Tips for Success Series: A Scouting Strategy

Now that the Utah results are out and we all know where we will be hunting this fall… I think this would be an appropriate time to roll out the next installment in my “Tips for Success” series: Have a Scouting Strategy.

Several years ago I made arrangements with a friend “to go scouting” and told my wife my plans. She looked perplexed and asked why I was “going scouting” with one of my friends and not taking all the neighborhood boys. Her understanding of Scouting was the Boy Scouts… it took some explanation to help her understand what I was actually doing. She got a little upset and said, “So you’re just going to look for deer?” The emphasis she put on the word look was unmistakable, from where she stood she saw absolutely zero value in the activity I had planned. “Do you expect the deer to be there in September?” Again, the emphasis on the word expect confirmed that she thought I was an absolute fool! That only compounded when I responded. “Yes. I hope so,” and I headed out the door. Although those first few scouting trips were met with considerable resistance, it didn’t take long for my wife to see the value in these scouting trips. She has consistently seen meat put in our freezer over the last few years.
My wife was correct in her simple assumption of what scouting is… looking for deer (or elk, or moose, or whatever). That is exactly what I did on those first few scouting trips… and thinking back as I look at those first few scouting trips they were pretty comical. I would drive around looking for animals, stop at a couple places, spend about 15 minutes looking around through binoculars, then head home. Don’t get me wrong, I still gained valuable information from those trips and learned far more than if I had remained at home watching television.
As we enter the summer scouting season leading up to the 2016 fall hunts, let me share some of the things found in my 2016 Scouting Strategy.

A herd of elk on Google Earth.

Before I ever step foot in the mountains I spend a fair amount of time on Google Earth (GE). Ok, full disclosure and honesty here… I spend A LOT of time on GE. I have a topographical overlay saved into my GE and toggle back and forth between the maps looking for spots that look worthy of an in-person, on foot investigation. A VERY valuable feature of GE is that it acts as a log for me for each scouting and hunting trip. I create a new folder for every year, and in that folder I will save placemarks of where deer, elk, and moose were spotted and if fortunate enough where a buck or bull was killed. Following each hunt I will trace out the trails that I hiked and add notes about which days and the time of day when I made those hikes. I now have a good working database of my scouting and hunting history. I am a very visual person so I find the use of GE very beneficial by displaying all the placemarks and trails on the screen at once I can identify very clear patterns. This helps narrow down where I do my scouting based upon the tags I have in my pocket. This is where my first bit of advice to pick an area and stick with it really becomes beneficial in influencing my scouting. Over the last several years I have learned exactly where to go to find deer and I have also learned that I need to look in different spots to find elk. In many ways, GE helps me determine where to go for the next phase in my Scouting Strategy…. placing trail cameras.

Placing trail cameras with my two oldest kids.

Many love them, many hate them… whether you use them or not, no doubt you’ve likely come across a water hole with a trail camera or two (or six) surrounding it. I use trail cameras, and I really enjoy them. I currently have 4 different cameras that I scatter across the property to be my eyes when I cannot be there myself… but I tend to use them a little differently than many guys I know. I use them to investigate the new areas that I had identified on GE or to revisit old areas that I had moved on from as I discovered new areas. Ultimately this means that I probably won’t actually hunt where I place the cameras this year… go figure, right!?! My plan this year is to place two cameras in new spots to “investigate” these areas and then two cameras to “monitor” areas that were once my go to spots yet I don’t want to lose touch with them! I don’t spend a lot on my trail cameras, mostly because I know of the propensity for these types of things to grow legs and walk away. Even on private property I have not been immune, although I have yet to have a camera stolen I have had them vandalized or tampered with. It is frustrating for sure, however I strap a camera onto a tree and walk away knowing full well that I am taking that risk and each time I return to check a memory card and refresh batteries and find my camera still on the tree I consider myself fortunate. There is varying opinion on how often to check a trail camera, in some cases I’ve heard of guys checking them every couple days. My preference, and this could simply be a product of my busy everyday schedule, is to check them every five to six weeks. This may sound like a long time, and it does make it difficult to sit at my desk job and wonder about the pictures I may have waiting for me… or if the camera has even been working right… or if the camera is even still there! But I have found that letting them “marinade” (as I call it) for several weeks between checks to be very successful. Primarily, I limit the number of times I check them to also limit my scent and my disturbance to the area. Whether that is actually the case or the reason for my success, I’ll never know but I’m going to continue to think that. One additional really cool benefit to the trail cameras is that it gives me something tangible to share with my family members that hunt. They don’t share the same passion and zeal for the “off season” type stuff like scouting that I have but it is not difficult to get them to sit down for ten minutes to look at my latest batch of trail cam pics. It is fun to see them scroll through the images and stop and say, “Now, that’s a nice buck! If I see him in September…” I find that over the course of five to six weeks I can get several thousand images from a well placed camera, however only about one third of those images will show an animal in the frame. It can be tedious to wade through several thousand images, but I can honestly say that the end result of several hundred images of deer, elk, moose, coyotes, etc. is well worth the time spent. On this blog I have a page dedicated to trail camera pictures, and I have selected just a handful of my favorites from each year from the thousands that I have saved (check it out HERE).

The last part of my scouting plan involves my eyes, a pair of binoculars and spotting scope, and my boots. I’ll be honest here… I bought my first trail camera in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2014 that I had the conversation mentioned at the start of this article with my wife and began to spend actual time outside of hunting season looking for game with my own eyes. I had such a good time actually spending time behind my binoculars that I seriously considered never setting another trail camera again and going solely to an in person method of scouting. I can’t believe how much information I was missing by relying completely on the trail cameras. When on these scouting trips I do not like to get overly aggressive and get too far into the area, I prefer to set up and glass from long distances so that I can truly sit back and observe the animals. This allows me to see the usual travel routes these animals use to and from different areas, since the muzzleloader hunt is still relatively early in the season many of these travel routines are still being used by the deer that I’m chasing at the time. I usually am only able to do this in the evenings, and I have two or three different spots that I go sit. These spots are high in elevation and provide me with good vantage points. From where I park my car, I can see almost a 360° panorama and can glass several of the places that now top on my list. A short hike from the little parking spot and I can peer into a large south facing bowl that is usually bustling with action while still being able to see a few of my other top spots. I like to go on these scouting trips with a friend or two. We set up plenty far away from any animals so being quiet is not a requirement, we can converse without much concern. It’s during these scouting sessions that I have gotten to know my hunting companions best as we talk about work, family, and life in general. We also take time to relive some hunting memories and talk about what worked in the past and what we’d like to try in the future. We begin these glassing sessions by dividing up the mountain and looking over a specific section of terrain. But once we spot an animal, especially a buck or bull that we want to inspect further, it generally devolves into what I would consider a glassing free-for-all. I take mental notes and enter that data into GE when I get home. I always remind myself to take lots of pictures but inevitably I walk away with very few pictures taken. When the animals start to emerge and spotting them gets fast and furious I often forget entirely about my camera. Here are a few things that I have learned on these evening glassing trips…

First, my personal comfort is absolutely paramount on these scouting trips. The first few trips I would find a relatively decent spot on the ground, set up my spotting scope, and start scanning with my binoculars. I quickly learned that I needed a more comfortable place to sit. This all depends on your personal preference, but I carry a relatively lightweight three legged camp stool to sit on now. I have heard of guys buying the little kneeler pads for gardening and sitting on those, they work just fine as well. If you are comfortable you will be able to spend more time behind the glass instead of constantly fidgeting around, changing seating positions trying to get comfortable, or standing up because your leg or foot has fallen asleep. Second, also related to my general comfort, is to bring a jacket whether you think you need it or not. Even in the summer high in the mountains when the sun goes down it gets chilly and it’s very hard to hold still when you are cold. There have been times where I have had my jacket and not ended up needing it… but it’s better to have it and not need it than need/want it and not have it!

Third, I don’t do extended glassing sessions “off hand” anymore, I always begin by setting up my tripod with an adapter that I created for my binoculars and begin glassing with my binoculars on the tripod. The tripod adds a measure of stability that I could never achieve by just holding the binoculars in my hands. I have noticed a significant difference in my glassing ability and productivity by putting my binoculars on my tripod and having the glass completely steady… I used to spot something off hand with my binoculars and switch immediately to the spotting scope. Now, with those same binoculars on a tripod I switch out to the spotting scope much less frequently. With a good solid rest under my binoculars I am able to evaluate bucks and bulls at distances where I would have previously only been able to see them clearly with the spotting scope and I find that the binoculars are much friendlier to my eyes than the spotting scope. On those first few glassing sessions I bet that I spent 70-80% of the time looking through my spotting scope… now I spend 70-80% of the time looking through my binoculars. And fourth, stay behind your binoculars until that last little bit of light is gone! My first few scouting trips I decided to head back to the car with light remaining simply so I wouldn’t have to do some hiking in the dark. That last twenty minutes or so of light, after the sun sets and goes down behind the peaks to the west, have been some of the most productive moments. Set aside the desire to get an early start on the hike back to the car, sure I know it’s easier to get back on the road home quickly while there is still light but you will be missing what I consider the greatest moments the woods can give you. The problem with experiencing this moment of peace is that it has always resulted in a flurry of animal activity and a scramble to see everything you can in the fading light. It is peace and chaos simultaneously… it’s magic.
The last piece of my Scouting Strategy is making sure all the pieces of this strategy fit into my real life responsibilities. I would love to spend more time on the mountain just looking for deer, elk, and moose but honestly the time that I do get is very limited.