Whenever a
deer moves around in the woods, it leaves signs that it has been there. I’m not
talking about stuff that’s easy to see. I mean, you won’t find a deer leaving a
note for you that says something like “I was here at 5:30, be back same time tomorrow,” or anything
like that. Deer move for two main reasons – to get something to eat and to find
a place to rest or sleep (called bedding down). They leave signs when they do
these things, and you can learn to find them.
People look for deer sign because
they plan to hunt deer. Lots of deer sign in an area means that’s a good place
to hunt. Looking for deer sign is called scouting. You can look for deer sign
before hunting season starts, and during the hunting season.
Whether you’re scouting or hunting
for deer sign, you have to pay attention to the sign you’re leaving in the
woods. You don’t want to leave messages that let the deer know you’ve been
there! That may make them move somewhere else. If you can, wear rubber boots
(they don’t leave scent) and try not to touch branches as you walk through the
woods – that’s nose level for a deer.
Two of the
easiest things to look for are deer tracks and deer poop – they leave a lot of
both! Their tracks are best found in places where the ground is soft, like
around water or at the edge of a farm field. They leave poop everywhere – did
you know that a deer goes to the bathroom (number two) from 27 to 34 times a
day? You can even tell
how old the poop is, or how long ago the deer made it. Old
poop is dry, and you can break it apart easily with a stick. Really fresh poop
will look shiny.
Scrapes are a sure sign bucks are here
Closer to hunting season in the
fall, male buck deer start to leave signs called rubs and scrapes. If they
travel enough back and forth from one place to another, they start to make
paths called deer trails, or game trails.
Dr. Dave Samuel taught deer biology
at West Virginia University for thirty years. He’s got
the skinny on rubs and scrapes.
“Deer make rubs and scrapes to
‘talk’ to other deer by leaving scent there,” Samuel explained. “Bucks talk to
bucks and does talk to bucks – most of the talk is about mating, and that’s why
deer make rubs and scrapes in the fall, around mating season.”
Another way to look for deer and
deer sign is from far away, using binoculars such as those made by Nikon. Using binoculars or even a
spotting scope, you can look at deer in farm fields late in the afternoon,
before the season starts. That will give you an idea if any big bucks are
living in the area.
You can also use binoculars from
high places and look over the land. Sometimes you can see places where deer
would be most likely to travel, like patches of woods between open fields.
Remember that deer and other wild animals don’t want to work any harder than
they have to when they move from place to place. They stay away from areas that
are boggy or really steep.
You can do some scouting even using
a topo map. Topo is short for topography, which means the lay of the land. On
that kind of map, lines that are close together show places that are steep,
like the tops of mountains. Roads, swamps, and waters like ponds and streams
are marked on the map. It’s pretty hard to pick a place to hunt just using a
topo map, but looking at that kind of map can really help you pick the best places
to do your scouting. A great place to get a good topo map of the area you want to scout is MyTopo. MyTopo makes it easy to get exactly what you need for proper scouting.
When you’re scouting, look hard for
plants and things that deer like to eat. In the fall, deer put on as much
weight as they can because winter is coming. They like to eat corn, apples,
meadow grass, and acorns. People call this the “food source.”
Once, some deer biologists did a
study on a bunch of deer that they were keeping in a pen. They put out three
piles of food, corn, apples and acorns. The deer picked the acorns every time. Even
if the acorns aren’t falling yet when you’re scouting, you can use binoculars
to look up into oak trees and see which ones have the most acorns. Acorns
usually fall first from trees that are on ridges or high ground, because those
trees get more wind. But, trees closer to water usually have more acorns.
Once you find a lot of deer sign,
you know what area to hunt. To really see what is in your area and to determine
when and where they move, I advise using a quality trail or wildlife camera
like CamTrakker, Trail Timer
and others. You follow instructions, set them out as directed and then
check it regularly during times deer are not moving. You also want to
be very careful not to disturb the area any more than absolutely
necessary. With good photos to judge you will know everything you need
to know about your area and the game that it is in it.
You also have to pay attention to
wind direction. Deer have a really good sense of smell, and if they know you’re
around, they won’t come near. Plus, after all that work scouting, you don’t
want to ruin it by having a deer smell you and run away.
“We have 10 million sensory cells
in the lining of our nose, and a dog has 220 million,” Dr. Samuel said. “A deer
probably has more than a dog, because it has a bigger nose.”
You could say that a deer could
smell a pair of stinky socks in your gym bag inside your locker – from outside
the school! So, use the special soaps available to de-scent your hunting clothes, right
down to your socks, and you. There are also special ‘Scent Killer’ sprays for
things you can’t put in the washing machine, like you bow and arrows or boots. And
do your best to hunt from a spot where the wind is not blowing from you to
where you expect the deer to walk. If you do enough scouting, you will have a
couple places to go for hunting. Check the wind and let that make up your mind
where to go each day.
SCOUTING IS SPONSORED BY
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