Based on your personal experience, how long would it take you to scout the woods and be satisfied where you hang your stand? I know this can vary depending on this new area, so let' s say you are hunting in your home state or one close by that offers the same basic deer conditions. Also, assume you have no prior knowledge and info you gather is done by you personally, the season is open to any deer and it is pre-rut.

Two days, the first day is spent on the computer going over arial photos of the property and the surrounding areas. Looking at topo maps and going through local area statistics such as deer per square mile and harvest trends are very important. The second day is spent scouting the ENTIRE area finding bedding and feeding areas and travel corridors. If its late prerut I will typically set up in a staging area to do some morning rattling. Then move toward a bedding area for the rest of the day in hopes of catching a cruising buck.

Thats how I would do it anyway!

I don' t believe there is such a thing as over scouting. Depending on the area and how much a person knows about is how much time is needed. Even when I think I know a site, I can still scout and find something new or something that I might have missed.

I can scout that area in only 1-1/2 days

One trip to an area usually gives me a good starting point and overall idea of what' s going on. I' d feel comfortable setting up. Of course you don' t try to only have one trip to scout, but it can be done with fairly good success rates.

One day will usually give me a good idea of what the lay of the land is . from that i know where I will make my stands or how I will still hunt it .

It depends on the size of the property. My father in-law has about 1000 acres that I started hunting and it took about 3 days to get the basic picture of where the deer were. Im very lucky, it seems deer were every where.

I spent the first month of bow season fine tuning my stand sites and continue to do so. The deer patterns change as the season changes from early fall to late fall and then winter. I am always scouting and trying new stand sites.

Oh yeah, I took two bucks that first season I hunted there.