9/22-9/23 Scouting

9/22
Got out of the house late on Saturday...hit hunt area about 9:30.

Ran into a nice guy at the parking lot - told me there are lots of deer around and the bucks are getting frisky. My hunt partner lives 2 miles from hunt area and said the deer rut in his backyard mid-October...

Went to a place I wanted to check out and found a scrape on the edge of a 1 yr old burn area under an oak on the side of the path.


Then wandered into swamp a bit, found a funnel area w steep creek bank on one side but not many tracks in it - hasn't rained in about 5 days but only 3 sets of tracks - coming & going in the funnel. Keep wandering and find an oak that is dropping - all tore up under it with deer, hog, turkey tracks, & squirrel cuttings. I've got 2 weeks, should be other oaks dropping by then. This was 1.5 miles from funnel.

After about a 2 mile detour, circle back to scrape - follow trail leading to east across burn area and then hug the edge of the woods, find 2 rubs on pine trees. about 100 yards further there is a "bowl" on the left, no tracks at mouth... weird. Go in and look around a bit, turn to leave and see 2 sets coming & going. Look and see how they come & go - path of least resistance - cutting corner.


Decide to dig a little deeper...

Followed the burn area to the opposite side of the bowl, swung into woods and found the most tracks I've seen at this place so far. 3 sets of trails N/S axis and an area 30 yards wide full of tracks - get to back corner of bowl, let's call it 7 o'clock and there are 3 trails coming out of a creek bottom swamp looking NE, E, and SE. I put a camera up closer to the old burn where it overlooks 3 N/S trails. Hoping for daylight pics...

Headed around creek and into a diff area with an older burn edge and swamp. decent amount of sign received cam 2.

Head out, having heat issues. See doe feeding along trail at 3:30 pm and about 100 yards later a decent and fresh rub. Interesting how they like evergreens - pine type trees to rub on.


Mind you, I have no idea how all these things factor together. BUT things sure have changed in the past week. The woods have come alive.

9/23
At buddy's place at 7:05 - in woods by 7:20 - bump doe about 1/4 mile from parking spot, along creek bottom edge. Find several rubs - deer using other side of creek bottom.

Keep walking and at 8:30 spot a big deer - 300+ yards running down a road, hangs a left and gone. We saw where he had been grazing and ran along a somewhat frequently used trail. Would have been a good spot for a camera - rub and 2 trails heading into thickness. I liked where he entered the thick stuff - grazed grass, tight, small clearing. Just not a lot of sign, but what was there was from him and one other, slightly smaller deer both tracks were bigger than doe tracks.

Took a side route back towards vehicle and found another, smaller bowl. Buck rubs and lightly used trail...

Follow another trail around and over creek, deer sign but not concentrated.

Check buddy's game cam - been up 5 days, deer were there a couple of nights, last night and 703-708 this morning. Nanny with 2 yearlings.

More heat issues. My hands swelled up on way back to truck. Took a couple of hours to return to normal. Need to lose some weight I guess.

Couple other guys scouting Sat & Sunday - not friendly - no idea what they are up to.

First Archery starts Friday.

I want to go in with climber and climb up near road (in shade) and see what moves where. So have area with the doe sighting and decent rub where I can get high in a pine and see distance - where I know at least 1 deer is - might be good way to start.

If I go into that first burn area is a possibility but it is thick and I don't know if I'll be able to see much - morning would be best when the thermals start rising - evening would be bad as the whole area slopes down - scent would head towards deer area.

We'll see.