Not sure that starting just after the season is any good. Deer pattern differently at different times of the year. I believe deer change with the seasons. I have noticed this during my time in the woods.

I guess everyone had their own methods, so no sense me going into any detail on mine. I picked up my habits from my uncle and dad. I do a lot of scouting, though, in late august and early september.

If I plan to hunt in mid or late September, scouting in early September would be too close I would think. Sometimes, however, when I have completely wrecked the area for the year by tracking a deer all over the place and/or repeatedly spooking deer, I will then scout that spot in mid season but not hunt there again til the following year.

Already dione a little ... but where I hunt the late season movement does not mean all that much related to early season. I'll make notes of where it looks like the deer slipped abut, bedded, fed, etc. as the hunting pressure mounted. And I'll look at places I never got around to last year. I hunt 3150 acres and some of it I never get around to in any one season.

Then in September or soo, I start looking for acorn laden oaks. Early season those are great places to start filling the freezer.

I do because the bucks are still in bachelor groups, but are starting to feel different. They, I believe, will start to pattern close to what they would do during the hunting season. In my area here in Virginia, I start hunting the first weekend of October (bow/crossbow season.) I hunt them while they are still in bachelor groups and this will go until about the first to third week of November which will be the rut. Give or take a week or two in time.

I normally hunt the first week and the last week of bow season. Then the next two weeks will be muzzleloader season and then the first week of gun. During this time period, I will go through three distinct periods of activity for the deer. Each is unique unto itself and hunted differently.

Probably not a popular opinion but I think most people scout to much.

This may be a regional observation, but would never agree that most scout too much in my region.

There are a lot of hunters in my region that do not live in the area. Many can barely get the time to hunt as much as they'd like, let alone find the time to over scout the region.

That said, since I live here, I may have been guilty of over scouting at times:confused0024:

Most of Us that also Bow Hunt do a lot of Scouting before and after Rifle Season,when Bow/Archery Season (Sept 15-Jan 15) is over Jan 15 I like to Scout in the snow and see where the Deer travel the most and as several mentioned see what pathes they take to sneak in to food plots or go around Us while we hunt them and Shed Hunting usually starts around late December,Jan and Feb so it gives me another reason to Scout and look for Sheds!

Scouting
 

Getting the word scouting locked down, gets a different viewpoint from most hunters. How much territory do you scout? How many different locations would you scout? Do you expect to see the same deer at the same locations? If you hunt fixed locations, what would you mean by scouting? Is scouting when few hunters are in the area, or when hunters are in the area hunting? Does the hunter ever scout inseason, while he's hunting?

Scouting is an easy word to use, but what does it mean?

Yeah I would say it is regional. I probably should have said a lot of people instead of most people. I guess a lot and it works for me.

Often I hunt the first morning of gun season in a spot I haven't been in for a year.

I look at factors that I think mature bucks like and then I wait until I think the time is right. One of those factors is being where I'm usually not.

Your a Tough One Valentine.......then theirs Boy-Scouts,Girl-Scouts,TransGender-Scouts,Indian-Scouts..... It's a never ending battle! :D ;)