Post-Season Scouting

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This time of the year is the perfect time to scout your whitetail property for sign from the rut and late season travel patterns. The advantage to scouting now is that the rubs, scrapes and trails from the past few months will still be fresh enough to read as a general rule, and you can piece together what the deer were doing toward the end of the season on your particular property. This can help you determine if you need to move your stand locations from the previous season.

On the hunting club I'm a member of, scouting after the season closed led us to discovering an area full of sign that we just weren't aware of. We got the property in the spring, and although we did some quick scouting and food plot work, there was no way to know exactly where the deer would be when hunting season got here. Now that we've got one season and a general idea of deer patterns on the property under our belt, adding some post-season scouting should help us be more successful this coming fall. 

Another benefit to scouting this time of year is that you aren't spooking deer right before the season starts, or worse yet, during it. Your presence will no doubt be detected, and you may move some deer out temporarily. But once you have the information you need and don't have to venture back into those areas, the deer will settle down and return to their usual patterns. 

There are a couple of bonuses to scouting now as well. For one, if you'll be turkey hunting the same general area, you can get an idea of where turkeys might be hanging out for the upcoming season. And this is shed season, so be on the lookout for antlers to collect from deer you've seen on your property and random bucks passing through. 

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