Scouting during the season

[MUSKY18]

I found a nice new (for me) chunk of land to hunt on. It is public land, but a good sized chuck at 1400 acres. Here is the question that I am throwing around. Do I want to go out and walk the land and do some scouting to try and figure out where the deer are bedding, moving, trails, etc? Even tho it is public land, I really don't want to running all over the place and screw up my hunting as well as everyone else who hunts out there. I have only seen 4 other people out there hunting so far. Because it is public land with people going through it, will the deer be more tolerable to the scent of humans. It is a really good looking place, and I need to look around, I just don't want to make other hunters angry by possibly messing up their setups. What the thoughts???????

[goblueM]

easy... go scout it while you hunt it

just wander around lookin for good spots with an arrow nocked

[joe806]

Musky, I think I know what peice your talking about, I have been hunting out there 5-6 times this season so far. Don't worry about walking around in there, there has been a bunch of small game hunters walking all over in there. I have scene about 5-6 guys in there on a regular basis but thats alot of ground to cover. I wouldn't worry about messing any thing up.

[deerminator]

I had a similar situation. Had a neighbor allow me to hunt his 100 acre farm a few weeks ago so I I grabbed my bow and just walked the whole thing over the course of a day to look for sign and spots. Deer have been all over the spots I've walked since then while I've watched them from my binoculars. I say get in there and check it out.

[Bear55]

I like to get aerial photos and some topo maps and do a little pre-scouting to pinpiont some areas I might be interested in. After that a lot of times I just throw the stand on my back and head in, if I like what I see I setup right away, if not I move on to the next spot. Sounds like you will have plenty of land to work with. One thing to consider this time of year the deer have started to feel some pressure so you might find more action off the beaten path.

[musky hunter]

In season or not, if you are going to hunt it your best advantage is knowing the lay of the land. Spray up well and use scent blocker clothing if you can. Finding the good spot and knowing why it's a good spot far outweighs a little human scent, al least in my humble opinion. Good luck.

[matchset]

hands down.... scout it!

[Bear55]

One other thing I always do on Public land is to avoid the obvious spots other hunters are going to flock too. Any funnels are going to have already had other hunters in there scenting up the area. Look for places the other hunters may have overlooked like close to the parking area or way back, if you can cross a swamp, beaver dam, or river you might have a nice area of the woods to yourself.

[96trigger]

Scout it and don't worry about it. Deer in areas that are heavily pressured are used to the pressure. The can move all day if they are pushed. On the farm I hunt, the farmers wife and kids walk around the farm quite often. The deer are used to hearing and seeing people, many times they just run a little ways and then come right back out of the woods when the person leaves. I would definitely scout it.

[sticknstring]

Absolutely... scout it. Move fast and cover some ground. Remember the deer will have most of the other hunters there patterned. Don't be afraid to get back in deep or put some hip boots on and hunt those hard to access areas.

[lungdeflator]

scout it on a rainy day or a right before the rain. itll be quieter and scent will get washed away. Ive taken to scouting a particular spot a year in advance, this way i can basically walk all over it as much as i want in a day or two and then have a whole year before i go back in

[Bear55]

Scout it and don't worry about it. Deer in areas that are heavily pressured are used to the pressure. The can move all day if they are pushed. On the farm I hunt, the farmers wife and kids walk around the farm quite often. The deer are used to hearing and seeing people, many times they just run a little ways and then come right back out of the woods when the person leaves. I would definitely scout it.

This brings up a good point, I think deer can tolerate different kinds of pressure. People walking on trails or bird hunters a lot of times are just moving through, the deer hear and see them coming a long way off and they don't consider them a threat. I think moving through the area in a casual manner won't do much damage, try to gather as much info as you can as quickly as you can and get back out. I like the tip about going out in the rain to hide your scent.

If you start sneaking through the woods, or jumping deer out of their beds they are going to know something is up and be a little harder to hunt.

[WyoChris]

If you worried about the other hunters, do your scouting during the midday lull when most of those guys won't be in thier stands anyway