Favorite place to start?

So whats everyones favorite place to start a scout?

Lets say you are looking at a new piece of public land. You`ve taken a look at some sat photos on goggle earth or somewhere, and found several crop fields,two creek bottoms, and lots of timber.

Would you look at the field food source first? Would you strike out and try to get as deep in as possible then start scouting back towards the vehicle? Would you hike the timber and find the oaks? Walk the creeks and look for crossings?

I start by looking at the layout of the land. I mainly look for bedding areas first, then once I'm in the area I look for all trails that lead to water and food.

Once I write them down (map them out) I look for ambush spots, downed trees, funnels, pinch points and trees for stands. If I'm close to the hunting area (From Home) I'll go there and sit up in a tree and do some ambush scouting. This helps with wind flow, Sun movement and of course Animal movement.

I really find it helps when You can scout the 4 seasons (Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall). Hunting is 365 days a Year JOB. Now if I don't have much time I focus on water and food, then bedding...

This is a very good thread! I would find the most currently active food source, & go from there.

After studying this area on Google Earth to get somewhat familiar with lay of the land, my first trip there I'm going to walk the creek beds. I'm looking for crossing & feed trees.

My place would be the crop fields. Usually a good source for finding tracks. Walking field edges also gives one a fair view of the woodland entries to what is usually the main nocturnal food source and a point of activity, where scrapes/ rubs can be seen giving one a general idea of the size of the bucks on the area.

From there, I would chose to either hunt the field PM for meat (doe) or if the sign warranted,follow the trails with good buck sign back into the woods to try and locate funnels (creek crossings terrain pinches,staging areas like oak groves near the field) and then bedding areas.

I'm a bed hunter. I locate as many beds as possible during late Winter/early Spring and prep trees that look promising just out of sight of the beds at that time. I return to hunt those trees once or twice during the season and only when the deer sign dictates that the buck is probably using that bedding area. Remember, early season bucks spend more time on their bellies, than they do filling them. I like to be in a spot where I will see him once he gets off his belly, which might not happen till 15 minutes before quitting time.

I would also look for areas in the woods that present a good funnel near outside field corners. The buck probably won't cross those fields during daylight, but they will pass by a corner at any time of day while cruising for does. I would find a brushy area that restricts movement or a ditch that is full of blow downs that only offer a spot or two for the buck to sneak through. That would be my all day rut stand.

I would also locate at least one rutted up creek crossing, especially if I had a doe tag or two in my back pocket.

Now is the time to "trim the fat" out in the deer woods so you aren't wasting time next Fall sitting in a spot that the deer hardly ever walk through.

Wow, just found this thread! Very informational as I had the same question a few days back.

SlowBow wrote:My place would be the crop fields. Usually a good source for finding tracks. Walking field edges also gives one a fair view of the woodland entries to what is usually the main nocturnal food source and a point of activity, where scrapes/ rubs can be seen giving one a general idea of the size of the bucks on the area.

From there, I would chose to either hunt the field PM for meat (doe) or if the sign warranted,follow the trails with good buck sign back into the woods to try and locate funnels (creek crossings terrain pinches,staging areas like oak groves near the field) and then bedding areas.

^^^^^What Slowbow said!
I start at the fields and follow trails back looking for pinch points. I love putting tree stands next to water if there's good sign.