Summer Scouting with Fall in Mind: At the Ranch - Whitetail

When you’re out summer scouting, it’s so important to keep the fall hunting season in mind while doing so. The biggest reason is that you need to think about how different the woods are and how the deer act in September, October, November compared to June, July, and August.

Everything looks different especially if you’re new to hunting deer. When you go out and scout in the summer, it can look like a jungle out there, the brush is thick and it can be really high, making it very difficult to read deer signs. There’s a few things that I’m doing that I will share when I’m out scouting during the summer, and thinking about fall really helps me out.

First thing is that I’m always looking at deer trails. I want to know where there are deer trails that are beaten to the dirt. If they’re beaten to the dirt and grass isn’t really growing, that means those trails are being used all year round and those are things that I’m kind of keeping in my head as I’m running trail cameras and as I’m thinking about where to put stands come fall.

Another thing that you have to really be thinking about is how everything changes from summer to fall. Food sources change and deer are going to move differently come the fall months. This is important to keep in mind because an area might be loaded with deer in the summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be in the fall.

Something else to be thinking about, especially when running trail cameras, is to realize that bucks do shift their home ranges from the summer to the fall. Just because you’re getting trail camera pictures of a buck now does not necessarily mean you will later. So make sure to keep tabs on them, see where deer change their home ranges and just as you’re out there scouting, you want to be thinking of the fall and not necessarily scouting with right now on your mind.

Long story short, when you’re out scouting the summer, be thinking of the fall, be thinking how things change and how those things can ultimately change how deer behave on a daily basis so that you put yourself in the best position possible.