Teach me how to scout

I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but it's recently occurred to me that I really don't know how to "scout" for deer. In the 18ish years or so that I've been hunting, I've always been fortunate enough to hunt land where we pretty much already knew where the deer liked to hang out, but that's no longer the case. I've never had to truly scout a property myself and frankly, the idea of it is a little intimidating (especially for public land), not even really knowing where to start.

So let's say you're planning to hunt a property you've never hunted before, where do you start? I mean I realize a lot of it just boils down to putting in some mileage on foot, but it seems like you should have an idea where you're going or what you're looking for instead of just striking out in a random direction and hoping for the best.

I would get Huntstand app and look at boundaries and look for pinch points, funnels, water, thickets, then get on your feet an go look. The aerial view of the property will give you a good idea where to start to look. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I personally think scouting during season causes more harm than good. I scout right after season goes out. I try to walk all over the property looking for sign. Deer are creatures of habit, they will do the same thing next year that they did this year. As far as trying to figure out where to hunt this year. Start off in a spot where you can see a lot of area. Then move closer as you spot deer. You find does and there will be bucks.

I'm not talking about for this season really, more just an "in general" question.

learn what to look for and identify, and learn what it means for the different seasons. then take what you learned and go look for it. it's fun.

things to find: property lines. access possibilities. access directions (wind). water. food. bedding. ecotones/edges. funnels/saddles/bottlenecks. oak species. then most important- deer trails, poop, rubs, scrapes, shed antlers. scouting a new place is like christmas man. never boring.

I do 90% of my scouting with google earth. I look for areas where thick areas but up to semi open woods. They are easy to find online. I walk in hunt and adjust accordingly. Those first sits are usually my most productive

This is the simplest and best advice. Sit down at your computer with the wma map and open up google earth. Focus on a small section of ground (500 acres or so) and mark 4 to 5 spots that look good. Swap the view between topo and imagery and you can really get a good idea what you'll be walking into. If you were doing this preseason you could then go spend a day and check these spots out and eliminate the ones without any deer sign.

Exactly what I do. No telling how much time I spend on google earth. I'll load coordinates from the Satellite imagaery to my handheld gps so that I know exactly where I want to be. From that point I'll adjust accordingly. The rest of my scouting includes just walking the area that I am interested in or property out- looking for rubs, scrapes, trails,beds, deer chit or whatever catches my eye.

I'll look at an area and think" what would a deer do".. Then I'll do the exact opposite because I'll never figure them son of a guns out.

The very first thing I look at when hunting new property is which way is NORTH. The second thing is points of access to the property. If I'm hunting 100 acres or less typically I only have one main access or two. It helps you if those are on the south or east side of the property. If your scent is blowing straight across where your going you may as well carry a rabbits foot. If not, you may be in for a challenge. The third thing I look for is food sources. Such as, (1)white oaks (2)other oaks (3) thickets with honeysuckle, kudzu or other shrubs or vines that deer are snipping (4) terrain features like steep ridges with saddles, swamps, creeks, rivers edge(normally has good oaks), cutovers. Dramatic terrain changes are typically travel corridors(think bass fishing and structure or ledges). I worry about bedding areas last to be honest. Because, if you find there food and there way into the food then you have found the deer. If you find a food source with deer poop scattered around then you need to back up and survey to find out how they are accessing it because that is a HOT spot. I could write a whole lot more but to me that is the basics to get started.

First, I like to look at aerial photos and try to find promising areas, but sometimes, hotspots don't have any indications from photos. Funnels are sometimes easy to spot. Also, it gives you a good overall perspective.

There is no substitute for walking and even riding at times. I look for trails/tracks, rubs and/or scrapes, droppings, food sources, lay of the land, and try to keep track of where the thickest parts are in the area.

I'll go to an area I want to check out and start walking, but not fast. I look for well used trails and old rubs. After I find a well used trail, I'll walk it and try and find out why they were using it. Sometimes it will lead you to a bedding area or feeding area or sometimes it just fades away into multiple smaller trails. I don't like to walk through bedding areas, because I won't be hunting in there anyway, but it is good to find an edge. Deer do not always bed in the thickest stuff but a lot of times, that seems to be the case, especially with bucks. One thing is sure, at least in my experience, if you go walking through their bedding areas, they will find new bedding areas fast.

If there are dirt roads or 4 wheeler trails in the area, I will ride them, especially a few days after a rain. Of course, I look for tracks where deer are crossing. The number of tracks will be a good indication of number of deer in the area (I know that sounds like a "Duh" statement, but I've been in areas where deer seldom cross the road).

I am always on the lookout for concentrations of white oaks, especially mature white oaks.

Also, I'll go to a well known food source, like a food plot, and find where the deer are entering and walk the trails back. A lot of times, you can find a good staging area where deer hang out before heading into the fields.

Most of the well used trails are made by the does and young bucks. Often the bucks will have a secondary trail that is often on the predominately down wind side. I think they use these so they can check the does.

Of course, game cameras can tell you for certain what is in the area. I am partial to creek bottoms because deer seem to use them as highways, at times. Always try to set the stand up where the wind is in your favor, but you already know that.

Deer will often take the easiest route that provides the most cover. If you cut a trail through a thicket, it won't be long until they are using it.

I always use rubber boots when scouting, no matter what time of year.

Right after the season finishes is the best time to scout, imho.

Deer movement, is usually based on their stomachs. I've never killed a deer that didn't have a FULL stomach, even during the rut. Deer need food, cover and water. If you find all 3 close together, there will most likely be deer there.

This is longer than I intended, but only scratches the surface.

But hey, I'm an lazy hunter who doesn't know how to scout because I once hunted with a crossbow with a corn pile (that I didn't put there) that was 300 yards away and out of sight.

thanks for all the feedback

Last few weeks in Feb. are the time to go scout. The woods are waaaay more open in that time than the summer before season comes in. You should still be able to see buck sign and can go walk the thick areas without being worried of pushing the deer out.

How you hunt needs to determine what you look for when you scout. If you plan to bowhunt then scout for the trees/food sources deer will be using at that time. If you plan to gun hunt I would look for terrain features and pinch points as mentioned. If you are scouting WMA's I'd focus on a tract of woods that has plenty of distance between the roads of possible. The harder a place is to get in, the better it usually is. Scout the other hunters as much if not more than the deer themselves..

Find topo maps of the property online or with the hunstand app. Aerial photos are good, but they don't show you how the land lays all that well. With topo maps you can find all the saddles, hollows, drains and points. Once you have found some spots, then click the aerial photo on huntstand app and try to find some thick areas, close to the places you found with the topo map. You can tell different type of trees and structure edges with an aerial. Then go to the property and walk around the areas that you selected at home and find the feed sign, trails and hunt what looks the freshest. After a few hunts, you will know where to adjust your stand placement and tweak your setup.

"Right after the season finishes is the best time to scout, imho."
That's great advice from MMAN. I do 90% of my deer scouting during turkey season since I hunt the same woods for both. I also scout in February on one of my clubs while I'm hog hunting.

There is high impact and low impact scouting. High impact is actually walking through the woods looking for sign. This is best done after the season or well before the season because deer will be alerted to your presence.

Low impact scouting can be done via topo map in the comfort of your own home, assuming you know how to read a topo map. Mytopo.com has a free map viewer that allows you to alternate between the topo and the google earth images. Look for shallow saddles between ridges or funnels. Use the google map to identify food sources like food plots or ag fields and bedding areas then use the topo map to find the best ambush spot between those areas.

I always scout some during season about two weeks before peek breeding. Seems to have always worked for me. I don't know how you can "keep your finger on the pulse" of bucks and not cover a little ground in season.

Lots of ways to answer your question... For me, it depends on lots of variables, maybe even mostly how I want to hunt said property.

Sometimes I'm scouting for actual deer sign--mostly POOP, or I'll use binos to look for acorns on certain trees (bow season). I seldom scout for "buck sign",it's just a bonus if it's present. Poop is A-1 evidence in my book. I may walk a firebreak on a cutover sometimes to see how much activity is crossing it, and where I could climb to watch that stretch.
Sometimes on a WMA I am scouting for a "place"...meaning I want a likely looking spot where I can shoot as much turf as possible.

^^^^^THIS^^^^^ x100

If you aren't field hunting I'm not sure how you do it otherwise. Waiting till the end of the season and scouting in February should be done as well, but deer patterns change when food sources in the woods change. Therefore, I scout during the season as well as after.

How? I still hunt the area where I want to go "scouting". I don't think I can explain how to do that on the internet and have met maybe enough people that I could count on one hand I'd say were good at it. Not easy but very valuable skill in my opinion.

Lots of good advice but IMO nothing beats walking around after the season and taking notes/marking spots in a GPS.

Is the land flat, hilly, or mountainous? Gotta find out where they lay and where they feed. Scouting is what makes deer hunting fun.

First find the thickest place on your property and next the food. In our area the oaks and hickorys are still holding leaves and should make finding them easy. Wind... Take a compass if needed and find North and south of thick stuff and hunt according.