Steve Bartylla will bring you along as he hunts Missouri, Wisconsin and on a late season doe hunt at the end of the year.

BUCKS & BEARDS DEERHUNT 2000
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October - Scouting & Setting Up Mock Scrapes

We timed our last scouting trip so it coincided with Missouri's archery opener. Brent and I had 3 full days at Buck & Beards Outfitters and had every intention of leaving as prepared as we possibly could be for our November hunt. Long ago I was able to learn that when targeting mature whitetails spending as much time possible in treestands is not nearly as important as spending the time you have in the right stand. As a matter of a fact I believe each time you hunt a stand unsuccessfully that the odds of that stand producing actually declines. Even when we do not see a single deer we are leaving clues to our intrusions into their homes. Because of this, stand placement is critical and I will gladly forfeit an opportunity to hunt if it comes to a choice between sitting a stand or scouting.

The key to having a successful hunt during the November rut is to determine where the does will be. To do this we focused on finding bedding and feeding areas. When scouting over a full month in advance, part of the challenge is to find the food sources that will be hottest at that time. Deer are driven by their stomachs and regardless of what time of season food holds the key to travel patterns.

To gauge what will be hot later, one must know what foods deer prefer in an area and then take educated guesses on which will be available at that time. A technique we utilized heavily was to inspect the mast crops. Because of the deer density it was safe to assume any acorns or apples that were already mature would be gone by the time we came back. We keyed on the mast that was still developing.

After locating the bedding and future feeding areas we hung stands in funnels the deer would have to pass when traveling back and forth.

In total we prepared seven stand sites for our return visit. We knew we would still have to scout when we got back and that not all of our projections would be accurate but the benefit of having a stand already in place for our hunt far out weighed any wasted effort. If even 3 of our sites hit we would consider it a success.

Tomorrow the hunt begins. 
  For those looking for every advantage in understanding whitetail deer, Steve Bartylla's column Becoming A Student Of Whitetail Deer is a must read.