Early spring scouting

[Kyle]

With the rains and the spout of warm weather the last couple days, the snow is almost comepletely gone except for sparce patches. It was a great day for scouting. The woods are preserved from last fall, and with the wet ground, it was easy to stay quiet. I had a blast out there today. I went to an area that I found at the end of last season, and saw alot of deer movement this winter in. Within the first 20yds of this hot spot, I bumped two does from there beds. Luckily I was quiet and slow enough that I got to watch them try to figure me out for a few mins. This area was loaded with droppings. Ive never seen so much deer dung in my life. I know a certain amount was from the winter, but there sure was a lot of fresh stuff. I found a swamp line that had a couple of pine thickets between it and the woods. These had heavily used runways zipping in and out. When I stopped and looked around, I noticed a doe walking through one of these pine thickets. When I saw her she was only about 40ds from me. She had no idea I was there, so I waited until her head faced away from me to crouch down. It looked like she had just woken up from a long nap :)lol. She came to this little opening, and unfortunately she spotted me. I wasnt moving, but I think it was the blob of blue from my sweatshirt and jeans just sticking out like a sore thumb against a pine backdrop. I watched her for about 10 mins. She kept walking closer trying to decide what I was, and if I was dangerous. She blew at me a couple times, started walking to my left, and then galloped away with her tail up. I watched her close though. She stopped 180 degrees from where she was before, on my opposite side about the same distance(40yds). It was so awesome! It was a perfect example of how a deer will back track on you and swing around to get the wind. Lucky for me, she couldnt get it and before she finally decided I wasnt a threat and slumped off, she made a full circle back to wear I saw her in the first place. I could see her the whole time! I moved on after that and kept following a heavy trail. It was amazing back there. Trails crisscrossing every which way, two and three heavy trails merging into one. I put on about 3 miles total today and I'll tell ya what, this was exactly what I needed after a long winter. It got my blood flowing, and finally opened up a light at the end of the tunnel to this coming archery season!

[Tippman]

Sounds fun and like a good place to find some sheds!

[Kyle]

I was looking for them, but no luck. There were alot of rubs so I really thought I was going to find a few. Next time I guess.

[surewood]

Rain and warm weather sounds good to me. We have about 20" of snow on the ground. I did get out before it came and it does'nt get much better than spring scouting. Good temps no bugs and you can see everything.

[imhooked]

You can find alot of the worn trails from fall and winter now before green up.

Good time to find sheds before the porkies and squirrels and various other critters get them.

Lot's of snow here also.

The deer are acting like it's winter again.