Every year I hear of a new hunter, most often a youngster who with no work and a lot of luck, wallops a bruiser buck. After a season with nothing more to put on the dinner table than tag soup, I envy that luck. Then, a few months pass, and I get to thinking about it. While I would love to have a big buck on the wall… I enjoy putting in the work.
After all, if I just waltzed out, scaled a tree with a climber, and 10 minutes later sank an arrow into a Booner, I’d be cheated of the memory of the hunt. Then again, take that same scenario with the story in front of it; consider the time scouting, setting cameras, glassing fields, and crafting a plan, and I’d gladly let the air out of a monster buck in the first 10 minutes.
While I have a few decent deer taking up residence at my home, I have many more hunts to remember. For every deer I have harvested, my hours hunting, scouting, preparing food plots, cutting trails, etc., totals something closer to 100:1 — likely more. After all, the fun all happens before the shot. After the shot — while adrenalin filled — is little more than work. Put in the “fun” before the hunt and you’ll be more likely to put in the work during the hunt. Here are a few tips to make your summer scouting more productive.
Trail Cameras
I am a firm believer in trail cameras and count them as a necessity for any summer scouting program. However, you can’t simply walk a trail randomly posting a camera here and there. You need a plan. Cameras need to be placed on travel routes to and from food. You may want to post a camera in the food; particularly if the camera has the ability to transmit the images for remote viewing. Remember, in the summer bucks are still roaming in bachelor herds. While you are less likely to catch a buck on your camera, you may hit the jackpot and score pics of several wall hangers.
Behind the Glass
Glassing deer isn’t new or hard. I have spent hours glassing farm fields and regularly enjoy an evening digiscoping with the kids. However, spotting deer does not equal harvesting deer. The deer you see in summer may be miles away come fall — after the bucks start staking out territory and running off the competition.
Spend time glassing, look for food plots or farm fields with good bucks, and get to know their patterns. Then, suit up and spray down with scent killer just as you would for opening day. Roam the surrounding area and start mapping out heavily used trails; look for signs, choke points, and intersecting trails. If you really want a lesson in whitetails, go back to the same field that evening and see how many fewer deer are in the field. Don’t worry too much. When the pressure is low (summer) deer are used to being bumped by farmers and other wanderers. The deer should resume normal patterns in a day or two.
House Hunting
Bedding areas are typically taboo and I would not invade a person’s home any more than I would a core bedding area. However, I would skirt the edges of a bedding area; you can acquire a lot of great information about trails and escape routes. You can also get a feel for what you may be up against should you find yourself tracking a wounded deer later in the season. Finding a key entry or egress point is great information that can later be used as a late-season ambush tactic.
Make A Plan
After you have gathered all of the intelligence, it will be time to make your plan. The deer and habits you observe in the summer may be vastly different than those in the fall during hunting season. An exception to that will be the habits you see in the days or weeks prior to the season. This is especially true for archery season, but may have limited application for the general or firearm season as well.
I cut my G2s in the big woods of the Allegany region of Pennsylvania. In the big woods, you’ll want to key in on mast such as acorns, persimmons, and wild apples. Not all species of tree drop their acorns at the same time. Keep records, talk to locals, and chat up the boys at the local watering hole for information from a few seasoned vets. While they will not give away their favorite honey hole or lead you to a buck haven, they will typically talk generally about deer just for fun.
Other data of use will be the local farms. Strike up a conversation with local farmers. Ask when they expect to have the corn or soybeans harvested. You may also inquire as to which fields will have corn or soybeans the following year. This may give you some inside information as to the best ground to lease the following year. Beans dry out earlier in the season than corn. Corn also provides much needed cover that beans do not. Personal food plots may not see much action while there is standing corn, but when the stalks drop, it is time to head to your personally-provided grocery store.
While you’re at it, don’t be afraid to inquire about the local deer while talking to the farmers. There is no better intelligence about what is happening in the local woods than a farmer — unless the farmer also hunts in which case I would not trust what he tells me any farther than I could throw him! After all, I have been known to spin a yarn or two to a fellow hunter in my area…
The first whitetail I ever saw was in Wyoming, summer of ’58, the year I turned 8. I knew then as I watched that doe bound away from us on that mountainside that one day I would be hunting deer. When I was a kid, seeing a deer was a very big deal. I lived in very rural Nebraska, and it took several more years before I saw one from the school bus one morning.
Fast forward a number of years, I got out of the Army, set down some roots in Oklahoma and began my plan to hunt deer. The first few years, all I saw were doe and in Oklahoma, for too many years, it was only legal to take a doe on the last weekend of their 9 day gun season. And it seemed like I never saw one of them on that last day. They finally made taking a doe legal every day of gun season.
Now, I can report that over the last 40 years, I have taken more deer than I can count, with both gun and crossbow. Neither my son or daughter can remember a time when there was not some venison in the freezer, and they are both in their 30’s. Over my fireplace, is a very nice 8 point, typical with 19½ inch inside spread. I have not had it professionally assessed but I guestimate that it would score high one thirties to low one forties. I have other racks on the wall in my study, some that trophy hunters would turn their nose up at. Included are several small basket 7 and 8 pointers, all with an inside spread well less than 9-10 inches along with several European mounts in the mix. When I look at each of them, I remember all those hunts with no small amount of fondness.
Over the years, I have also taken a number of young men out to hunt and was honored to share with them their experience when they killed their first deer, and I showed them the ropes as far as field dressing and general care of the carcass; then the real work begins. After the deer has arrived at the work station, read my garage, I would show them how to butcher their deer, Unfortunately, in Oklahoma, it is seldom cold enough to hang a deer for even a day or two, so it needs to be done while the meat is still good.
I have seen more than one person who, when they discovered there was more to hunting deer than just pulling a trigger, lost all interest in doing any of the work. They were more than willing to let others do it, but it was not for them. I was glad when they did not pursue it further.
This year, we have a relatively new spot to hunt and our stands ready to go; we are keeping the feeders and mineral blocks up to date. The trail cams are showing some very nice bucks and a good number of doe congregating. I hope to bag out this year and now it looks more promising than it has in the past. I can take four doe and two bucks between archery and gun. I probably will do most of my hunting with my crossbow even during gun season. The Oklahoma holiday antlerless season has just been announced and that could add two more doe, meaning it is possible that I could take home 8 deer total. We could easily eat every ounce of that meat.