I am in the process of putting together a segment for RMOA television show and need your suggestions for " how important is scouting and why?" tell me what you do to prepare a time in the fileld, what do you look for? any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks for your help!

Dr. Mike

Something is fishy about your questions.

I try to spend as much time in the woods I plan to hunt as I can to observe . I also spend lots of hours online looking at topo and aerial maps to determine routes and funnels . Scouting is very important if the hunter expects any chance of success beyond dumb luck .

I prepare as many stand sites as I can in the post-season, then when pre-season comes around I re-investigate those areas and the ones that are hot I prepare to hunt for the season.

The things I cue in on are tracks, feces, and most importantly rubs and scrapes

Phil3 about covered most of my activities, but one. From my observations, Does and Bucks use their own trails, (except when the rut is in high swing). By finding trails, I try to determine what sex made them. does usually are more heavily traveled, Bucks seem to be in thicker stuff, and may have rubs on them Scrapes usually aren' t on them. Feces can sometimes also be a clue. Sometimes I find small bushes/trees totally trashed on buck trails, telling subs that he' s king of the hill. Of course, seeing the buck clinches it.
Russ

No kidding, is there something wrong here,your asking rather strange questions.Lets have some proof of who you are.

Just a thought here but your not planning to spoil anyones hunt are you.And if you are take off eh!

Uh, most hunters don' t do any preseason scouting at all. In fact scouting is strongly discouraged because they don' t want to frighten deer. So no use in your entering the woods before hunting season. It is a complete waste of your time.

(To tell the truth, I actually post season scout for the most part.)

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I was wondering about all the questions, too. I assumed that a PETA spy wouldn' t come up with a user name with 338 in it. You never know.....

Scott Meier
White Oak Lodge