100%..........I mark the aerial photo for obvious funnels and food sources and then try to figure out entry and exit points (for deer) based on the neighboring properties........then I use that as a guide when I hit the woods and try to find the bedding areas........sort of an outline if you will. Scrapes are not always easy for me to find this time of year but I try. Rub lines and trails are obvious...........and not knowing for sure what or where the farmer is gonna plant makes some other stuff kinda guess work too.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Great topic! This is where the rubber meets the road.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

This is going to be my first year scouting so I'm going to look at this later when I have time. It appears to be very helpful.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

9 thunderhead 100's, $4.50. Body wash 2 bucks a bottle.:D

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Atlas, Scott, and others, this is a great idea!

After reading through this thread and the other linked threads to this point, I’m in mobow’s boat, I have a million questions.

For nearly all of my life I’ve considered myself a hunter, I’ll be 33 soon. In Feb. 2003, I bought my bow and fell passionately in love with it. WAKE UP CALL!!!!!!!! I’ve never really hunted in my life until I bought this crazy thing! What happened to me?

Scouting is hunting. I did not realize this until I bought my bow. Until these “scouting threads” popped up, I thought I was a decent scout,………I SUCK at scouting. Oh sure, I can find sign, trails, and sheds, but I don’t know how to read the language I’m seeing. Thanks to you fellas, I’m learning little by little. Since Oct. 2005, I have not seen a deer while bow hunting. I think I setup in prime areas, but it just hasn’t happened for me. Obviously my thinking is wrong. Around April 06, I started a new lease, so everything was new. This past season I tried to take things I’ve read on this board and put them to use. I started scouting where I thought would be good areas, the hardwoods that bordered really thick stuff. I found all kinds of sign, trails, white oaks, water. I didn’t mess around much, I just picked out where I wanted to sit, hung my stands and left it alone. Come season, no deer! Trails dried up, no new sign, but I had found a killer squirrel spot. whoopee[&:] All season I’ve been wondering where I went wrong, I’m still wondering.

For those of us who are illiterate about scouting terminology, will you veterans give us a little glossary for clarification purposes? Please add to this list and define in detail:

1. inside corner--
2. saddles-- I kinda have an idea, but I’d like clarification.
3. funnels—Again, clarification.
4. bedding areas—I know what a BA is and what it is for, but how do you identify them? Is it only by seeing matted down grass/weeds?
5. What does a scrape mean to you? What does it tell you? Until this season, I always thought that A buck would make a scrape to mark HIS territory and the HE ALONE would reuse this scrape until the rut was over. I learned that I was completely wrong.

I’ve noticed on my hunting land that there are tons of deer on the property. There are tracks literally everywhere! I think that they stay in the thick stuff and don’t really move much until dark. It gives them cover and food (browse), so why should they come out? This thick stuff is nearly impenetrable by a human, but there are deer trails all through it. I’m trying to think of a way to hunt this stuff. It’s basically young pines from 8-20 feet tall with mostly super-thick briars and yaupons with a few other various shrubs in between. Any ideas??

I have many more questions, but I’ll stop here for now.

Thanks in advance,
TXMM

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Hey post up the land you hunt and lets all disect it? (Aerial photo)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

This is crude..........I always just print my maps off yahoo but just realized now that I couldn't save them or copy them (at least that I could tell). If anyone knows how to copy off yahoo let me know.

Forgive the coffee stains, smears, and overall caveman look.........I just threw it on the counter and took a pic with my camera. Anyways, check it out I will post some pics of my scouting trip today as well.

Blue is my entry and exit routes.
Green is most used deer trails (there are many more)
Circled stand is where we saw the most deer this year.
Red X is where I killed a deer.
Black XXXXX are good rub lines.
S is what I believe is a primary scrape area.
And I just realized I didn't mark in the bedding areas [:@]
Corn=Corn [8D]


The land I can hunt goes farther south and west...........stupid Yahoo would only print this much in decent detail.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Entrance (lower blue line)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Some beds in the woods on the south end of the map (about 100 yards in from the corn)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

View from beds to corn (with running water in between)......corn is through thin hedge row on left.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Typical rub that I see.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

A look down the corn and woods at the south of the map.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Couple nice trails that run all through the small thick brush north of the pond. I am gonna try and get a stand in there this spring........LOTTA trimming to do;)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Trail into and out of the pines from the thick brush.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Want to put a stand in this tree.........it is on the edge of the thick brush but can still sneak a peak into the golden rod field near the pond.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

I SECOND THAT and would like to add

6. Draw - Heard the term many times but still unclear. I was watching a hunting video and a guy was 100 yards out in a fieldwatching deer come out of the woods and refered to that as "deer coming out of a draw". So what is and where is the "draw" if deer are just coming out of a featureless and straight forest edge into a field? At the same time I've also seen guys here on the forums say things like "at the top of a draw". See why I'm confused as to what a draw is now? Please explain this as well as clarify what your idea of the stuff in quotes aboveis. Thanks.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

I refer to a ditch or a valley as a draw, maybe even a small depression.Something the deer may follow into a field or have to walk around if it is too steep to cross. In that case set up your stand at the top or bottom to catch the deer doing the end around.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Is there a seldom use trail near this setup?That cross one or both of these trails?

EDIT

BTW there appear to be a few deer using these trails;)

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

1. Field corner with woods on each side.
2. A low area in the terrain that deer will choose as a travel route to avoid being skylined.
3. A travel route that funnels deer movement through a narrow feature in the terrain such as a brushy gully that connects two larger woodlots.
4. This refers to an area that deer use for sleep and resting for long periods of time during daylight hours. Doe bedding areas will have lots of deer beds, an abundance of tracks plus lots of droppings. A bucks bedding area will generally contain rubs and scrapes.
5. Scrapes mean nothing to me on field edges, the only scrapes I pay attention too are Primary scrapes-
A large scrape made in an area that does frequent or where several doe trails converge. A buck will often urinate in these scrapes and leave other glandular scents in the area.

I fond most of the definations here, some other good ones also

http://www.whitetailfanatic.com/html/rc_wdb_dictionary.shtml

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

This is a pic of the trail I am gonna set up about 15 yards off of..........the pic you posted is in the area I want to hunt........but I will be setting up in the middle of the junk where it is thickest. You can see the fence row in the pic you chose and that is the property edge.........the trail coming out of the brush is the one I am focusing on because it leads from thick pines to more open hard woods and the golden rod field..........offers cover as they sneak out of bed and also a couple different escape routes.


You can't tell in the pic but the fence line has more human tracks then deer (mine included).........the trail out of the brush is well used by deer though........I only got permission here this year and that was once the season already started........we were flying blind and still saw a couple nice deer and managed to kill one. I like this farm but the walk in with a climber got old kinda quickly. This year is hang ons only.

Any advice for entry and exits??

This pic looks more heavily traveled then it really is too........the snow was a light dust the night before..........with all the wet weather we have had the trails just melted instead of sticking. Obviously those trails were not made overnight.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

We need to see the whole area, road, property around the place. The map is very hard to read.

Without it I really tough to even guess.

Yes I see the fence line, the reason I ask about the seldom use trail is a mature buck will use it to scent check the main trails. If you have a high trafic trail going in and out he is sure to give it a check. I have fond a mature buck to circle the bedding areachecking all the trails in and out of the bedding area. He knows where the good bedding area's are, and does not wan to waste time or energy running up and down each trail.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Atlas go check out how Buckeye read my map, he is way better then me

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=1931786&mpage=2

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Thanks Germ for the clarifications on the terms!

Another question on scrapes.

I found a very large scrape (at least larger than what I normally see) in an area near my wifes stand. I set up my trail cam watchin the scrape. It caught pics of bucks, does, fawns (bucks & does) and even a coon, ALL checking/using the scrape AND the licking branch.Severalwere bucks, mostly young ones but there was one very nice mature buck. Is it normal for all deer to use a scrape like a public restroom? I guess it is, I just never expected it.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

txmarshmonkey, Sounds like a community Scrape. Yes it's fairly common in some areas. If it is, the over hanging Branch will usually be thicker and the Scrape it's self will be dished some from being used year after year, and some actually stay active year long.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Gotcha & thanks. I'm learning little by little.

I believe things on the board are going great in 07 so far.
Keep it up fellas!

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Sorry it took me so long on this one gregs spooning on the other one cracked me up and im finally recovered, lol
I have this peace of public hunting ground by me that reminds me of this pic and I am going to have to get a canoe.Its only 5 minute drive away.

GregH its in Wilmot and I see some nice ones after dark out in the field behind the fire station.

The blue dots are stands germ?

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Yep

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Germ,
That spot where you shot your 16pt looks awesome! You're on the inside corner of 2 maybe even 3 fields and the treeline that bisects the field to youreast north eastlooks like a good cover area for the deer to travel back and forth across that field. Alot of good looking pinch points or funnels on your property!

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

What aboutthe area I marked with the yellow X? It doesn't look like you've got any stands located here. Do you leave that area for a safe zone? It looks like a primary travel area for any deer that would be traveling to the crop fields to the north from bedding in that big stand of timber. It may be hard to get to in the evening without spooking deer but looks like a surefire morning spot catching them coming off the fields to bed. What do you think?

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

JD it appears I miss drew my line, that is my neighbors land, LOL Run the line straight back from the fence row.

Yes he hunts there and has killed some deer. He got a 5 point with 18'' spread this year!!!

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Germ, how are you copying that map off of the yahoo maps website.I'm trying to copy the map of my hunting area to my pics so I can upload it to photobucket and put it up here, but it won't save to my computer. What am I doing wrong?

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

Same here.............and my maps don't have that kind of detail either.

RE: Off Season Scouting
 

When your using Yahoo maps you can not save them the conventional way.

When you have the browser up and the map you want on the screen press crtl+print screen. Then open photoshop and hit ctrl+V(paste). You will get the whole browser as a picture. Then crop out the map.

PM me the location and I will do it for you.