Scouting Starts Now?

[rexahayes]

With half of a saddle season under my harness, I'm going all in. I've got several public land areas within 45m-1hr of my home that I've just stumbled around on with no real plan and no confidence. I'm putting out cameras to try and understand what's out there and where I should focus my efforts/hang my presets. This will serve as motivation for me to continue to get out there and trudge around to make for a better 2022 season.

Spot one: flooded within a week. Saw mostly otters, beavers, raccoons and pigs on the cam.

Spot two: Pigs, deer, and what I believe to be a good size bear. Edge of a swamp with a couple of worn trails converging and lots of big rubs.

Spot 3 and beyond: getting out this weekend to leave some cams high in some trees and let em soak! Got a bunch of wildgame innovations cameras on sale at Walmart.

Will update soon. Would like to hear from anyone who's scouting already!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[mavinwa2]

I scout the SW, NW Arizona areas right after end of season Jan-31, tail end of rut and continue thru Mid-March.
Best time of year to scout and observe what quality of big bucks are in my hunt zones. I'm alone most of the time, bucks are near does, No other pressure, and deer aren't so spooky.
Take pictures, take notes, maybe find a shed or 2 in March. Plus, it's not so dang hot!

didn't know there are public hunting lands in Texas. All Texans that I've met in the field (AZ, CO) say its 90% private ranches, leases for hunting. They say what public land there is, isn't worth the hunt as lack of game.
From what I can tell from your pics, appears to be good time to scout your area as vegetation is limited until new growth occurs. Game trails easily determined too.

 

[camping1601]

Still waiting for the snow to melt. As soon as the roads are clear I'll be out every weekend till it greens up.

 

[rexahayes]

I scout the SW, NW Arizona areas right after end of season Jan-31, tail end of rut and continue thru Mid-March.
Best time of year to scout and observe what quality of big bucks are in my hunt zones. I'm alone most of the time, bucks are near does, No other pressure, and deer aren't so spooky.
Take pictures, take notes, maybe find a shed or 2 in March. Plus, it's not so dang hot!

didn't know there are public hunting lands in Texas. All Texans that I've met in the field (AZ, CO) say its 90% private ranches, leases for hunting. They say what public land there is, isn't worth the hunt as lack of game.
From what I can tell from your pics, appears to be good time to scout your area as vegetation is limited until new growth occurs. Game trails easily determined too.

I moved from Dallas a while back, but never changed my location on Rokslide. I'm in south Arkansas now.

Yeah, game trails are pretty easy to find now. I guess I need to really focus on some well worn and intersecting ones just from a picture volume standpoint.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[rexahayes]

Put a camera back out on this intersecting trail. I'm gonna let it soak for as long as I can stand it. Hung it about 10ft. Angled down. I threw a preset up for my saddle as well.

Dropped another cam off at a very sharp curve near a creek with a slough close by that creates a bit of a funnel. Put it over a somewhat used trail. It's not 50 yards from the waters edge. Jumped some doe one the way in.

How often do you all go back to check?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Gheft]

This time of year if I'm trying to figure out if there's deer in an area il check my cams about every 2 weeks, soon as antlers start growing I check them once a month til August, during season I check them bout once a week. But I don't hang them on an empty trail, I only hang my cams over scrapes, the scrapes are usually on travel corridors and the deer use them year round

Sent from my motorola one 5G ace using Tapatalk

 

[CBB]

I spend most of post season time scouting and shed antler hunting. I relax a little in summer unless I'm trying to pattern a specific deer.
Trail cams on community scrapes year round is a great tool. Deer visit these areas often even if they aren't working the scrapes.

I recently set 2 cameras on scrapes that I won't check until August.

 

[RCL]

S. Arkansas has a lot to like for hunting and fishing.
Spent a lot of time in Magnolia.

 

[JimGa]

Just like Camping1601 said, been waiting for the damn snow to melt and got about 6" yesterday.

 

[rexahayes]

S. Arkansas has a lot to like for hunting and fishing.
Spent a lot of time in Magnolia.

Absolutely. Didn't realize how lucky I was until I moved away! Just gotta get out there and do some work.

Set out two more and have got 4 soaking currently. Going to pick up the first two and concentrate on finding scrapes.

@CBB Do you hunt over scrapes? Or is that just a good way to find deer in the area with cameras?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[rexahayes]

Our snow lasted all of 12 hours. Almost 70 degrees the next day lol.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Wrench]

I didn't see a whitetail deer track in the 3 months of anow on the ground here.....we lost almost every last one to blue tongue.

 

[Tedhunts]

I'm currently hanging new stands for the upcoming Oct. season. This is best time to see movement patterns and make adjustments along with major trimming without having significant impact on the hunting season. In last month, my son and I have put up new or moved 5 ladder stands, and have about 3 to more to stand up. YOY patterns seem to change slightly and we try to keep up.

This time of year not much else you can do arround here..

 

[Ghumphreys]

Getting out looking for sheds. See which deer made it thru unscathed.

 

[CBB]

Small set found today

 

[rexahayes]

Just picked up 4 of my cameras. I tried placing them up high and angled down with sticks wedged behind them. Note to self and anyone else doing that: at that height (12-15') you really can't use the same trees, gotta pull them back and reduce the angle. Had some picks of pigs, deer and coyotes but they had to be in the perfect spot to trigger.

Talked to some GWs about my turkey tags and plan to turkey scout in the mornings and place some cams near scraps that I found last year in some different WMAs. Had high hopes for my first area but I only left one preset.

Also did some sight fishing for bass on their beds (first time) caught my PR! 4.6lbs. Saw some absolute monster bass that day.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[98XJRC]

Kids and I spent time on the game lands I hunt this past weekend. Primarily hiked the logging road, however we are planning on being in the woods a minimum of once of month this offseason scouting. I left my cell camera up from last year and still have deer passing through the area. Kids are looking forward to hopefully seeing some fawns within the next few months, while I'm hoping to see another shooter buck in the area.

 

[Squirrel Master]

It never really stops for me. I am in the woods every weekend in the off season, either hog hunting or calling predators. Of course the whole time I'm looking for new spots for next year or checking old spots I've hunted in the past. It's just kinda my thing.

 

[isaacgoodson]

There’s a lot of things that change between now and the time season rolls around. When scouting this time of year the best signs you can find are shed antlers. Seeing deer in the area is great, but don’t get too attached to that big buck. Summer patterns will break and that might be the last you see of him, until rut of course. Goodluck!

 

[rexahayes]

Spent the last morning of my turkey hunt in the rain so I decided to go walk around! Found a pretty big double rub following a game trail then found what I think is a buck bed. It's on a small ridge that runs down to an intermittent creek. 10x10ft grassy spot laid down with a rub literally in the middle. It was bordered by pine thicket and creek bottom to the south, thinned pine ridges/hills to the east and a head high clear cut to the north (yellow in screenshot).

Any seasoned scouters want to tell me this is or isn't useful? What would you do with this information?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk