Planned or Blind Scouting
01-22-2008, 02:29 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Wisconsin and Canada
Posts: 2,415
Planned or Blind Scouting
How many of you actully have a plan when you go out to scout?
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
Most all of my scouting trips are early in the spring....admittedly not as many as I would like the last few years. They are generally a shed hunt and scouting trip combo. Most every one of them is planned as I don't have much time to just wing it.
I study Google Earth, topo maps and logging maps all winter long. When I get to camp in the spring I have a very good idea of exactly where I want to go and what I expect to find there. If it looks good, I determine where I can set up and either do it then or shortly after.
In my area, huge woods, if I find an area that is tore up with sign in the spring I believe it will be again in the fall. Whether its the same deer or not, it doesn't matter....there's a reason a mature buck is there and there will be one there nearly every year there after. The trick is figuring out where he is coming from to get there.....
In my woods there are no set bedding areas or feeding areas....they are nearly one in the same. The only way to really hunt the mature deer is to figure out where they have to go to get from one place to another...i.e. funnels and edges.
Remember, this is big woods and patience is key. I believe the only reason I don't see deer in a certain area is not because I'm in the wrong spot....but because they just haven't been there...yet. The sign says so.
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
What's the point of this thread? I guess I'm just curious as to what others think scouting is and how they go about it....mainly because most of you hunt different than I do.
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
Most all of my scouting trips are early in the spring....admittedly not as many as I would like the last few years. They are generally a shed hunt and scouting trip combo. Most every one of them is planned as I don't have much time to just wing it.
I study Google Earth, topo maps and logging maps all winter long. When I get to camp in the spring I have a very good idea of exactly where I want to go and what I expect to find there. If it looks good, I determine where I can set up and either do it then or shortly after.
In my area, huge woods, if I find an area that is tore up with sign in the spring I believe it will be again in the fall. Whether its the same deer or not, it doesn't matter....there's a reason a mature buck is there and there will be one there nearly every year there after. The trick is figuring out where he is coming from to get there.....
In my woods there are no set bedding areas or feeding areas....they are nearly one in the same. The only way to really hunt the mature deer is to figure out where they have to go to get from one place to another...i.e. funnels and edges.
Remember, this is big woods and patience is key. I believe the only reason I don't see deer in a certain area is not because I'm in the wrong spot....but because they just haven't been there...yet. The sign says so.
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
What's the point of this thread? I guess I'm just curious as to what others think scouting is and how they go about it....mainly because most of you hunt different than I do.
01-22-2008, 02:36 PM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 7,876
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
ORIGINAL: _Dan
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
01-22-2008, 02:41 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Northwest suburbs, Illinois
Posts: 2,075
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
I always have a plan Dan.. much like you. And I study aerials and topo's before I go to bed at night.
I always think about the impact I may make on the land I am hunting. I still follow a real good scent control method even 6 or 7 months before the season hits. I like to do most of my scouting throughout the late Winter and into the shed season of March and early April.
I prepare my stands, when I already have a location to hunt, well in advance of the season. Unlike most guys I do bounce around to different locations every year.. so I have no choice but to prepare stand site's within the season sometime's. But I always stay low.. get in and get out quickly and quietly.. and with good scent control.
And absolutely.. the type of woods I hunt will determine certain aspects of my scouting and how I go about it.
But I would say.. your and my views on the subject are not too far off.. even with you hunting bigger woods and me hunting more farmland.
I always think about the impact I may make on the land I am hunting. I still follow a real good scent control method even 6 or 7 months before the season hits. I like to do most of my scouting throughout the late Winter and into the shed season of March and early April.
I prepare my stands, when I already have a location to hunt, well in advance of the season. Unlike most guys I do bounce around to different locations every year.. so I have no choice but to prepare stand site's within the season sometime's. But I always stay low.. get in and get out quickly and quietly.. and with good scent control.
And absolutely.. the type of woods I hunt will determine certain aspects of my scouting and how I go about it.
But I would say.. your and my views on the subject are not too far off.. even with you hunting bigger woods and me hunting more farmland.
01-22-2008, 02:45 PM
#4
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Wisconsin and Canada
Posts: 2,415
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
That's what I was wondering......I belive that most people don't think about overscouting an area as much as they do overhunting it. I am a firm believer that overscouting is much more detrimental to your fall than overhunting.
01-22-2008, 02:49 PM
#5
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Michigan/Ohio
Posts: 11,682
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
ORIGINAL: _Dan
That's what I was wondering......I belive that most people don't think about overscouting an area as much as they do overhunting it. I am a firm believer that overscouting is much more detrimental to your fall than overhunting.
That's what I was wondering......I belive that most people don't think about overscouting an area as much as they do overhunting it. I am a firm believer that overscouting is much more detrimental to your fall than overhunting.
01-22-2008, 02:59 PM
#6
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 9,445
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
ORIGINAL: _Dan
How many of you actully have a plan when you go out to scout?
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
Most all of my scouting trips are early in the spring....admittedly not as many as I would like the last few years. They are generally a shed hunt and scouting trip combo. Most every one of them is planned as I don't have much time to just wing it.
I study Google Earth, topo maps and logging maps all winter long. When I get to camp in the spring I have a very good idea of exactly where I want to go and what I expect to find there. If it looks good, I determine where I can set up and either do it then or shortly after.
In my area, huge woods, if I find an area that is tore up with sign in the spring I believe it will be again in the fall. Whether its the same deer or not, it doesn't matter....there's a reason a mature buck is there and there will be one there nearly every year there after. The trick is figuring out where he is coming from to get there.....
In my woods there are no set bedding areas or feeding areas....they are nearly one in the same. The only way to really hunt the mature deer is to figure out where they have to go to get from one place to another...i.e. funnels and edges.
Remember, this is big woods and patience is key. I believe the only reason I don't see deer in a certain area is not because I'm in the wrong spot....but because they just haven't been there...yet. The sign says so.
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
What's the point of this thread? I guess I'm just curious as to what others think scouting is and how they go about it....mainly because most of you hunt different than I do.
How many of you actully have a plan when you go out to scout?
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
Most all of my scouting trips are early in the spring....admittedly not as many as I would like the last few years. They are generally a shed hunt and scouting trip combo. Most every one of them is planned as I don't have much time to just wing it.
I study Google Earth, topo maps and logging maps all winter long. When I get to camp in the spring I have a very good idea of exactly where I want to go and what I expect to find there. If it looks good, I determine where I can set up and either do it then or shortly after.
In my area, huge woods, if I find an area that is tore up with sign in the spring I believe it will be again in the fall. Whether its the same deer or not, it doesn't matter....there's a reason a mature buck is there and there will be one there nearly every year there after. The trick is figuring out where he is coming from to get there.....
In my woods there are no set bedding areas or feeding areas....they are nearly one in the same. The only way to really hunt the mature deer is to figure out where they have to go to get from one place to another...i.e. funnels and edges.
Remember, this is big woods and patience is key. I believe the only reason I don't see deer in a certain area is not because I'm in the wrong spot....but because they just haven't been there...yet. The sign says so.
I realize that thetype of areaI hunt is different than 98% of the people on here. Each location is different.
What's the point of this thread? I guess I'm just curious as to what others think scouting is and how they go about it....mainly because most of you hunt different than I do.
01-22-2008, 03:06 PM
#7
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 9,445
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
I think I may scout to much in the fall of the year but every year is different in my woods during the rut so its hard to say what a person should do on when to scout where I hunt. I'm not sure when I should scout.
01-22-2008, 03:07 PM
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: ELK GROVE CA USA
Posts: 1,251
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
ORIGINAL: _Dan
How many of you actully have a plan when you go out to scout?
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
How many of you actully have a plan when you go out to scout?
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there?
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure?
Do you think you could be overscouting?
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics?
prime example..brother and i scouted an area fairly hard before archery opener....we were up there about every other or third weekend for two months before the opener...every time up we would see bucks, EVERY TIME.....come opening morning it was like the vanished...granite the many hunters running around on quads didn't help the issue.....we didn't see a single legal buck an any of the areas we had scouted previously....whether it was our fault or not...i can tell you i plan on scouting from a distance and with my bino's this year...staying away from the areas i plan to hunt as much as possible...
the type of woods i do hunt determine how i usually scout...most of the time it is drive in then walk, and walk, and walk...so to scout i actually have to be close to were i want hunt (which is not good, IMO) so this year we are trying to go to an opposite ridge and scout...if not then we will go in maybe once a month...set up the cams and let them work for us...once a month should be a lot better then the twice a month we were doing
01-22-2008, 03:26 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Northern Idaho's Panhandle
Posts: 4,436
RE: Planned or Blind Scouting
ORIGINAL: _Dan
How many of you actually have a plan when you go out to scout? Always, I use and rely on Google Earth these days for all my shed hunting/scouting endeavors. I like you Dan hunt huge woods, big forest land whitetails.
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there? I used to use maps..Google earth only now.
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure? Always, thats why I invade a bucks core bedding areas only in the winter nad early spring...(which can be hundreds of acreas in big woods even more if snow levels push him around the mountains) After June...I back way off, set up distant observation points/stands to spy on his area all summer, usually near the best food sources he has available, whether it be a mountains side of cenotheous, a clear cut or in the odd occurance a distance alfalfa field. Teaching and having my summers off is really my ace in the hole for scouting big woods bucks, I need a lot of time to pattern them and I get 85 days off a summer to do it!
Do you think you could be overscouting? No because I learned the hard way in the past..now I know when to back out and leave him alone or bucks alone..I get back away from their tolerant zone...by staying back in regards to comfortable yardages.., always using the wind to OBSERVE..just as I would if i was hunting him, no different in regards to wind....it doesnt matter what time of the year it is here if I would spend too much time in a big bucks core area spreading my scent all over, he'd not tolerate it. Thats why when I invade in the winter and early spring for sheds, I get in and cover it inch by inch then get the heck out till I hunt him in the fall. Everything after that one invasion will be distant until I try to kill him. Many of my observation stands are at least 300 yards or more away..some up to 1000 yards or more..Optics are crucial for this type of low impact spying.
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics? Yes. Big woods is completely different than from scouting/hunting ag land and river bottoms. I've whitetail hunted them all. AG land offers up solid/distinct destination food sources and less cover than big woods or big bushfor deer to hide in. River bottoms offer up great funnels, very congregating condensed cover and often desitantion food sources in irrigated country.
In big woods I have to get to know a buck personally if I want to try to kill him, if I dont, I can hunt the 3-4 week period of the rut where bucks actually get up and move in conjunction with doe family groups. Outside of November the big boys here have nothing to do with doe family groups, there is just so much space here, they are not forced too and the opt to live as loaners. I personally would rather hunt a whitetail for 4 months instead of one..so scouting and getting to know a few bucks hangouts and tendancies is the only way to see them in the early and late season.
No bait here or farm fields in the mountains. Just feed available everywhere in the form of natural browse species.
Old/Big bucks in this country do everything fora reason, and they move very little outside of the rut from their core areas, because they can find all the feed, cover and water they need in a 50-200 acre patch of forest.
How many of you actually have a plan when you go out to scout? Always, I use and rely on Google Earth these days for all my shed hunting/scouting endeavors. I like you Dan hunt huge woods, big forest land whitetails.
Do you just wing it or do you study the area with maps and images before you go in there? I used to use maps..Google earth only now.
Do you think about the impact that scouting trip may have on your fall's hunt, in terms of pressure? Always, thats why I invade a bucks core bedding areas only in the winter nad early spring...(which can be hundreds of acreas in big woods even more if snow levels push him around the mountains) After June...I back way off, set up distant observation points/stands to spy on his area all summer, usually near the best food sources he has available, whether it be a mountains side of cenotheous, a clear cut or in the odd occurance a distance alfalfa field. Teaching and having my summers off is really my ace in the hole for scouting big woods bucks, I need a lot of time to pattern them and I get 85 days off a summer to do it!
Do you think you could be overscouting? No because I learned the hard way in the past..now I know when to back out and leave him alone or bucks alone..I get back away from their tolerant zone...by staying back in regards to comfortable yardages.., always using the wind to OBSERVE..just as I would if i was hunting him, no different in regards to wind....it doesnt matter what time of the year it is here if I would spend too much time in a big bucks core area spreading my scent all over, he'd not tolerate it. Thats why when I invade in the winter and early spring for sheds, I get in and cover it inch by inch then get the heck out till I hunt him in the fall. Everything after that one invasion will be distant until I try to kill him. Many of my observation stands are at least 300 yards or more away..some up to 1000 yards or more..Optics are crucial for this type of low impact spying.
Does the type of woods you are hunting determine your scouting tactics? Yes. Big woods is completely different than from scouting/hunting ag land and river bottoms. I've whitetail hunted them all. AG land offers up solid/distinct destination food sources and less cover than big woods or big bushfor deer to hide in. River bottoms offer up great funnels, very congregating condensed cover and often desitantion food sources in irrigated country.
In big woods I have to get to know a buck personally if I want to try to kill him, if I dont, I can hunt the 3-4 week period of the rut where bucks actually get up and move in conjunction with doe family groups. Outside of November the big boys here have nothing to do with doe family groups, there is just so much space here, they are not forced too and the opt to live as loaners. I personally would rather hunt a whitetail for 4 months instead of one..so scouting and getting to know a few bucks hangouts and tendancies is the only way to see them in the early and late season.
No bait here or farm fields in the mountains. Just feed available everywhere in the form of natural browse species.
Old/Big bucks in this country do everything fora reason, and they move very little outside of the rut from their core areas, because they can find all the feed, cover and water they need in a 50-200 acre patch of forest.