Deer Scouting Tips

[Sarge789]

Hey there,

So, relatively new to deer hunting. Didn't bag one my first year going out (missed the rut, was away for work) - though I found some good tracks, bedding, and rubbed down trees. However, this was in the winter (with snow, which is way easier to find things in). I was up north west of Merrit (not telling you where :-D). However, I want to go up and do a little scouting/camping this summer and start finding where these old boys are hangin out! Other than bedding and scat, what should I be looking for? Will the locations stay relatively the same come fall, or should I use these as indications as to a more appropriate winter area??

Any tips for this new/hopeful deer hunter would be much appreciated... Thank you!

Sarge789

[r106]

I'm relatively new as well, on my limited knowledge a lot depends on the location and when you'll be hunting them. If your hunting the rut, if you scout an area and find lots of doe's then IMHO that's almost good enough as when the rut is on the bucks will come to the doe's. If your hunting the earlier half the season then you need to find where there spending the summer months. Usually the higher up the better.

Again this will very in different areas but they will usually not change much in location until mid to late Oct, sometimes sooner or not at all. Bucks need food, water, cover and when the rut is on they need Doe's. But lots of things can effect this - weather, hunting pressure and predators.

My tactic for hunting the rut that has worked great the last few years is , Hunt the doe's and you'll find the bucks

[hoochie]

deer seem to have a pattern. if you are seeing deer at a certain time of day or evening, they will generally be back there around the same time on another day. Last year, I kept coming across the same group of mulies about 2 or 3 clicks away from the whitetails. There was a large group of females I would see in the evening, then I was able to find them one morning. I watched them as they ate, bed down, then after a rest got up and headed toward the spot I had seen them in the afternoon. The next day I went to the "morning spot", and there they were. Later in the evening, I went to the "evening spot" and sure enough they had moved to that spot again. Not sure where they went for a couple hours between, but I knew where to go to find them depending on the time of day.
with tracks, when you see lots of tracks, look to see the size of them. is this one or two deer that come here often? or is this a larger group of deer that have passed through once? Find their trails, and sit in a spot where you can see them come and go.
when I started hunting people always told me first light, and i'd never see any deer mid day. My wife took her whitetail buck at 11:50am. we knew the deer would be there around 14:00, so we went in early to sit and wait. the buck came in long before the does, which I was also led to believe was not what would happen. I was always told the bucks will sit back and the does go out of the tree line first. Not always.
I have a friend who has a farm, and he knows where the deer will be in the morning, and he knows they end up at his place in the evening. Its like us going to work everyday. you know we get up and head to work, then we make our way back home later. Most of the time we take the same route, and some times we take an alternate route

[brian]

Will the locations stay relatively the same come fall, or should I use these as indications as to a more appropriate winter area?? It all depends on the area, whether the local deer population are migratory or not, and what the habitat is like. Right now the deer will be in spring mode, which is happy as hippies on a free weed farm with all the new lush new growth after a long hard winter. So basically life is as good as it gets for a deer. This will all change a lot come hunting season and the deer will adjust to these changes.

[6pt_elk_wannabe]

Right now is when the mulies are making their way up a bit higher in elevation, still good to get out and scout but they don't usually start hanging around their summer range until June which is when they'll become easier to pattern and you can go get a crack at one for the early season. In you're area the mulies are gonna stay high until the snow pushes them down (the big boys) but the majority of the deer are gonna slowly make their way down to lower elevations when the snow starts to accumulate. From my experience hunting in that general area if you get a a lot of snow early (around 1.5 feet) then drop down below the snow line or just at it and you'll see the majority of activity. White tails usually stay in the same area except for when the rut kicks in so they're pretty patternable.