Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 887: Foundations - How to Spring Scout for Mature Buck Hotspots

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Ep. 887: Foundations - How to Spring Scout for Mature Buck Hotspots · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
0:09
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
0:14
Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:19
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
0:22
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about winter scouting,
0:27
Speaker 2: specifically to identify the core areas of mature Bucks. It
0:34
Speaker 2: might seem like we all kind of scout to find
0:36
Speaker 2: mature Bucks sign because well, I don't know, I guess
0:39
Speaker 2: we do, even though that's top of mind and we
0:41
Speaker 2: all love finding a monster rub from last season. Truth
0:44
Speaker 2: is that we often just scout deer sign and fill
0:47
Speaker 2: in the blanks on when big Bucks will use those areas. No,
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Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with that, but there is a way
0:52
Speaker 2: to identify, like the smaller areas that big Bucks will
0:55
Speaker 2: use from season to season, which is what I'm really
0:57
Speaker 2: going to talk about right now. When I was a kid,
1:03
Speaker 2: my family would go up north for one week of
1:07
Speaker 2: summer and that was our vacation. It was the best
1:10
Speaker 2: week of the year for me, because it meant that
1:11
Speaker 2: I left the part of Minnesota that is dominated by
1:13
Speaker 2: small trout streams and medium sized mamuth rivers to the
1:17
Speaker 2: part of the state where we get our land of
1:18
Speaker 2: ten thousand Lakes nicknamed from Now. When you have ten
1:22
Speaker 2: thousand lakes or actually more like fourteen thousand, you could
1:25
Speaker 2: expect quite a bit of diversity on the water. You
1:28
Speaker 2: can also find about any size and shape and water
1:31
Speaker 2: clarity and depth and species and options and on and
1:33
Speaker 2: on and on. Got a lot of options. What this
1:36
Speaker 2: state lacks for diversity wise and hunting, it really makes
1:40
Speaker 2: up for in the fishing category. And I like to fish.
1:44
Speaker 2: And one of those years, when I was maybe I
1:46
Speaker 2: don't know, ten or twelve years old, we were up
1:48
Speaker 2: at Leech Lake for our summer vacation. Now Leech is
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Speaker 2: a massive lake, well over one hundred thousand acres or
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Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty one square miles. However, you need
1:57
Speaker 2: to hear that to picture it now. At that time,
2:00
Speaker 2: there was a walleye tournament fisherman staying at the same
2:02
Speaker 2: resort as my family. I didn't know anything about tournament
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Speaker 2: fishing then, and I didn't have a whole lot of
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Speaker 2: interest in walleye fishing. I did have an interest in
2:10
Speaker 2: talking to someone who seemed as aid up with fishing
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Speaker 2: as I was, so we chatted quite a bit. He
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Speaker 2: told me about what he thought it would take to
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Speaker 2: win the tournament and what he was doing to find
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Speaker 2: the kind of fish that would net him the trophy
2:23
Speaker 2: and the biggest check. I don't remember all of the
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Speaker 2: details now, but the gist of it was that he
2:28
Speaker 2: targeted fish hanging on deep weed lines and drop offs.
2:32
Speaker 2: Really no surprise there. I remember countless times on leech
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Speaker 2: going along casting towards sandy spots in the weeds, trying
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Speaker 2: to catch large mouth when I'd noticed a whole school
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Speaker 2: of walleyes ghosting along the bottom. Before they'd spook and
2:44
Speaker 2: all bank in unison to the deeper water, where the
2:47
Speaker 2: last thing you would see or the white tips of
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Speaker 2: their fins is they disappeared into the darkness. Now, this
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Speaker 2: guy said that when he found a concentration of fish,
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Speaker 2: he'd then turn his efforts toward finding the spot on
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Speaker 2: spot where the big walleyes should beat. He said it
3:01
Speaker 2: was almost always some sort of secondary feature or some
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Speaker 2: subtle feature in a mudflat off of the weed lines
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Speaker 2: and drop offs that would hold the fish that were
3:09
Speaker 2: worthy of a spot in his live well. And when
3:11
Speaker 2: he found those fish, he said, they'd often be solo
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Speaker 2: or there would only be a couple of them, and
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Speaker 2: he could see them on his grafts, so he would
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Speaker 2: park right on top of them to get them to bite.
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Speaker 2: It was fascinating to me then, and it still kind
3:24
Speaker 2: of is. He was looking for fish only so long
3:28
Speaker 2: orfore he started targeting specific fish sound like something that
3:32
Speaker 2: might apply to deer hunting, because it does. There are
3:35
Speaker 2: some people who are so much better at this than me.
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Speaker 2: But I want to frame this up so there isn't
3:40
Speaker 2: any confusion. You can watch people all day long kill
3:44
Speaker 2: giant deer, deer bigger than you will ever see, and
3:48
Speaker 2: most of them will have a long backstory on watching
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Speaker 2: that buck grow and grow and grow until he was
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Speaker 2: big enough to shoot and offul lot of those bucks
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Speaker 2: will die in a food plot or on a feeder.
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Speaker 2: That means that while those folks might have something figured out,
4:02
Speaker 2: they also have the means to draw a big buck
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Speaker 2: into a spot. Huge advantage. That's not what I'm going
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Speaker 2: to talk about here, because we know how that process
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Speaker 2: goes and what it entails. What I want to talk
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Speaker 2: about is scouting now to locate the area's big bucks
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Speaker 2: will likely use for years. This, of course, isn't in
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Speaker 2: exact science, so let's start with something easy. You go
4:24
Speaker 2: out now in march to winter scout. You cruise the
4:27
Speaker 2: usual stuff, and then you dive into the cover where
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Speaker 2: fifteen yards in you find a monster rub. It's dieh sized,
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Speaker 2: shredded for about three or four feet. It makes you
4:37
Speaker 2: think maybe a small herd of elk has moved into
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Speaker 2: your hunting spot. What does that mean? That signpost rub
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Speaker 2: tucked into the cover. It means that some big deer
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Speaker 2: have rubbed that tree, Which is great, that's better than
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Speaker 2: not finding a rub like that. But is it a spot?
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Speaker 2: Look around? Since you're so close to the field or
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Speaker 2: whatever opening. Does it feel like the kind of area
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Speaker 2: that am mature buck would spend a lot of time
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Speaker 2: in or does it seem like the kind of thing
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Speaker 2: that you could catch him slipping? You know, maybe a
5:07
Speaker 2: couple of times during the pre run, just showing up
5:09
Speaker 2: there a little early when he leaves his bed and
5:13
Speaker 2: it's not quite ready to go bust out in the open.
5:15
Speaker 2: To chase some dose or back down some youngsters. Now,
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Speaker 2: just about anywhere that deer walk on the ground you
5:21
Speaker 2: hunt will eventually have a big one on it at
5:24
Speaker 2: some point. But that doesn't do you much good, and
5:27
Speaker 2: it's one of the ways trail cameras get us into trouble.
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Speaker 2: A mature buck pick here or there with no discernible
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Speaker 2: pattern to his movements will probably affect your decision making process,
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Speaker 2: probably won't help you kill him. Now, let's say you
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Speaker 2: look at that signpost rub, you take a gainder around
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Speaker 2: and see a few trees worth hanging a set in
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Speaker 2: for late October. Great has easy access, and you know
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Speaker 2: that it wasn't a bunch of dinks that made that
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Speaker 2: rub spot to start. But you got to keep looking,
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Speaker 2: walk farther into the cover, and you'll probably eventually find
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Speaker 2: that concentrate rubs that I like to talk about. You've
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Speaker 2: heard me say this a whole bunch, so I'm going
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Speaker 2: to gloss over it. But when you can stand in
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Speaker 2: one spot and see a bunch of rubs on different
6:08
Speaker 2: sized trees or shrubs, figure out how to hunt that spot,
6:13
Speaker 2: you're now in a zone where they are far more
6:16
Speaker 2: likely to move during daylight. You just have to get
6:19
Speaker 2: in there at the right time without bumping them, which
6:22
Speaker 2: is easier said than done. These staging areas are my favorite,
6:27
Speaker 2: and I look for them as often as I can.
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Speaker 2: But staging areas that bucks use aren't necessarily a lock
6:33
Speaker 2: for specifically targeting a mature buck. You gotta keep looking.
6:38
Speaker 2: Look for areas with that sign, but also big beds.
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Speaker 2: Big beds may be located someplace that has a geographic
6:46
Speaker 2: advantage for them. Think about it, like the buck is
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Speaker 2: going to want to be able to monitor as many
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Speaker 2: approach directions as possible with his eyes and his nose.
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Speaker 2: The nose is obviously the most important one. But there
6:59
Speaker 2: is something I've learned about big bucks that I believe
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Speaker 2: to be true. If you can find a little spot
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Speaker 2: with some grass tall CRP type of grass or sawgrass,
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Speaker 2: or something where there is grass with brush mixed in,
7:12
Speaker 2: especially in an area that isn't like Kansas or Nebraska
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Speaker 2: where that's everywhere, you're probably close to a place mature
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Speaker 2: bucks like I find this all over in my scouting
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Speaker 2: and hunting efforts, to the point that when I'm on
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Speaker 2: on X in the off season planning out my fall,
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Speaker 2: I scour spots for this setup, and you might be thinking, well,
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Speaker 2: in my area doesn't offer that kind of thing, and
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Speaker 2: maybe you're right, but maybe not. A few years ago
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Speaker 2: I was following my then very young puppy and her
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Speaker 2: older sister through a huge chunk of national forest in
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Speaker 2: northern Wisconsin. We were looking for some rough grouse when
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Speaker 2: I got just a tiny bit lost. For a tiny
7:50
Speaker 2: little bit, as lost idiots often do, I gravitated off
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Speaker 2: of a ridge and down to the nearest opening, which
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Speaker 2: was a grassy wetland that was pock marked with dead trees,
8:00
Speaker 2: many of which bore the marks of beaver's teeth. I
8:03
Speaker 2: also stumbled into a giant bed, backed up against one
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Speaker 2: of those old trees, and in a spot where if
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Speaker 2: you wanted to kill him with a bow, you might
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Speaker 2: want to hire Andy May to walk you through it.
8:14
Speaker 2: I stopped in that bed for a little while, and
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Speaker 2: I noticed that there were a couple of good sized
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Speaker 2: rubs on the edge of the wetland where it met
8:21
Speaker 2: higher ground. I didn't spend much time looking around, but
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Speaker 2: it was clear all of the advantages a buck would
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Speaker 2: have there. That was like three years ago, and I
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Speaker 2: bet if you get over there right now, you'd find
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Speaker 2: new rubs in that spot from last season and maybe
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Speaker 2: some beds, and while it could be from the same buck,
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Speaker 2: it most likely would not be. Some spots just offer
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Speaker 2: mature bucks such an advantage that I believe they fill
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Speaker 2: in with new deer every time there is a vacancy.
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Speaker 2: Sometimes you don't have that grassy bedding type of option, though,
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Speaker 2: so you have to look for a soft edge that
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Speaker 2: bumps up against some other type of terrain feature. Thick
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Speaker 2: is always good when it comes to big bucks, and honestly,
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Speaker 2: if you learn nothing else from me, remember that the
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Speaker 2: thickest cover in the spot you hunt is the most
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Speaker 2: likely place to host mature buck movement during the season
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Speaker 2: in a way that might allow you to capitalize on it.
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Speaker 2: The key here is to find that spot on spot
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Speaker 2: and not just identify a general area big one might like.
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Speaker 2: You want to find the exact spot that one of
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Speaker 2: them is very likely to use in the season. You
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Speaker 2: know what, scratch that you want to find as many
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Speaker 2: spots like that as you can because you're gonna need them. Now,
9:45
Speaker 2: you might be saying, well, I only hunt forty acres,
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Speaker 2: so it's not like I can wander forever in a
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Speaker 2: day to find something like that. Well, that's true, and
9:54
Speaker 2: you might just be shit out of luck, but you
9:56
Speaker 2: should figure that out. Forty acres can hide a lot
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Speaker 2: of deer, and even on properties that are only a
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Speaker 2: quarter mile by a quarter mile, we still miss spots.
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Speaker 2: Maybe you only have one trail or one patch of
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Speaker 2: betting cover that might interest a mature buck at some
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Speaker 2: point during your season, but you better find it and
10:16
Speaker 2: figure out how to hunt it, and when you do,
10:18
Speaker 2: take some of your extra effort and go find another
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Speaker 2: spot to hunt, even if you think you won't need
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Speaker 2: it now. I really want to stress this point because
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Speaker 2: I think it matters. The biggest buck on the block
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Speaker 2: will likely walk most of the trails on your ground.
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Speaker 2: At some point during the year. You might spot him
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Speaker 2: in a field, you know, driving around in the summer.
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Speaker 2: You might get trail camera pictures of him randomly and
10:45
Speaker 2: wonder why he isn't there. More frequently, this is something
10:48
Speaker 2: that leads us to hunt where just deer go and
10:52
Speaker 2: hope a big buck comes through. It's the appeal of
10:55
Speaker 2: the rut, honestly, but the rut is short and the
10:57
Speaker 2: rest of the season is long. You want to scout now,
11:00
Speaker 2: not solely to find the trail that the buck might
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Speaker 2: walk through on late October, but the places he's going
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Speaker 2: to feel really comfortable and secure in throughout the year.
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Speaker 2: Where is the prime real estate on your hunting grounds?
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Speaker 2: I think about this a lot, partially because of the
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Speaker 2: trail camera thing. Last fall, I pulled up my Moultrie
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Speaker 2: apt for the ten thousandth time to see if I
11:21
Speaker 2: had new pictures, and in a very short time span,
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Speaker 2: I had a couple of really big deer on camera
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Speaker 2: in northern Wisconsin. I'm talking like one forties one fifties
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Speaker 2: type deer, beautiful mature bucks, and I have no idea
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Speaker 2: where they came from or why they'd both make a
11:36
Speaker 2: little journey to spots I had cameras in during a
11:39
Speaker 2: tiny window of time and then just disappear again. That
11:43
Speaker 2: intel is cool, I guess, But what does that do
11:46
Speaker 2: for me? It tells me mostly that deer of that
11:49
Speaker 2: caliber live around the places I hunt, and that's the
11:52
Speaker 2: lesson I need to be reminded of and why I
11:55
Speaker 2: wanted to do this episode. They are out there every
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Speaker 2: single day somewhere. Think about that mature bucks are somewhere
12:05
Speaker 2: around where you hunt, even if they don't spend a
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Speaker 2: lot of time on there every single day of the year,
12:12
Speaker 2: And the spots that you know big bucks occupy, they'll
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Speaker 2: probably be occupied by other mature bucks in the future,
12:20
Speaker 2: so the work you do now might pay off for years.
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Speaker 2: You know, eventually they catch a three h eight bullet,
12:26
Speaker 2: or you know, a pack of wolves catches up to him, whatever,
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Speaker 2: and the vacancy sign will light up on that prime
12:32
Speaker 2: real estate and someone else will move in. Now. I
12:35
Speaker 2: really want to know where those spots are, because even
12:38
Speaker 2: when they are small and hard to hunt, because they
12:40
Speaker 2: usually are, the knowledge that he might be there today
12:44
Speaker 2: is valuable to me when I'm planning on how to
12:47
Speaker 2: hunt him. Think about that in the context of winter
12:49
Speaker 2: scouting right now. You guys know that I'm weirdly obsessed
12:53
Speaker 2: with cattails slews lately, and I blame it on my
12:56
Speaker 2: love of roosters, but I'm also fascinated by how dear
13:00
Speaker 2: use them. They are also nearly impossible to hunt, at
13:06
Speaker 2: least once you get inside them, But knowing where a
13:09
Speaker 2: big buck might bet in there is important because at
13:13
Speaker 2: the very least I can make a guess on how
13:15
Speaker 2: he'll leave it in the evening, or how he'll come
13:18
Speaker 2: back in there in the morning. Knowing that he might
13:20
Speaker 2: bet on one side during a certain wind and the
13:23
Speaker 2: other side during a different wind direction is even better.
13:26
Speaker 2: Scouting wetlands is the easiest thing to do in the
13:29
Speaker 2: off season for a lot of us, but it's still
13:32
Speaker 2: not easy up here in Canada South, where things stay
13:35
Speaker 2: frozen for a long time. This opportunity is so valuable.
13:39
Speaker 2: You can level up your dear knowledge in a hurry
13:42
Speaker 2: when you don't have to wade through a swamp. Southern
13:45
Speaker 2: hunters aren't quite as lucky, although our winners don't really
13:49
Speaker 2: make me feel super lucky sometimes any huski the goal
13:53
Speaker 2: for scouting, specifically now for mature buck sign and the
13:56
Speaker 2: locations in which they might spend their time in the fall.
13:58
Speaker 2: Is important to remember that the spot on spot stuff
14:02
Speaker 2: often leads to a lot of frustration. You often can't
14:06
Speaker 2: get into a tight area that the bucks really want
14:08
Speaker 2: to spend their time in, which is why they're there.
14:11
Speaker 2: But you can use that knowledge to set up a
14:13
Speaker 2: layer back and catch them on the leading edge of
14:16
Speaker 2: a cold front in late September maybe early October. You
14:20
Speaker 2: can use that knowledge to build an amazing pre rut
14:23
Speaker 2: plan too. The key is to get out there and
14:26
Speaker 2: to try to truly identify those spots. This might lead
14:30
Speaker 2: to some more informed trail camera recon this summer, and
14:34
Speaker 2: probably should, but I'll say this, be careful with your
14:38
Speaker 2: intrusion as the year marches on toward hunting season. Use
14:42
Speaker 2: some long lasting lithium batteries. If you can hang your
14:45
Speaker 2: cameras out of the obvious site line of deer and
14:48
Speaker 2: give them time to soak, to see if you're scouting
14:52
Speaker 2: and your intuition can be proven true. Then remember that
14:56
Speaker 2: the spots that are advantageous to bucks in October are
14:59
Speaker 2: not the same thing in July. You might find a
15:02
Speaker 2: spot now while walking that is just like a little
15:05
Speaker 2: patch of overgrown willows and dogwood and is tore up
15:08
Speaker 2: with rubs from last year, and you know, maybe pock
15:10
Speaker 2: marked with big beds, and think you have things dialed,
15:14
Speaker 2: But your trail cameras in that spot might not show
15:16
Speaker 2: you a single buck for months during the summer. That's
15:19
Speaker 2: valuable intel too. I got quite a bit of that
15:22
Speaker 2: last season, and my winter scouting efforts have been helping
15:25
Speaker 2: me figure out what was really going on in places
15:28
Speaker 2: where I ran cameras and in places where I couldn't
15:30
Speaker 2: run cameras. The latter has been honestly the most interesting
15:34
Speaker 2: to me, because there's a lot to learn just by
15:36
Speaker 2: factoring in deer sightings from last fall and all of
15:39
Speaker 2: the sign that's out there waiting to be found right now,
15:42
Speaker 2: and the truth of what the woods holds for big
15:45
Speaker 2: buck hotspots. This is honestly probably the best way for
15:48
Speaker 2: a lot of us to level up, and the opportunity
15:51
Speaker 2: to really get going is happening right now. So I'll
15:54
Speaker 2: say this, if you only do one thing this month,
15:57
Speaker 2: deer wise, and you're the kind of hunter who wants
16:00
Speaker 2: to shoot a mature buck, go out there and look
16:02
Speaker 2: for the spots he might like the best. Don't just
16:05
Speaker 2: walk the easy oak flat ridges where you can see
16:09
Speaker 2: everything and you won't get any thorns stuck in your
16:11
Speaker 2: hands or legs. Go into the little stuff, the edges,
16:15
Speaker 2: the patches of cover where the cottontails live. Almost every
16:18
Speaker 2: time you see an easy way to get somewhere, try
16:21
Speaker 2: to find a way to walk where it won't be
16:23
Speaker 2: as easy. I'm not saying big bucks won't take an
16:25
Speaker 2: easy trail, but where they spend a lot of their
16:28
Speaker 2: time in the fall is generally not very easy to
16:31
Speaker 2: get around, So even if you only hunt twenty or
16:34
Speaker 2: thirty acres, try this. Pay attention to the sign, of course,
16:37
Speaker 2: but try to fill in the blanks on what would
16:39
Speaker 2: make him want to be there? What conditions would you
16:42
Speaker 2: need to catch him there in daylight during some point
16:46
Speaker 2: of the hunting season. Do that and come back next
16:49
Speaker 2: week because I'm going to talk about dealing with hunting pressure,
16:52
Speaker 2: because I think a lot of hunters view it as
16:53
Speaker 2: a lost cause, but it's not. If you hunt where
16:56
Speaker 2: others can hunt, the best thing you can do is
16:59
Speaker 2: learn how to work with it instead of trying to
17:02
Speaker 2: rail against it. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson.
17:06
Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which
17:09
Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. As always, thank
17:12
Speaker 2: you so much for listening, and thank you for all
17:14
Speaker 2: your support. We really appreciate it. If you're looking for
17:18
Speaker 2: a little vicarious fix right now and you want to
17:20
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