Hunting season, here in Texas, is drawing to an end. That is to say, Whitetail and Waterfowl seasons are about over. There is still late season and there are some year round species that can be hunted. But let’s face it, most hunters are only after a few specific prey. We’re here, however, to suggest you reconsider limiting yourself. As we’ve told you, AJ and I hunt exclusively on public land. The pressure for most public hunting zones is insane. The more advantages you can give yourself, the more likely you are to have success. By using year round and off season game for practice you can scout for your main target at the same time.
Most public land hunters have a bad habit of wandering out into a zone they’ve never hunted before, picking a spot that looks promising, then sitting a few hours only to become discouraged and give up. The problem is three fold. One, they didn’t scout ahead of time which makes the selection a guess at best. Two, they are not as likely to be fully confident in their gear which, subconsciously, causes doubt while waiting. Three, their late start causes a limit to their perseverance. These challenges can be especially problematic for new hunters who don’t have the experience of generations giving them instincts they didn’t even realize they learned following older hunters into the woods.
Even though there are different types of hunters, our end goals are relitively similar.
Traditionally, there is a bit of a divide between the hunters who have grown up in the sport and new hunters trying to learn as they go. Established hunters learned how dad learned, which is how grandpa learned, which was how great-grandpa learned. New hunters who are beginning the sport as adults, often trying to learn the sport on their own, don’t have the ingrained traditions and aren’t accustomed to the particularly unique nature of the established hunting culture.
The mass shutdown of civilization that took place a few years ago left so many people searching for ways to get out that new hunters became an exponentially blossoming demographic. In many ways it caught everyone off guard and left the established outdoors community baffled.
“But the thousands of new hunters came as a surprise. It’s not the sort of activity that’s easy to pick up on a whim.”
– Stateline
Hunters have always been the primary resource for conservation in the US, but with the decline in family cohesion and the move away from “keeping with tradition” the conservation resources have been dwindling for many years. With the shutdown came a burst of new conservation resources.
Other hunters can be a blessing and a curse.
That windfall, however, is a bit of a double edged sword. Proportionately, there are still fewer hunters in the US than there were even 40 years ago. From a hard numbers perspective, there are significantly more individuals vying for each spot of land. Part of this is due to the number of registered and unregistered (poachers) hunters as well as the sickeningly rampant decline of legally accessible public land.
For those of us who have been hunting since before the pandemic, there’s a bit of complacency that must now be broken. New hunters, not taught through the tradition of handing family practices down generation to generation, aren’t going to know how to look for fellow hunters. They’re not going to be as aware of how their presence affects the nature around them. And most will not know the safety concerns that have been drilled into established hunters since day one.
Due to the pandemic, nearly every state offered hunter safety courses online, waiving the in-person skills assessments and training sessions that are usually mandatory.
This, however, can work to our advantage, if we apply a bit of ingenuity.
AJ and I had been hunting for several years when the shutdown occurred. We were self taught and had struggled to develop the skills many our age just possessed naturally from years of family outings. Nonetheless, we had worked to learn how to be a part of the established culture while still hunting our own way. When the shutdown occurred we began watching the shifts in our community forums, in the sports stores when we were replenishing our supplies, and in the field as we scouted as well as hunted. It took a couple years to figure out a clear pattern of how to make the two worlds work in our favor.
These 7 steps are what we’ve developed for our own hunting season preparation.
Step 1. Do as much of your scouting on line and ahead of time as possible.
OnX is our program of choice, but there are a variety of programs out there to make use of as you begin your scouting process. Regardless, if you’re hunting elk, deer, boar, or squirrel; the animals weren’t experiencing a shutdown. They weren’t forced to stay home months on end. Their habits have not changed.
This is one of your advantages.
If you know how the animals in your area act year after year, you know what they’re going to do this year also. If you’re hunting a different area than normal, you know what animal instinct is and can create a relatively informed guess on what the target species is going to do in this new zone.
Take, for instance, white tail deer. Bucks spend their days hugging ridges where they are concealed, can see oncoming threats quickly and easily, and will have an almost guaranteed escape rout ducking over the crevice of that ridge before you even know he was there. Look for places where you can access high points, where you’ll be protected from the wind that will give your location away, and the deer’s natural path will be easily accessible.
If you’ve learned to read the maps, understand the terrain, and recognize natural instinct you’ll be prepared for the potential paths your target should take. Programs like onX are particularly helpful for this because they combine everything into one, consolidated, image. Maps show you your locations, distances from legal shooting zones, and private land you won’t be able to cross. They give you terrain, crop, and water resources the animals will be looking for. Then they give you the ability to map out your own course so you can find your way to specific points without the benefit of full light.
Keeping your own log of what you see, where you see it, and the obstacles you need to prepare for can help you plan for your upcoming hunting season.
Step 2. Anticipate your competition’s moves through what you observe during your scouting trips.
Human nature is more predictable than animal instinct on many levels. Join any number of hunting groups and watch the comments being posted. Go to any public hunting zone and sit in your car watching the field you’re preparing for. You’ll discover that most hunters take very predictable paths, rarely go deep into the field (100 yards max), and are going to “hide” in the most open area they can find (to have a clear shot). Use this to your advantage and watch for human signs.
When it comes to fellow hunters, pressure is your friend.
If you are willing to go deeper into the field or take a less traveled route, you can approach the target zone from a completely different angle. The animals will be so preoccupied by the stumbling giants that they’ll hardly notice you let alone pay you any mind. If you studied those maps (especially the satellite imagery) you will more easily see the game trails that are being used.
This is what the animals know. It is what they are familiar with which means it’s what they trust.
When you identify where people are parking, how they are making entry to the hunting zone, and where they are likely to set up, you will know where you need to go.
Download your free checklist today to prepare for your scouting adventures.
Step 3. Scout the water for a new perspective.
Now you can walk the perimeter of the property and make entry on the other end or several hundred yards away. But, why not make life easier on yourself?
We talk about kayaks a lot on this site. The convenience of transporting gear makes travel into hunting zones easier. A kayak’s compact nature allows the hunter to travel further and deeper into the “backcountry” of lands less frequently explored. The harvest will be easier to remove from the hunting zone once your harvest is secured. You can cover your tracks to prevent more hunters from knowing how and where you entered the hunting zone. Best of all, in the middle of the day, when you take a break from hunting or scouting you have the ability to go fishing.
These factors are especially important for your scouting. Others out on the water see you bank your kayak and go wandering into the woods and think you’re looking for a place to relieve yourself. Animals see you on a kayak 20 or 30 yards away and they don’t think much of it. They’ll stay bedded down or continue drinking from the bank. The more you fish a river or the mouth of a stream, the more you’ll hone in on the fresh tracks and the paths they’re showing you into the woods. Mark these game trails on your map (onX or other apps come in particularly helpful with this) and you’re set for where to start your land searches.
The more you do when out in the field, the more success you’ll have with all of your hunting adventures
Step 4. Focus your tracking on your prey’s basic needs
Animals must have water to survive. The more the water moves, the cleaner and fresher it is. The better condition the water is in, the more inclined the animals will be to drink it. This is why you’ll find the tracks mentioned above.
After water, animals must have food. A clean water source near a field providing preferred foods gives you an ideal location for predictable appearances. Hunting maps (onX, GoHunt, HuntWise, etc.) can give you an insight as to where these options reside.
Once they’re watered and full, animals will need a place to rest. Now finding bedding locations on public land can be especially challenging…Not impossible, but definitely challenging…That idea in mind, look for those game trails. Animals are predictable on the paths they will take. Look for those signs and you’ll be able to estimate where they are going.
Off season, animals are not feeling the intensity of pressure hunting season causes. They are less on guard and more curious about their surroundings. This gives you the opportunity to locate them more easily. Instead of hearing them running by, you’ll see them standing up and investigating your approach before leaving. Become consistent, scout regularly, and the more they know you as a part of the environment the more they’ll overlook your presence. Once hunting season starts, you’ll know where they are and be able to anticipate the path they’ll take when pressure from the parking lot begins.
Step 5. Remember that weather patterns are somewhat predictable
Here in Texas, October gets a bit cooler, but is still considered warm enough to hunt in a shirt and regular pants. November we will typically get some showers and the temperature will start to drop to a “reasonable” degree. By December we know the weather is going to start changing enough that we’re going to see movement.
Animals don’t have a meteorologist to check in with.
They have to anticipate the changing weather themselves. By knowing the general pattern of our local weather and understanding the behavior patterns specific animal species exhibit, we can begin to prepare for the upcoming hunt by narrowing down our scouting patterns.
Animals notice the barometric pressure. It’s a common predictor in fishing and is becoming a key component in predicting deer behavior as well. When the pressure is high or rising, the larger game will start moving more and feeding more aggressively. When snow is approaching, wild game will begin to feed up in anticipation of the loss in feed supplies. Birds swarm in larger flocks and tend to stay closer to the ground when storms are approaching. Big game is going to hunker down in storms for protection so must feed up ahead of time.
The more you study the weather and the animal patterns the coincide with that weather, the more productive your scouting and hunting will become.
Step 6. Practice your targeting
Most public hunting lands don’t allow you to wander around with a rifle or bow off season. You can, however, carry a walking stick. When you find a potential location for placing your hunting blind, stand where you imagine you’ll be positioned. Sight down that hunting stick. Are there adequate shooting lanes? Will you get a clean shot on your target as it enters your line of sight or will you have to wait for it to take a specific position. As you practice off season, you’ll get a good feeling for how much clearance you’re going to need. Sighting those shooting lanes will tell you what spots will be best.
If you hunt from a tree stand or saddle use these scouting trips as opportunities to practice your climb. Make sure you have found a scalable tree that is sturdy enough to hold you and your gear. AJ and I tend to hunt in a variety of zones that have weak and thin tees rather sparsely dispersed around game trails. Most of our target game travels through thick shrubs that provide too much coverage to get a clean shot from above. When we want to hunt from above, we must be particularly cautious of our shooting lanes.
It doesn’t matter if you find your target when you can’t take a viable shot on that target. Silence keeps that target in range longer, but what do you need to make use of that opportunity?
The more you practice, the more success you’ll have when that shot presents itself. Without identifying those shooting lanes ahead of time you are likely to pick a location due to a particularly enticing game trail and accidentally overlook that tree branch 10 feet in front of you directly where your arrow will be traveling.
Step 7. Become as consistent as your prey
Deer use the same game trails day after day. They’ll eat in the same field every morning for days, weeks, even months as the crop grows. If you’re living in a zone where deer can travel hundreds of miles, you are likely to not see a specific deer for months on end. You will, however, likely see him every year around the same time. This is a consistent predictability that allows you to predict where you will need to be and when you will need to be there.
The catch, however, is that you have to become as predictable as that deer if you want to establish the pattern that will allow you to harvest him.
Does he appear an hour before sunset or 10 minutes after sunrise?
Does he come from the west when there’s a breeze but from the south when the air is still?
Will she bed by the gully when there’s rain or does she hold up against the cliff 200 yards due east?
This holds true with most of the big game you’re going to track. Become consistent, monitor your selected areas regularly, and you’ll improve your ability to locate that target prey. Without scouting, without creating your own consistent patterns that will show you their consistent patterns you will be literally taking a shot in the dark when hunting season arrives.
If you want to hunt, don’t stop at scouting
Don’t overlook the value of a solid scouting process when preparing for your hunt. Even as a new hunter, the scouting process can be the most important step in your adventure. If you are a new hunter, make sure you check out the overall process you’ll want to learn when starting this new outdoors quest.