How many days before your hunt do you scout

[AgentP]

So I’m hunting second rifle and I think I’m only gonna be able to hunt three days with my hunting buddy due to his work not letting him get off more. I plan on hunting the second weekend too with another friend. My friend who is a guide told me to scout every weekend before my season up to a few weeks in advance but everywhere I’ve seen says that scouting can be useless a week or two before the season opener. I think we are definitely planning on scouting the day before our opener too. Any tips on scouting? I know I should scout from a distance to avoid pushing the elk, but does it really matter if I’m hunting in an otc unit and other people are gonna push them regardless? Also is three days enough? I’d be willing to hunt alone a couple days during the week but the thought of packing out a bull elk by myself seems pretty daunting. As you can tell I’m a noob.

 

[High Climber]

Listen to your friend who is a guide
Time in the woods is your friend you will figure a lot of things out that will only help you

 

[Soj51hopeful]

The only reason an area isn’t worth scouting is 1 if you’re tag is a deer rutting time or 2 if the zone your hunting is a migratory dependent area. Otherwise scouting only helps. Even just driving around learning roads is huge. You should definitely spend time scouting.

 

[alecvg]

Scout as much as possible. I drew a tag here in Montana this year, I've been spending time in the unit at least once a week this summer learning trail systems, glassing points, etc, and am planning on scouting the entire week before season. Spend as much time as you can spare.

 

[Poser]

2nd rifle season is 8 days long. If you could hunt 10 days would you ods of success increase? what about 14 days? 16?

Pile those scouting days on and you are effectively turning an 8 day season into 10, 12, 14 etc days in length, thus greatly increasing your odds. You're goal may not necessarily be to see elk every day, bnut rather to learn the ins and outs of the terrain, how the elk potentially use that landscape so you can make every play possible on those 8 days you have a rifle in your hand. You know how you learn the ins and outs of an area by hunting it year after year? You have the opportunity to collect 2-3 years worth of hunting data in one season. Take advantage of that.

 

[AgentP]

2nd rifle season is 8 days long. If you could hunt 10 days would you ods of success increase? what about 14 days? 16?

Pile those scouting days on and you are effectively turning an 8 day season into 10, 12, 14 etc days in length, thus greatly increasing your odds. You're goal may not necessarily be to see elk every day, bnut rather to learn the ins and outs of the terrain, how the elk potentially use that landscape so you can make every play possible on those 8 days you have a rifle in your hand. You know how you learn the ins and outs of an area by hunting it year after year? You have the opportunity to collect 2-3 years worth of hunting data in one season. Take advantage of that.

I’ll definitely spend the weekends before scouting since I may only get 5 hunting days total due to work. Hopefully that helps my success a bunch. As far as glassing goes it’s a heavily wooded area so I’m not sure how to approach that. My goal is to hike up to a high ridge and travel along it to find some areas that will funnel the elk down the mountain along streams. Not sure if that’s a good tactic or not

 

[TagEater]

A major reason why guys do not like scouting early is that when the bullets start flying, the animals are often moved into different country.
If you can scout the weekends before, get there a day or 2 early to relocate, then make sure yours are one of the first bullets flying, it will help you a lot

 

[AgentP]

A major reason why guys do not like scouting early is that when the bullets start flying, the animals are often moved into different country.
If you can scout the weekends before, get there a day or 2 early to relocate, then make sure yours are one of the first bullets flying, it will help you a lot

Yes the plan is definitely a day of scouting before the season starts. May try to work something with my company to work extra hours the week before so I can get another additional day before then. But I do think I will put a spike camp for ease of getting to my spot early in the morning

 

[Mykolaivka887]

The elk area I drew this year, I've been post-season scouting religiously the past 10 years, until I decided it was time to start submitting permit applications for it.

Obviously, you didn’t go that route, but instead, are trying to figure out how pre-season scouting might help you.

Scouting too early, pre-season, won't help you much, in my overall experience with scouting elk. So, with that being said, I would focus as much time to scouting the week before opening day.

 

[Buglebrush]

Be in the woods at much as possible, but prioritize hunting days. If you can only be gone a certain amount of days then by all means make those days hunting days. Never give up hunting days in favor of scouting days except in certain uncommon situations. Most of my scouting has been with a weapon in hand.

 

[Beendare]

I scouted a new unit a couple weeks ago for the archery hunt in a month.

Scouting isn't just looking for critters, it's looking at roads and access, where most hunters will be and where the elk will move to.

Essentially, Its looking the country over and getting a feel for it. Glad I did....but the spot I want to camp has bear droppings every 10'.

 

[AgentP]

Be in the woods at much as possible, but prioritize hunting days. If you can only be gone a certain amount of days then by all means make those days hunting days. Never give up hunting days in favor of scouting days except in certain uncommon situations. Most of my scouting has been with a weapon in hand.

Yeah I would be out there all week if I could but my buddies won’t be able to and I’m hesitant to try and pack out a bull elk by myself

 

[Jaquomo]

+1 Beendare. These days, rifle scouting is used for figuring out how to get from point A to B to C so you can hit your Plan A, B,C, spots quickly once the season starts. It is also used to figure out funnels and pinch points where you can shoot them as they run through, plus places where they might be holed up after first rifle season.. Much of that can be done from your laptop and topo maps, plus a National Forest map. If you are time constrained, use all your days to hunt.

Remember , the elk you will be hunting have been hunted hard and pushed around for a month and a half before you arrive. They don't behave like unpressured elk on September 1.

 

[Erebor]

i try to scout year round in my little area i can hunt and will do some pre scouting in the middle of august in the honabia wildlife refuge this year in s.e. oklahoma as well as my other little spots

 

[Mykolaivka887]

i try to scout year round .......

Precisely. Me too. That's actually the smart way of doing it, if a person has access to that luxury.

 

[87TT]

Yeah I would be out there all week if I could but my buddies won’t be able to and I’m hesitant to try and pack out a bull elk by myself

Don’t let the packout stop you from hunting. Just do it. I have never had help packing out an elk. Just takes more trips. Will be solo again this year and I’m 71.

 

[Gerbdog]

if i arrive early to a camp site before season starts im staying on roads and glassing if im scouting at all. I will not be walking off the road anywhere until season starts and i have a weapon in my hand.... opening day those elk could be sitting just 200 yards off the road .... and if i decided i was gonna go hike around before season starts and bump them out? That sucks, coulda had my tag filled opening morning and an easy pack out.....

This is September archery season.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

What Gerbdog said was my last experience. Elk were all around the FS roads driving into the spot we ended up camping. Some were standing in the roads, some within spitting distance. Did a little bit of recon around our campsite. If we had an either sex tag, or we could have legally killed a spike, my buddy and I would have been done at daylight opening morning, less than a quarter mile from our tent. He tagged out the next day about a mile from our tent, but 600 yards from a road. Easy down hill pack out right to the truck

 

[Mightyman]

I live 15 min from the farm i hunt… i have cameras and feeders (legal in GA)
So i technically am scouting all year
However I take 2 weeks in Nov to go to VA on family farm for deer… i head up for 4 days in October to scout, new trails, bedding, etc. i have been surprised to see how these things change over the years. So scouting is very valuable

 

[stv117]

I’ve killed a deer in the morning, drug the deer out, hunted the same spot in the evening and killed another deer in the evening. Of course it doesn’t always work out that way. What I’m saying is as long as you aren’t eating cheeseburgers while scouting and making a ton of noise you can hunt the area the same day. Of course if you make a bunch of racket and scare everything away for miles you probably won’t have much success hunting it the same day or even the next morning.

Seen my first bear first day at 2:30 in after noon he came back at 4 pm and that is when I shot . Second bear I shot was coming in at 7:30 pm. on camera .The first night I hunted he came in at 6:43pm.