So here is the first ? I want to throw out & get your ideas about.
What are you looking for when you start to do your spring scouting?
There are 2 main things for me: 1- get the big picture of the piece of land, meaning I try to walk it all and see how it all connects and what are the little things that will effect deer movement
2- try to find the out-of-the-way/obscure places where big bucks may hang out during the fall. By walking all the ground I can find little nooks & crannies where a big buck may live. You can go into all those spots now and not worry about bumping the deer out like you would in the fall. Big bucks love those out of the way, small places where they can control everything. By finding them now you see ways to hunt by them without letting them know you are there till it too late. Last year I had this, I found a small little draw that was really thick & had lots of rubs. Then in Nov. I got trail cam pictures of that giant 9 coming from that direction shortly after dark. Although I was never able to get by it & hunt it with a bow (it is nearly impossible to bow hunt), but aided the guy gun hunting & he killed that giant 9 (green scored 182) out of that tiny little draw. My scouting & analyzing of that tiny draw no doubt aided in him killing that buck. If he would have tried to walk through there in the fall to check out that draw, he would have blown that deer out of there and probably never even saw him.
I love scouting in the spring. Many times the woods looks very similar to what it will in the fall. I like to find those sames spots as Ross mentioned. I also try to find water to go with those spots. Water adjasent to those spots is even better. Then its just a matter of stand placement and access routes. I also try to find the actual beds if possible, rubs, scrapes are all pieces to the same puzzle. Like Ross said its all about getting the bigger picture.
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