In order to be a successful deer hunter every year, you absolu1cly must get out in the woods or field and do a sufficient amount of scouting. This should be done at various intervals throughout the year. There arc several situations that can possibly change the deer habits from year to year and even from the last time you scouted to the next. You may think they are doing a certain thing in a certain area, but yet since you last scouted the area, the adjoining property may have been logged and they stopped approaching your area from that direction. The weather may have caused a drastic change in their movements. A forest fire may have consumed their food sources and cover. The only way you will be able to stay on top of their current activities is to periodically check their activities, by adequate scouting.
Preseason Scouting
Scout several times throughout the year and document all of the different sign you find. Study these notes throughout the year and formulate your strategy, based on what you perceive the deer to be doing, by the time hunting season arrives. It's very important to determine their patterns in order to properly plan your hunting strategy.
Locating the deer
Locating the deer sign is extremely important, but equally important is when or what part of the day or night it was made. All sign other than sign found during the heavy rut, should be related to the fact that normally the deer will feed at night, midday and very early in the morning or very late in the afternoon anti bed down during the day with a few exceptions. This tells you what they are doing and when, so if you can add to this puzzle the 'where' factor, you can formulate your strategy. Scout for the current bedding areas and current food sources and find their trails into and out of these areas.
Particular Spot
If you notice that the deer are doing a certain thing, in a particular area at a certain time of day, figure out why, because this could be a critical factor in getting a nice deer. If all of a sudden their pattern changes, try to determine why it changed. The more you try to learn about the whitetail deer, the better hunter you will become.
If you hunt a particular spot this year, and it proves to be very productive very, don't plan on waiting until next years opening morning hunt to go back there if you plan to hunt there. You must preseason scout this area, because the fact that it still hunting method was productive one year doesn't mean it will be the next. As I have mentioned before, there are many factors that may affect their travel patterns.
Topography Maps
Use topography maps, aerial photographs, camtrakker night vision cameras, stereoscope and stereoscopic maps, scouting notes, and any other information you can compile to assist you in determining what the deer are doing in your area. You may also find that the local farmers, or store managers/owners are good sources of information. Check with the local state game and fish, wildlife resources agency, forestry service, etc. Use all this information in conjunction with your scouting. Telephone linemen, propane gas deliverymen, mailmen and any other such people who frequent the same areas over and over, may also be helpful Said Jack Mikeson of safariors.com
If you own your own property or have a lease on a certain piece of land, you might want to consider purchasing a twenty-four hour deer surveillance system such as camtrakker for example. Many of the photos in this book are the result of a camtrakker. This will make you aware of what some of the deer in your area are doing, especially at night. and IS reveal the quality of deer/bucks you have in your area.
When Scouting Close
Scouting close to and during hunting season is best done mid-morning or mid-afternoon, in an effort to disrupt the least amount of deer activity. This does not apply to the rut, because you may disrupt deer activity at any time during this period, so be ready at all times to see deer. Remember that you are most likely to see deer in the early morning, midday, and late evening periods. These are the peak activity periods, so plan your hunting tactics or strategy accordingly.
I have found that if you check an area that you want to hunt a couple of weeks before opening day of the season and it looks good, get out of the area and stay out until a couple of days before you plan to hunt it. You should make one last quick check, being careful not to leave any sign or scent in the area. If the area still looks good, get out until your actual hunt. This way you should be able to slip into the area undetected, and hunt and feel confident that you have not disrupted their activity.
Hunting Pressure
One of the most exciting signs to come across when you are scouting is the sign of a big buck, or one that might be a con-tender for trophy status. Depending on the area you hunt and the hunting pressure, many of these big old bucks have become nocturnal and are active only at night, with a few possible exceptions. Peak rut will sometimes lure them a little further out of their bedding areas during the daylight hours. Hunting pressure sometimes can work to your advantage by forcing these old bucks out of their bedding areas as well. Naturally this peak rut period is when they are most vulnerable, because of their preoccupation with servicing the does. In most cases, the most effective way to hunt them is to scout and hunt in relation to their bedding areas.
If you find large rubs on large trees, this is normally a sign of a large buck. If you find a set of large tracks of a deer that is walking that are very deep, indicating that the deer is extremely heavy, this is probably a big buck also. This would be the rule of thumb, but there, are also some very large doe out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Post Season Scouting
Often when a buck attempts to rub the velvet from his rack, or when he is at his peak testosterone level, he will raise his rack and roll it around in the small tree limbs ripping them apart, making this very obvious sign when your scouting, so be sure ha look for these things.
If you were hunting a nice buck but failed to harvest him, scout between the bedding areas and the food sources for dropped horns/racks. The bucks normally begin to drop their racks shortly after hunting season ends, so if they survived the hunting pres-sure there should he some dropped horns somewhere. The most likely place to find them would be on or near a trail between the bedding area and the food sources. If you find the dropped horns, this is a pretty good indication that he will be there next year.
Because the rubs are normally on the side of the tree that the deer is standing on when he makes them, it is a good deduction that the deer came from that direction or some direction on that side of the tree. As the buck rubs on the tree, he literally scrapes the bark off and particles will fall to the base of the tree. Depending on the weather, you can determine approximately how recently the tree was rubbed, by the freshness of these particles.
Search the Right Area
Once you find the first rub, if you search this area thoroughly, you should be able to find another rub which should give you an idea of his line of travel. Now follow this line and direction of travel and possibly you can find more rubs and finally a scrape line. The size of the rub and the size of the tree can often tell you a little bit about the size of the deer. Large bucks will rub large trees and small trees; however, small bucks seldom rub large trees, only smaller trees. You can tell how recently the deer rubbed the tree by how fresh and crisp the shavings are, that arc located at the bottom of the tree. If it has been raining, this is not as easy to do as when it has been dry for a few days. If the weather is too hot, the shavings will dry up camping trip guide and make it harder to pinpoint a time when they were made. If you find a rub that is moist in dry weather, this rub was probably made during the previous night, or within the last few hours.
A scrape line is a string or nucleus of small, what is known secondary scrapes, located in an area not far from a buck's primary scrape. These scrapes are located in what is considered the buck’s core area.
Licking Branch
If you find a primary scrape, it will be quite large, three or four feet in diameter. The ground in this area will paw out down to the dirt and it will be located under a low limb approximately four or five feet off the ground. This limb will be chewed on and in some cases bitten off and is called a licking branch. The buck will rub his saliva a. adrenal glands on this limb as a calling card to estrous does. Other bucks, both young and old, may also leave their scent on this licking branch. Other bucks may also deer hunting-tips the scrape. This licking branch seems to be a communication link for estrous does, as well as bucks. The buck will also urinate over his hocks into his scrape and leave his hoof print in the middle of the scrape. These primary scrapes are described in more detail in the chapter on The Rut.
If you are seeing deer, at least you arc where the deer are. Certain things force deer to move from one area to another, or change their habits, so if you find very fresh sign, rest assured that you are where the deer are, or recently were, and in all likelihood will return to. Seek out a hunting site in this area along a good used trail.
Driving Along
If you are driving along, and a nice buck crosses the road in front of you, make a mental note of where this happened. Don't sell the idea short of going up to the nearest house around and inquiring about the possibility of hunting on their property. You might be pleasantly surprised at the response, especially if you are very courteous, and sincere, and offer to help them do something around the place. Offer to do a little free work for them.
Deer Activities
Make special note of deer crossings about the area, and relate to these crossings things you know or hear from people in the area about the deer activities. This is another way to gain information about the deer travel patterns to help you get an idea of where to try to acquire hunting permission slips.
Often when you arc driving along a. you spot a deer crossing sign, look around and see if it looks like a potentially good hunting prospect, if there are any homes in the area, you may be able to acquire permission to hunt the area. These crossings arc sometimes used and sometimes not, but these signs are indications deer having at one time crossed here on a regular basis.
Lower Lying Trees
Deer love acorns but will normally feed on those acorns that arc presently falling to the ground. You need to know that acorns begin to fall from the oak trees that are highest up on the ridges first and then gradually begin to fall from the lower lying trees and then on to the trees at the bottom of the ridges. Deer are going to be feeding on the trees that are presently dropping acorns as a rule because they are the freshest. Scout these areas thoroughly for current sign or extremely fresh deer sign. To locate these areas, first check the acorns on top of the ridges and listen for falling acorns hitting the forest floor. Notice if the squirrels are feeding on these acorns also because they not only prefer them fresh as the deer do, but they cause a la, number of acorns to fall to the ground making them available to the deer.
You should also look for various age droppings in this stand of oaks. This indicates that the deer are frequenting this area at different times, and by how fresh the droppings, you should be able to determine if they are still feeding there. These droppings may be round or oblong like a bean and if they arc fresh, they will be a shiny black and moist and will appear this way for a few hours depending on the weather. If they arc older, they will have a duller appearance, and b dry and more fibrous. It may h difficult to determine their numbers since biologists say that a deer will deposit approximately one dozen piles of droppings per day.
Last Few Words
If you seldom get snow, as we do here in middle Tennessee, take advantage of one when you do, by doing some serious scouting to see what the deer are actually doing. The fresh fallen snow will help you find where they are bedding down, where their trails are, and what food sources they are working at the time. You can also get an idea of their numbers, by the size of some tracks, how many large deer there are or possible bucks. Naturally if the ground is covered with a blanket of snow, it will be much easier to actually see deer. Do some scouting on these days even if you have to take some vacation time or a day off to do it, because it will pay off in the long run.
When a buck rises out of his bed, he will normally urinate in it or beside it before he departs from it. A doe, however, will move away from her bed to urinate. This should easy sign to find in the snow, so if you find and in the snow that has been urinated in, the odds are it is a buck. Deer normally &locate after they rise out of their bed, so bedding areas will tend to have a lot of various age droppings around the area. A temporary bedding area will not have all of these various age travel touring tips droppings because it was only used once to relax during a feeding or browsing period.