Bowsite.com

Scouting new property?

Curious about what strategies you guys use for scouting land that you’ve never hunted? I was just granted permission to hunt 26 acres in Maine, I’ve been to the property plenty of times but never with the intent to hunt. I’ll be there for one weekend about a month before my first trip up there to hunt so a lot of what I’ll be looking at will be different maps of the land etc. Want to make my couple days of scouting up there as productive as possible, look forward to suggestions thanks!

I wouldn’t think 26 acres would be too hard to scout. I guess that small a size I would hunt the side where wind is good. I would first speed walk it looking for food, water, and thick crap. Then slow down and pinpoint a spot where they cross the most.

We always walk the whole property first. Mark good looking areas. Look at some maps. Find some good looking areas, and check them out. Half of our stand locations last year in Ohio were found using a topo/ satellite maps.

id stay out unless it sees regular use by people. if so, i'd walk the used trails / field edges only where non-hunters are regularly. The owners can probably tell you some, maybe you know from previous visits. I'd be looking at topos and aerials and making a game plan for going in and setting up to hunt based on what you hypothesized for the first time in and the sign you see walking in for the first hunt. Every sit after that it will get less likely you'll be covered up in deer. With an area so small, scouting it thoroughly a month before the season will push the better deer off the property assuming they have other reasonable options IMHO. If you can glass the property or nearby fields at dusk, that might be a good option for your scout. ONE Exception would be if I thought there was a location i wanted to hunt with bullet proof access... a brook, ditch, etc, with a ground scent and wind advantage. then I would use my weekend to make sure I can get down that access in the dark without getting hung up too much, possibly pick and prep a tree. but I'd tread as carefully as possible. If you get rain that weekend it'd be helpful. Save the dissection of the property for after you tag out or late december / early april

A month is for sure enough time

Oops meant not too hard to scout. I don’t think walking it once will drive out the deer. What type of land? Fields or all woods? Is it in the boonies or suburbs?

There’s one house on the property along the road and the rest is all wooded. The organge line is a very lightly used walking path for family and the white line is the ridge of a hill approximately 65 ft in height. The surrounding area is mainly wooded as well

What is that sandy field looking part at the top left? I would check out the transition area to the left that shows two different types of trees and also walk the ridge looking where they cross over it and run along it at an intersection.

On your previous trips to the property, have you seen deer or deer sign?

borders the ocean? looks decent! given this info, i'd walk the orange trail slowly using my binos to get a sense of whats going on, never stepping off the trail. looks like suburban deer habit, they'll tolerate you in there but dont push it.

Every trip up there I’ve seen a couple deer so that’s a positive sign to me. And yup borders the ocean, I have no clue how that affects deer If it does at all?

Arch12, I would suggest walking the east side of the ridge along the base and look for natural / in use breaks in that ridge where deer drop off into the lower parts. I would think that to the North/east property (upper right side according to the map) , the deer are likely to be using the lower part of the marshland inlet to cross into the eastern woods or just inside of the woodline. This makes a good corner on the abutting property and likely funnels the deer into and out of your hunting area in that upper right quadrant.

That is where I would hunt (all things equal). Since early season we have a lot of S/W wind, the wind will curl over that ridge and often backflow towards the west which means you may be able to walk halfway up the east side ridge undetected. Perhaps there is a trail at the bottom of the ridge that you would have a natural advantage over...

If you can I would check the beach. People walk the beach and deer would be used to that, but the deer walk the beach too and you'll see travel patterns in the sand there pretty easily.

I would walk the yellow trail and do somersaults and some flat-foot dancing because I had such an awesome place to hunt.

What MRW said, and grab me some littlenecks while you are there :) Seriously, that may be a great access point.

I would walk it good now, scout every inch, preferably before a good rain storm. Bring a topography map and take a ton of notes on the map, mark everything. Rain will wash the scent and plenty of calendar days before the season opens for it to calm down. Just remember to leave time to hang stands also.

leave some trail cams

Register here to reply to this topic