OK to squirrel hunt while doing early scouting?
 

I don't hunt bow (yet), but our muzzleloader season starts the first weekend of November. Squirrel opens this weekend. Any harm in hunting squirrel (22LR) in the areas I'm scouting out thru September? I figure if I knock it off by Oct, I should be good to go. Besides it's likely they won't be in the same areas come November.

I'll squirrel hunt up to the start of deer season, the deer don't seem to mind.

well i am sure you will get different opinions on here. i bow hunt so i do not squirrel hunt any place i deer hunt. how ever with you hunting nov and the bucks should be shuffling around at that time i doubt you will hurt your chances one bit.

Bucks' movement patterns will change drastically by November even if you don't hunt those areas. As long as you stay out of their core refuge (e.g. bedding area) it shouldn't really affect you in November.

I squirrel hunt all the time right up to deer season. Never seemed to matter. I hunt public land that is heavily hunted, so I figure if it wasn't me hunting, it would be someone else. If I was hunting private land with limited access to the public, I'd probably be more careful.

Never had a problem as of yet. I take some orange tracking tape and mark any trees that I feel may take a lock on or ladder stand later and keep picking off tree rats as we go.

I always do. The same properties I bow hunt too. Stay out of the known bedding areas, and that's about all. I always see plenty of deer while squirrel hunting, and plenty of squirrel while deer hunting!
-Jake

Done that for decades, even down into deer season ... with my squirrel treeing - blood trailing Dachshund no less. Doesn't seem to matter as far as running deer out of the area. I hunt on 3150 acres of which 3100 +/- are wooded. So lots of areas for the squirrels to be and lots of woods for the deer to slip off into if they want to get away for us.

thats usually how i find new spots to deer hunt. Unless you are hunting a particularly skittish buck i woudlnt worry about messing up a spot by squirrel hunting thru it.