Pre-Season Alabama Deer Scouting

September in Alabama is HOT! With temperatures nearing triple digits it's not exactly the kind of weather that makes you want to go hiking into your favorite areas to do some pre-season deer scouting. I try to rely from the previous season's hunts and in season scouting to give myself a good starting point for the upcoming season. However, I do scout in late August and through September. I'm typically scouting for our November firearms Deer Season because I am a High School football coach that hasn't bow hunted much in the past. That's going to change this year, and that is because of trail cam scouting data that I have gathered for the past 5 years.

Deer season in Alabama is a long season. There are plenty of opportunities to get out and hunt in a lot of counties with the season spanning from October 15th - February 10th. The past 5 years worth of trail cam data has taught me that deer are conditioned to the changes of pressure during the season. And of course the most pressure is during gun season and there's significantly less hunting pressure during bow season. One of the best opportunities to have a successful hunt in my area of the state on the corner of Cleburne, Calhoun, and Cherokee counties is the week before rifle season during muzzle loader week. Due to pre-rut activity beginning during the second week in November in this particular area; I started running my cameras in places where I've seen buck sign, trails leading to bedding (cover), or nearby food sources. Finding acorn trees loaded early in the season is typically not that difficult to do. Finding a tree with acorns later into the season is where you're really going to benefit from scouting and knowing the area you hunt. This is especially true for public land hunters such as myself. I reap the benefits every deer season from finding places where I know deer are feeding because it's an area I have saved that has cover, food, and it's less pressured. I will never say an area on public land is completely free from hunting pressure. I learned a long time ago that you have no idea what happens on public land while you're at work through the week. Further more, there are other hunters just like you trying to do their due diligence and discover areas just like you're trying to discover. Everyone wants the perfect situation every time they walk into the woods to hunt. Therefore, there are lots of other hunters looking for the less pressured areas with good deer sign. I think of it like this; how many "spots" have you driven by or scouted that you thought, "this is a good looking area that has everything to produce a good deer habitat." Chances are there are people who have seen some of those same spots and thought the same thing. This is why I have countless spots marked on my ONXMaps and Google Map Apps. I also scout the areas for where other people might be hunting. If I know that someone is hunting in a particular area then I try to take advantage of that by hunting in a spot that I could benefit from the other guy pushing deer into my spot.

As I mentioned above, I use a lot of in season scouting to my advantage. I think it's a great idea to scout during the season as you hunt, especially later in the season to get a good feel for how the deer in the area are using the terrain to travel to feeding and bedding areas after they have been heavily pressured. In season deer movement is greatly affected by hunting pressure, but deer have to get up to move around and feed during daylight hours. And even though it may see like it, deer don't just disappear or move at night. Pre-season scouting for me is basically checking those favorited areas that I have scouted during the previous season or an area that I like that I have map scouted. I want to learn where the deer feel comfortable being during daylight hours. When I do my best in season scouting I have good ideas about where the deer are going to be when the hunting pressure starts to increase during gun season. I look for thick areas along the edges of break lines where there's plenty of cover to travel to and from feeding and bedding. Back to the beginning of the deer season (Bow Season October 15th) it's hot and deer need water. There's little to no hunting pressure, and finding those pinch point areas between bedding, food, and water are the keys to putting yourself in position early on for a chance to see how the deer in that particular area are moving. I've always taken the approach that hunting is scouting because I learn so much while hunting from the way I walk to my stand to the way I exit my hunting area. I learn how the deer react to hunting pressure in the areas I hunt by hunting and running game trail cameras. The only problem is there's so many places for the deer to hide and there's so much public and private property. I believe you have to scout and focus on an area. I'm a firm believer that you cannot hunt thousands of acres of public land and be successful unless you break areas down and scout those areas. Once you break areas down you begin to understand what's in those areas. When you can understand the terrain, cover, food, water, and hunting pressure in an area then you're able to make better decisions on where and how to hunt a particular area. Sure, you can hunt a proven spot that you've hunted in the past because you know from previous experience how the spot can produce. However, any slight change to the environment such as a clearcut can have a huge impact with how the deer navigate the area. Good luck, scout safe and have a great 2019-2020 Deer Season.