JD IN ALBERTA

Skeeter...funny enough we do the same thing. Now that my son is walking (kinda) he can get out with us instead of stay in the car seat. Thing is...how does a guy scout in the summer? I scout year round, but the thing is all hell breaks loose when hunting season comes around. My muliespot is 2 hours away and my Northern Whitetail spot is 6. So really what can a guy do? I tried that new place this year only 1/2 hour from home only to find moose, does and very little buck sign. WTF!!! I need to move out of the city to really do some scouting. That's one of the reasons i wanted a camera. See if it's worth chasing the woods out there. I'm upsetting myself[:@]Man I can't wait for gophers...I'm a friggin pro when it comes to them!

mallard stalker

Ya I remeber your pics about the gopher shooting. Didn't you guys kill 20 or something?

Saskabush

Stiff upper lip JD ventilating some gophers in the spring will make you feel better. If not, let me know and i'll have a big wt tied up for you next fall.

do you do much shed hunting? I've found that it's an excellent way to beat cabin fever and at the same time find out what survived the season. Good scouting too as the deer often end up using the same areas in winter as they do in the early fall. I'm at the point now where I look forward to sheddin' as much as hunting.

skeeter 7MM

JD, for me summer scouting is really nothing other than watching antlers grow, seeing potential, getted reved and looking forfood source hot spots. As far as patternsother than maybe a few weeks in sept. things change as the fall progresses, especially mulies! I have found the best non hunting time to scout is now, they are still in rut patterns and the sign will be freshened up as the final 2 ruts occur. Essentially you are scouting them as if you were hunting them a few weeks ago for theprimary rut timeframe. You can really learn a lot to where your summer bucks range to to find love and then start looking at the transition between, if there are any. Of course this time of year comes with other concerns months previous of living it and breathing itplus getting ready for the season...so time is limited but after the hussle and bussle it still is good right up till they start yarding. Shed hunting the deer often yard up and this means the potential of finding antlers may never see again because of this migration if you will. Doesn't always hold true for all areas but for the most part that has been my experience. It still is a wonderful time to walk your terrain and get to know it. With the leaves off you can see things more clearly than in springtime or summer. Bonus is finding antlers without taggin' them and busting coyotes along the way. I don't stop scouting once the season has begun, in fact this where I spend the bulk of my time doing the grunt work while actually hunting. No sunday hunting offers this on a weekly basis if you can get away but like you I travel to some of the areas i hunt so I incorporate it into the days events. In early fall the mid day is often a wash so instead of sitting starring at a tree or doing nothing I use the down time to scout on these further from home trips. Even while actively hunting I scout, hey you have to be in the field anyway might as well use it to find the spot within the spot then just sitting their hoping your in the right place. I am not suggesting you tromp all over hells acre or in your pre-determined "hotspot" but rather always be looking by doing it smartly.

As far as the closer spots keep looking my friend. Does with fawns = daddy. If it is a dud, move on to another spot. Lots of time and you always have your original spots to fall back on. Never be scared of virgin territory, at worst you wasted a day or 2, then again you may just find your new "hotspot".

agaucher

Aye, I too need to do more scouting this year. thing is I will miss opening deer season for the sheep hunt. Good thing is that the drainages ill be hunting for sheep have the highest densities of elk populations in BC. my information friend took 3 rams and 3 6 point ek outta this are in 5 days last year!

Tag limits
Deer: 3 aggregate provincial limit. you cannot have more thanone species from any one region in BC.
Moose: 1
Elk: 1
Black Bear: 2/3
Sitka blacktail: 15
Cougar: 1
grizz: LEH Only, 1
Sheep: 2/3 (Dont shoot anything under 8 years, or under full curl - cant hunt sheep for 3 years as a penalty)
Goat: 1

I thinkt hat covers it all?

Saskabush

Good point Skeeter. I've only really been actively shedding for 3 or 4 years now and it seems that the mild winters have kept the deer from yardingas much in that time. Last year they stayed pretty spread out (at least up here) since we didn't have any snow till January.

early in

Skeeter, these are 35mmpics I have scaned and have in a folder but I don't know how to "embed in post".[&o]

JD IN ALBERTA

Ahhh....good to see someone has my back! All this talk re-affirms my belief "someone understands me". Thanks fellas. As for shedding, yup I love it, problem is we rarely find anything when we go out. I still love wqalking around our places but the sheds are never there. Funny thing though, come bow season...there they are! I still can't figure it out (and we don't go too early either). Ah well I'll just keep on at it...
And mallard, that 20 we shot was in a small time period on a snowy day. Our record to date is 220 in a day...a GOOD day. Damn I wish I could guide for gophersThat being said I can't wait to get my ne varmint rifle soon.
Skeeter...thanks for the comments! I love the fact that I share the same passion for whitetails & mulies as a few others here. Keeps me coming back day after day!

Saskabush

The day you became a coyotes best friendI miss shooting those flea bitten little buggers.

Hiawatha

EARLY listen up and listen good. Go to a site called photobucket and register on the site with a username and password. This is a free site that i like to use to upload my pics onto. Ok u still with me? good

Login and go to where it says upload images on the right hand side. Click browse and all your computer files will open. Pic the folder that you have your scanned images in. then double click on what image you want. Then click upload, rinse and repeat.

Now to post a pic in the post it will involve some copy and pasting, hope your down with that. Copy the image url of the pic from phtobucket. Should appear directly below the picture. it will be www.phtobuketearlyinpic3himandhisdeeror something like that depending on what you saved it as. Now copy that image url and paste it into here in between and your good to go. So type it exaclty like this . Takes you 2 minutes.