# Pre-season scouting



## NTKG (Aug 16, 2003)

SOOOOO... I never really get around to doing it as well as I should since right about when I want to drum season starts gettin good and it coincides with school etc work.

That being said, I thought we'd discuss it since it has blown SW all YEAR and seems to want to do so for the next while.

When do ya'll start scouting?
When do you think is appropriate to hang new stands?

How early is too early? If I scout out now, will i be nowhere close come later in the year? I figure I will be doing archery on bad wind days for drum fishing in OCT and smokin poling in NOV during bad winds and rifle hunting during dec. So when would it be appropriate?

What do ya'll think about habits during pre-rut, rut, post rut, second rut. Strategy? 

Figure we might could have a good discussion on it.


----------



## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

NTKG,

I start scouting immediately after deer season goes out. Especially if I have new land that I have not hunted before. I look for old scrapes, rubs and trails. That gives me a good idea of where the deer were using during the season. They can change up from one year to the next and probably will to some extent depending on the food source. I will scout all year. Not everyday but at least a few times for each piece of property that I hunt. You can easily pattern the deer by scouting all year.

If there are fields where you hunt you can go out in the late evening and sit and see how many deer are using the fields and how they are entering the fields. I talk to any farmers that farm the land. They see many more deer than I do because they are there more. A lot of info can be gathered by from the landowner or the person farming the land. I start doing this closer to hunting season because things will change between now and then. 

I hang most of my stands before the trees green up. But I have hunted the same land for years. I know where they bed, I know where they feed and I know crossings and funnel locations. 

This year is different. I have not been in the woods but a couple of times since deer season went out. I lost my 700 acres lease and another 100 acre lease. This year I am hunting smaller tracts of land. I see potential but I have yet to put up a stand or do any serious scouting. I have spoke to some of the neighbors to see what they are seeing. One tract of land that I leased is 20 acres. They just cut the timber and there are very few trees. The deer are still crossing it and there are some really big bodied deer. 

Different people scout different ways. You can also hang up some scouting cameras to see what is using the property you hunt. I suggest just visiting the land you hunt every once in a while to see what the deer are doing. You will be more familiar with the land and should have a better season come Fall.

Darin


----------



## NTKG (Aug 16, 2003)

Darin,

Hope your well brother.

The primary piece of private land I hunt is loaded with deer. It is a large property with just about all the textbook deer locations all in one area, including the deer crossing sign by the gravel driveway...... Apple trees, big oaks, cutover, fields, a pond etc.

In the one year I have hunted that place hard, they seemingly (before the dogs start anyway) seem to be pretty consistent. Fruit early, acorns late. But I saw some nasty big rubs./rublines late in the season that were obviously old. I also saw a few scrapes and had a mock scrape kept clean as well in the cutover late season. I saw the biggest deer I've ever seen in person there.... I didn't shoot and shot a doe later ( i was thinking meat not rack).

I'm wondering what I can do to ensure success early this year and generally just getting better about patterning deer. 

I don't want to set a stand too early and find out that i should have waited and leave scent everywhere...

I only have two stands I can put up, and a climber, but I am trying to avoid using the climber and getting sweaty during archery. I just don't know if I should focus on fruit trees and then move closer to rut, or wait as long as possible before hanging based on the intel available then...

oh and there are bears in the property, which I would prefer to stay away from and apparently he saw a few coyotes this spring as well. I've not seen much in the fields at all, they are all unplanted, but the funnels leading from the ponds to the big acorn on the front on the property i've seen deer each time i've gone, but coming from either direction both morning and evening....


----------



## dirtyhandslopez (Nov 17, 2006)

For the urban archery season, you could just sit in a tree and read a book and wait for them to come to you, if you were to get there early enough in the season


----------



## Finger_Mullet (Aug 19, 2005)

My thinking about hanging stands is hang them early and your scent will be gone. If you are sure you know their pattern go ahead and hang your stand now and don't go back until right before season. Things grow up over the Summer so there will be limbs to trim and final preparation before you start slinging arrows. Just don't go in with a chainsaw and start clearing everything. If I have to cut shooting lanes I will do it well before deer season to let things cool back down. Hell stands are cheap. Go buy a few more and scatter them in several good places. That way you do not put too much pressure on one stand. If you do have to move one during season just do it and get out. Let it rest for a week or so and go hunt it. 

Sounds like you need to hang one stand for the early season when they are eating fruit and then a stand when they start on the acorns. I use my climber to fine tune my hunting. If I see deer just out of range or in another location other than where my stands are, I will take my climber and skip around some. It is better to do this when the weather is cool so you don't sweat to death and scare everything in the woods. Those grown up fields would be a good place during the rut if deer are using them. In my past experiece deer use these fields as bedding areas. A good place for a rutting buck to scare up a doe to chase. 

Sounds like you are hunting prime land. Good luck to you. You got to quit letting those big boys walk. The big deer that I shoot get ground up into hamburger. If I am wanting tender meat I will shoot a yearling doe. I keep very few deer but I do fill up some freezers for those less fortunate. 

Darin


----------

