I have been bow hunting for two years now, and the only bucks i have saw bow hunting have been in the rut. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to find the bucks prior to the rut? What do you guys look for while scouting? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Food sources and bedding areas, plain and simple.

I'm trophy hunting now and really don't get into it until the beginning of the rut. I prefer to hunt residential because it is different hunting. You see a lot of deer and done right(no I haven't did it right yet) you can shoot huge. I see big every hunt. I came up the ranks and hunted public with the same responses I've seen posted here on this sight. Since then I have focused on where the deer are got permission to hunt in unconventional areas with a lot of deer. Keep looking and think outside the box.

Good luck!

Early season bucks are normally alot easier to pattern then they would be during the rut. We try to get are bucks before the rut kicks in, because during the rut the bucks tend to break off alot of antler from fighting, and they become hard to locate/pattern.

During the early season when I'm looking for a trophy buck, I will normally hunt around food plots, scattered corn, stock tanks, ranch roads and senderos.

Look for an active scrape from August through September and set up accordingly.

I check out fields in the evenings, I'll try to find where bucks enter the field each evening. The first week of the season I'll hunt the field edge and then move further back in to the woods, 20-40 yds at a time. Wait for the wind to be blowing in to the field.

Last year I had a 130-140 class 8 pointer within 20 yds of my stand on 3 consecutive hunts in the first two weeks of the season.

First 2 weeks of the season I concetrate on food and bedding. From then until about Thanksgiving, I just piss around in travel corridors hoping to catch one moving. From the Beginning of December through the first of the year, which down here is pre-rut and rut. I hunt the beds. During peak breeding I may hunt feeding areas a few times, but I prefer the thickets.

I second what Solax has stated, I would watch the fields late afternoons to see where the bucks would enter and leave the fields, durring the early part of the season bucks can often be seen in fields feeding just before before dark, this is a feeding area, and the staging area will be just inside the wood line and the bedding area durring the summer and early season will often not be far away, To me it is easyer to pattern bucks durring the early season. just look for food source`s and you should pick up on some buck movement. But as it gets closer to the rut, buck movement will change dromaticly.

look the early season is the easiest time to put a hurt on the big bucks that is if you can hunt before the acorns drop. glass fields and get an idea where the big boy is coming out and go stick him good luck

Most have already stated it, but I too look to pattern bucks by where they enter the fields and also where they are heading (food plots). As the season progresses, I will move to areas known to be local bedding hot spots. One particular piece of land I hunt gets a lots of use by other hunters...so on the 3rd or 4th day of heavy pressure, I make certain to go deep and into the heavy stuff. It's paid off with many does and some decent bucks.