At the Ranch - Whitetail: E-Scouting 101

In this video, I’m gonna talk about e-scouting 101 for whitetail. I’ve been sitting at the computer this morning doing some e-scouting for a bunch of different stuff, but I kind of wanted to go over some 101 on e-scouting, why it’s important and why you should be doing it.

First of all, e-scouting is tremendously important because it kind of gives you an idea of what a property can look like before you ever even get there. Whether you’re just looking for new property, you’re hunting on an estate, or maybe it’s a property you’ve hunted for a long time, e-scouting provides you with being able to see a different look at it. With onX, you can know what kind of layout there is between timber and fields, you can learn how much property there is, and you can see the property boundaries, giving you a good feel for the property. This way, if you get a good feel of a property before going to scout it, you have an idea of what you’re trying to check out and you can match up what you find while e-scouting with boots on the ground, which can be really important.

Another reason I love e-scouting is that it just gives you a different perspective. Like I said before, it can give you an idea of a property before you even get there. But, if you’ve already hunted a property, or if you’ve spent time hunting the property for years, but you’ve never e-scouted it, checking it out on aerial maps may offer a different viewpoint of certain areas.

When it comes to hunting whitetails there are certain things you want to look for when you’re e-scouting. To start, look for areas that have a good combination of timber to fields. If you’re in the Midwest you want to be looking for areas that have good whitetail habitat.

I really find it important to use something like onX because it can show you property boundaries especially if you’re looking for public land, you can easily identify it. Let’s say you find a great piece of public land but you might not know how to get in. If you can find it through e-scouting, you may be able to find a smaller strip of public that leads into it – or maybe you have permission on a different piece of land to access it. These are a few things to keep on the forefront of your mind while you’re e-scouting for your hunt.

When it comes to e-scouting it’s something that I’ve learned so much from and something that I take away from this kind of scouting is learning how properties are laid out. I’ve hunted a variety of properties all across the Midwest and what I have come to notice is that once you spend more time e-scouting, you are able to figure out what kind of properties to look for in an area. Once you get comfortable in an area, you begin to know what deer like and it could be way easier to identify through e-scouting than actually driving around to scout. Overall, e-scouting is a vital part of deer hunting, and if you’re not employing it currently, I recommend doing so.