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When it comes to a successful hunt, two of the most important factors leading to that success are pre-season scouting and familiarity with your firearm or bow. An intimate knowledge of the area you hunt and the habits of its deer is not absolutely necessary, but the more knowledge you can accumulate, the more your chances for success increase. By the same token, the more time spent learning the limitations and capabilities of your firearm or bow, the better you will be prepared when it comes time to take the shot.
Scouting
Scouting before the hunting season actually starts is important for a variety of reasons. There are many different philosophies when it comes to the time of year that is best suited for scouting, ranging from just after the end of a hunting season, to a few months before or even just a few days before the start of a hunting season. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but the one advantage they all share is time in the field. Time in the field is the best way to learn your chosen hunting area, from the lay of the land, to the discovery of food and water sources, game trails, bedding areas, population density and other important factors that can be used to put the pieces of the deer hunting puzzle together. A good place to start is a detailed map of the area. Where available, aerial photos can be used in conjunction with maps to show the locations of forested areas and waterways. The use of topographic maps and aerial photos can help eliminate potentially unproductive areas (much like a fisherman uses lake contour maps to eliminate unproductive water) and locate possible funnels and escape routes. One evening of studying a map of your hunting area is enough to get you started in the right direction before heading afield.
After studying the terrain and features of the area it is a good idea to outline a game plan for walking land. Once you decide where the parking area will be, you should plan a general route that will take into account the features that may need more study from your map notes. This is only a general plan, so do not be surprised if you find yourself getting off course as the actual experience of seeing the area firsthand reveals new areas that were not visible from a map or aerial photo. However, by keeping your original route handy, you will always be reminded to go back and check those promising areas, even if you do get sidetracked. Unless it is very close to the start of the hunting season (you do not want to put every deer in the area on alert) try to cover as much of the area as possible. Nothing beats the firsthand knowledge of seeing an area with your own eyes, and the more opportunity to see the area, the better. In addition to your map and aerial photo, a good compass and even a GPS will help you navigate more effectively through your hunting area. The GPS will also allow you to pinpoint specific features, which can be compared to your maps at a later date, by using latitude and longitude measurements.
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While walking with your map, it is good to make notes on the map itself or on a separate sheet of paper, to record the location of major game trails, bedding areas, scrape lines, rubs, or other indicators of the presence of deer. Once again, a GPS is an ideal tool for this application. As you become comfortable with the land on repeated trips to your hunting area, you should start to look for spots to hang a treestand, or create a ground blind. These will be spots that overlook a well-used game trail, scrape line, or perhaps a feeding area that consistently draws animals. Stand or blind locations should be located in multiple areas to take advantage of different wind conditions. Or, you may want to take note of a spot that would make a good vantage point for glassing a large tract of land, thus presenting the opportunity for a spot-and-stalk hunt. Maybe you can find a woodlot that seems to be a major bedding area, and is possibly a good spot for still-hunting during the middle of the day.
If stand locations are found, then this is the time to determine possible shooting lanes. From a given location it would be a good practice to keep a notebook of the details of that particular stand. Drawing a simple hand drawn map of the immediate area helps plan out your shooting lanes in every possible direction. By either pacing distances, or with the use of a laser rangefinder, you can make notes of the distances to certain landmarks, such as specific trees, rocks, a lone bush, etc., so that range estimation will already be done when an animal steps into one of your shooting zones. This reference map can be carried into the field with you when the season starts, taking away the potential for mental uncertainties during the excitement of the hunt. The more preparation you can do before the season starts, the more time you have for looking for animals once you are stand.
If you are hunting public land, the local game warden or field biologist may be able to give you some insight into where good concentrations of animals have been found in the past. If you are hunting private land, then the landowner will likely be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to where deer have been spotted, and during what time of day, especially if that landowner is a farmer or rancher.
Once again, nothing beats time in the field when it comes to scouting for deer. The better you know your area, the less chance a deer has of hiding or escaping into a place that does not exist in your mind.
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