off season scouting
 

when does everybody start there off season scouting? do u scout now or do u wait til march? when do u think deer go back to normal activities? meaning hunting season ended here in mass december 31. so they are no longer pressured. obviously with snow on ground u cant find old scrapes. also deer are probably grouped up now.

Day after the season ends is when I start. At that time you will discover many of the escape routes they use and in my case being farm fields all around I find the trails they take to the fields to feed in after dark. Back tracking will get you in bedding areas.

:D Al

As soon as the season ends.

Yup, Al and Flags are absolutely right... One of the best times to scout is immediately after the season ends. It will show what the deer are doing when pressured.

End of season is best, provided you don't have knee deep snow and subzero temps as we did and still have this year. Right now, any messing around I might do in a yarding area will just stress out the deer even more than they already are being stressed. And much of the other sign besides rubs is buried. This year I will wait til spring.

i scout every month of the year but november.

right after the season ends i like to scout with snow on the ground you can find traveling routes and feeding areas

I start with shed hunting and go every chance I get

Yup, we can get beat like that in our region... My favorite years are when we get the clippers blowing threw every two or three days... On a typical year the deer in my area don't go to yard until around the first of the year. I never mess with them when their in the yards either.

Scouting at the end will let you see their pressured routes. Than just looking at what they are up to frequently to see were their trails are and their patterns but for true scouting, like all day looking and watching. Than about two weeks before the season.