Scouting. Hows it looking?

[40caljustice]

Hows your scouting going? Any sign or sheds? Describe your spot. What's the layout?

I woke up today and was just so bored I couldn't stand it. I ran a couple errands early then I hit the woods. I went to a spot I had hunted a few years ago the last time I hunted. Found a few blown down trees that made a perfect "recliner" so I sat down over looking a small swamp/marsh coming off the creek. Very good vantage point and some pretty decent shooting lanes. I seen a few deer passing through the area around lunch time. Nothing to really get excited about. The deer here are fairly small. There is alot of activity in general. Nice little game trails and bedding areas to the right and water and food down the bottom and to the left. I'm extremely excited. Can't wait.

[PawPaw]

I feel the same way. We did some scouting on Saturday, showing a new member around the lease. We (10 of us) lease about 800 acres in an active oilfield in north central Louisiana. Pine timber and oak bottoms with the occasional oil well. We were there two days after a heavy rain and saw some sign, mostly coyote and raccoon. We did jump one big doe as we were coming out of the woods.

I'm excited too. We went shooting this morning and verified the zero on several rifles. It's about 14 weeks till the opener here. Time to start getting ready.

[kaylorinhi]

This evening as I was grabbing a few things out of the truck I spotted a couple brown dots at the edge of the wood line. Spread across a two yard frontage there were four doe and two little guys hangin out. I have the monster Carolina swamp bucks of a solid 200 lbs on the hoof so size and trophy are not my thing here but the freezer is getting low!! It will be full again by the first of the year for sure!

[40caljustice]

Same here. We get a few healthy deer around here. Mostly in secluded areas and towards the mountains and farm country. Most generally though the deer are a solid buck forty I envy monster buck hunters. Haha. I've been eating deer from family kills for the past few years. I can't wait to fill my own freezer. I kinda miss hanging at the skinning shack after a good day. Lock the guns up, crack a cold one and listen to everyone's stories change as the night goes on.

[BIG P]

Lots of deer, lots of hogs,& of coarse lots of song dogs @%$#&^*$# things.

[bamaranger]

I took a loop by vehicle through some of my areas on Sat, never left pavement, it was HOT. One spot I had not seen since before Spring Turkey and I was anxious to see what the farmer adjacent the public land tract in question had planted this year. He did soybeans last year, and I had quite a few sightings from the air and one shot which I muffed. (bowhunt)

Beans........soybeans again, ...........yeah man, there they were. A smallish summer red doe came off the bank in front of the car and swapped ends and ran back into the thick stuff as I passed through. I stopped briefly to glass from the car door and another one blew at me from way back in on the other side.

Place will be high on my list of early season hunts once again. Bow practice starts in July, but man, I hate the heat.

[MOshooter65202]

Seeing lots of Whitetail in our soybean field and clover plot the bucks are still in velvet,some of the bucks here look like their momma's crossbred with a Texas long horn LOL

[rickyrick]

I am curious to the effect of the severe drought, wild fires and the general onslaught of the desert apocalypse is going to have on the animals this year. We have dunes forming where dunes ought not be. I may have an easy fall and winter with no pigs I hope. But I look foward to pig slaying in a way, but if they move on to wetter lands it wont hurt my feelings.

[bswiv]

We've been twice......have one big one home ported and another that is even bigger associated with a general area.

But then you guys were not discussing gators were you.............

[BUFF]

Haven't had a chance to get out to the hunting grounds(working 60+hrs/wk 4am-2:20pm), but i've seen a lot of deer on the way to work in the morning...and in places that i don't normally see them. No doubt this year's whitetale population in Kansas is gonna be good. Got a good pic on my cell phone of a nice sized buck track in the middle of my dried up pond. Does that count as scouting? Maybe not?

[sc928porsche]

I have always scouted for new hunting areas early in the year. My real scouting begins two weeks before opening. I check my favorite areas along with the new ones for signs of activity.

[bamaranger]

The beans I mentioned will be a high priority. Another option will be white oaks. I don't recall a late killing frost this spring, and there is certainly ample rain now in the SE, so we may have a good white oak acorn crop.

Little early for me to say about that. I took several redoak tops off the roadway this past week after storms that were pretty heavy with early acorns.

[Deja vu]

I went out looking around my normal elk hunting grounds month or so ago (mostly just playing). I did not see a single elk but I did see 2 wolves.

the area is patchy forests and very hilly. It has been a late summer here in the mountains of Idaho so when I went up there was still a little snow on the ground in the higher elevations. I did not see any thing that high up but as I went down to the valleys is when I saw the two wolves. One was Grey and the other looked black or may be dark brown.

[kaylorinhi]

I finally got a chance too watch the woodline. It started out as 4, a 2-1/2 year old "Little Guy", and three 1-1/2 yo's two does and a button. By the time we were done with coffee their were at least 15 and "Salad Tongs" was back and he needs to be weeded out! Their were at least 13 nice doe and Salad tongs and his runnning mate! It will be a good season even though I now, thanks Uncle Sam, will be leaving around the first of Dec.

I will need a bigger cooler!