Scouting Whitetails, and Lessons learned the hard way

Troy Esau

The age old saying goes, “A bad day hunting is still better than a good day at work!” For me there is a lot of truth in this saying. Even when things don't go right in the field, there are still so many lessons to take away from every experience, that can hopefully make your next sit or stalk one of the greatest moments in your hunting year. Any piece of information we can take away from a particular time out in the field is beneficial, even if the information we gather is that the animals are in fact not in the area we thought they were. Traveling to and from stand locations can also be a huge eye-opener if you look at the animal sign around you.

This fall I was lucky enough to pick up hunting permission on another piece of property, a transition pasture situated between two larger pockets of timber. I walked the property in spring looking for whitetail sheds and was able to glean a lot of valuable information that helped with hunting that particular property successfully. During these spring walks, I learned that very few deer were actually bedding there, even though there is plenty of great cover and bedding areas. I found a few small marshy areas which were absolutely littered with rubs and scrapes from the previous fall. When you are out scouting in spring, look beyond the winter trails where the deer have obviously been travelling, instead look for buck sign, rubs and scrapes, from the previous rut season. These areas are often used almost every year, over and over. There are certainly factors that can change the fall travel pattern for a buck, but community scrapes and rubs almost always stay within the same small area. In many cases, when you find fresh rubs, you can spot trees that have been rubbed in years prior if you just look around a little bit.

My walking route to the blind I set up in this new hunting property was an old roadway at one point, that is no longer used. This path was hammered with fresh buck sign. There were at least 6 active fresh scrapes and conservatively at least 20 trees of varying size that were rubbed. All of this got me extremely excited to get into the blind and sit for as long as I could, even after the fingers and toes go numb. This kind of buck sign also warranted putting up a trail camera or two in order to see the calibre of bucks that are roaming the property, and see what time of day they are moving. Trail cameras can be a great tool, but set them and give them some time. Every time you go in to check a camera, the bucks that you hopefully see in the pictures are also picking up your scent and may decide to change up the travel pattern. Every deer seems to have a different threshold for human scent and how they react to it. Some deer get your wind once, or smell a boot print or something you've touched and completely vacate the area. Other deer seem to tolerate human scent and do not seem to mind your presence much, so I would er on the side of checking the camera less in order to minimize the scent you are bringing in.

One deer that spooked out of an area was a mature 5 or 6 year old buck that I was getting consistent trail camera pictures of in a small clearing, within a large block of timber, just off an old quad trail. It was right next to a large area of swamp grasses and willows, a prime buck bedding area. Unfortunately there were no large trees to safely hang a treestand in, so I opted to try and brush in a ground blind. I went in two weeks before season to brush in the blind and did not return until opening day. With about an hour left of legal light on opening day, I see the crown walking through the tall swamp grasses. There was only one problem; he was using a very different entry point into this clearing than all of the other deer. He got within about 60 yards of me and with one small wind swirl, he raised his nose, wheeled around and slowly walked away. I never got a picture of that deer after that, not even during the rut. He just vanished. It was an absolute heartbreak, but I learned to never force anything.

When situations like this happen out in the bush, it becomes easy to 'throw in the towel' mentally, and assume your season is over. DON'T QUIT! If you quit you will never accomplish your next hunting goal! For some, it's cracking the 100” mark, for others the goal is a Pope and Young, and yet others have their sights set on a Booner. Whatever it is for you, I promise that you won't accomplish it from the house. Get out there and make success happen. Instead of dwelling on mistakes, learn from them. In every mistake that you've made, there is always a silver lining that you learned a lesson and didn't even have to pay someone for it. This advice is mirrored in life, but I'm no life coach and will not get into that. For me, this advice is implemented in my hunting strategies every year. There are so many factors that go into a perfect setup, that gets you close enough to harvest that dream animal, but you will not figure that out pouting at home after you screwed up.

So, next time you are our and make a mistake, put it in the memory bank and learn from it. Eventually you will become a better hunter and you are that much closer to accomplishing your next hunting goal.

Troy