WHAT to look for when winter scouting?
12-10-2007 | 01:40 PM
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Fork Horn
Joined: Oct 2003
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WHAT to look for when winter scouting?
I haven't seen a post discussing this already so...
What doyou look for when scouting in the winter / spring?
Personally, I look for mostly the same stuff as I would any other time of year but when there is snow on the ground it helps in some ways and hurts in others.
For instance, trails REALLY jump out in the snow, so I look for major intersections, or where \ how the deer use a piece of property (keying on travel corridors like funnels).
Beds really jump out in the snow as well, so you can key in on a bedding area that might not necessarily LOOK that thick (like most bedding areas are) but the deer feel comfortable in. For instance, I know of one bedding area on one piece of land that I hunt that is in a large hemlock grove. The whole area has about the same "thickness" but there is a slight slope that the deer seem to bed on. So now, instead of treating that whole area as a bedding area, I know to focus primarily on that one slope.
Rub lines are as easy to see (mostly) all the time but snow hides scrapes. You gotta look for likely looking scrape spots (heavy deer traffic passing a tree with an over hanging limb) and then checking it for signs of a licking branch.
Sheds are also harder to find as they may be buried in the snow and don't stick out as much on snow as they would on dark earth / rotted leaves when there isn't snow.
What do you look for?
