Deer Scouting Part 2

Yes folks I do like to get some scouting in before the actual deer hunting season opens up. While Brendan and I have about 3 Doe permits between us this year, we would rather get a nice big buck. At least I would rather that he gets a nice buck. If he does get one, it would be his first deer in two years of deer hunting.

Last year I found some nice deer sign in the area that we hunted. As a matter of fact, there was a lot of deer sign, I guess they loved the acorns that were all over the ground just about wherever we looked. In case you were wondering what one looks for as sign of deer, you should look for: game trails, follow the trails and check them for deer berries droppings, look for scrapes (where bucks have scraped away the top layer of leaf litter with their hooves, and form a bare area usually under a bush or low branches of a tree, and into which the buck urinates), and you look for rubs (where a buck rubs the velvet off of its antlers usually before the hunting season, and where they sometimes take out aggression during the rut or mating period during the hunting season). The picture at the left shows a rub. This particular rub was well used, and probably by a bigger deer than most. A small one could have done this too, but small ones do not usually make ones that are quite that long from top to bottom. By the way, that is my boot in the pic, it is right against the tree, and it is a size 12 or 12 1/2 boot. Most rubs I have found are about 1/2 that size in length. I found this rub in the area we hunted last year. Heck I found about 15 of them within a radius of about 25 yards. I also found a few scrapes. So I settled Brendan down nearby to await a buck, or maybe a doe. No luck though, not with regard to seeing any deer for Brendan. I did get to see about 5 or 6 does, possibly followed by a buck, but they were in extremely heavy cover offering no shot to me (well others may have shot but not me in that situation, I take hunter safety very seriously). I had hoped to spook the deer to Brendan's stand, but they were not cooperative and sauntered away in the opposite direction from him. This year I am hopeful things will go a little bit differently. I am hopeful he at least sees one, let alone bag one. Of course, he if he gets one, that would be nice, and we will eat some well earned venison.

All the best,
Glenn B