Scouting For Deer

Scouting for deer is the one thing that you can do to improve your chance of killing a deer.  Scouting for deer is not simply walking around the woods looking for deer.  There are some steps that can be taken to make scouting more effective.

The goal to scouting is to find the best spot to hunt.  There are three steps too effective scouting. First, get an overlay of the land.  Second, look for plants that the deer will use.  The last step is looking for deer sign. Your goal is to maximize your time in the woods.

The first step is the get a general lay of the land.  You need to know what land marks are in the area.  You should know where bodies of water like lakes, ponds, swamps, rivers, and streams are.  Be aware of hills, valleys, and saddles. These are all things that will affect deer movement.

Scouting starts with an overview of the land you are hunting.  Get maps or use a map service on the internet.  Get a good feel for any trails, roads, and other manmade items that are in your hunting area. You are trying to cut down the amount of area you are going to scout.  You are never going to be able to scout the whole area so look for places that will force deer into tight areas. Use this information to limit you scouting to the best place to hunt.  Pick two or three areas you want to scout.  When hunting public land, you are also looking for areas where other hunter will not easily get to. 

Next you want to get into the woods.  You are still looking for land marks and bodies of water.   You are looking to see if the areas that you picked from the maps are good to hunt.  I call this speed scouting.  You are walking fast, covering as much land as you can.  You are trying to focus on only the best areas to scout and hunt.

The next step is to know what vegetation is in the area.  Look for any food source that deer can use.  Also keep track of the yield of food that will be available.  Deer will not keep coming to an area if the food is gone. Also look for thick areas where deer are likely to hide.

 To start, not all vegetation is used all year long.  Deer may visit vegetation for only a very short time of  the year.  Start with the main source of food in your area.  In the areas I hunt acorns are the main food source for deer in the fall and winter. Knowing where the acorns are is always a good start.  You need to know what other food may become available.  For example, for a couple of weeks in the fall, deer will look for maple leaves to eat.  They are only looking for the red ones still on the tree because they have more sugar in them.  I have sat for hours watching deer eat maples leaves off saplings.  When deer are looking for maple leaves they will not be eating acorns.

The last step is to look for deer sign.  Deer sign can be tracks, droppings, and rutting signs. Tracks and droppings can be very fresh. In most cases tracks and droppings will be gone with the next good rain.  Old rubs on trees will be there from year to year.  I spend my late summers looking for these rub lines.  I’m not looking for a place to hunt, I’m just trying to see what caliber of deer is in the area.

Trail cams are a great way to see what deer are in the area. There is no sense spending your limited hunting time in an area where there are not good numbers or caliber of deer that you are looking for.  Trail cams will tell you what deer are in your area.

The best places to hunt are on deer trails.  Trails that lead away from bedding areas are some of the best trails to hunt.   Look for areas where deer have to walk around something.  It can be as small as a rock in the woods. Then setup downwind of this area. 

You will have a better chance of killing a deer now that you have become more familiar with the area.  Scouting can be a very effective tool in killing a deer. Start by going onto the internet and use a map service like Google maps to see what new areas you are going to hunt.

Happy hunting,

Sean