How to Scout Deer from 1,200 Miles Away

But I have more reasons than that. I’ve been hunting there since I was 11. I have an incredible amount of nostalgia associated with this place. And after hunting here for almost 40 years, I’ve yet to crack the code. I’m hungry to do so. I now co-own 50 acres with my dad, so I’m invested. And lastly, my dreams are filled with big whitetails cruising deciduous timber. Is that enough? It is for me.

Being 1,200 miles from my nearest stand does make serious preparation and hunting a bit tougher. On average, I’ll spend just shy of three weeks per year there. One week in the spring hunting turkeys and doing habitat work, one week in early November hunting the rut with my bow, and finally, a short week at the end of November for the rifle hunt with my family and friends. There are no “quick weekend scouting trips” or “after-work shooting lane-cutting sessions.”

That being said, I still do a lot of offseason prep to up my odds in the fall. Most of it just comes in the form of thinking or digital scouting. And I do have my dad, who lives a good bit closer to our property, and I put him to work as time allows. More on that later. From 1,200 miles away, here’s how I do it.

My original and main reason for using cell cams is to get an idea of buck inventory (I now run 20 Moultrie Edge cams on the property). On top of that, it’s fun, and it stokes my fire. Please don’t go thinking that twenty cameras somehow tell me everything that’s happening on the 400 acres available to me.

Every fall, I only see one or two of the bucks I have photos of, and I always see two or three bucks I have zero photos of. Like I said, it’s mostly for entertainment. But there are other benefits. By having my cameras spread out, I learn about the general location and movement of doe groups. If the does are there, the bucks will be, too, come November. And last but certainly not least, I’m learning new zones remotely with my cameras.

Every spring, I move a few cameras to new locations that I’m wondering about. Sometimes a deer only crosses that camera once a week, other times it’s a steady stream of deer activity. When that happens, I’ll make sure to give that spot a closer look the next time I’m in the vicinity.

I spend countless hours peering at the topo map (we hunt hill country, imagining how the deer travel through it. This year I’ve been zooming out and looking at it on a larger scale. Not just examining our property but figuring out how the ridges on our property tie in with the ridges on neighboring properties.

I’m trying to answer the question, “When a rutting buck moves from this ridge to that ridge, where is the most likely spot he’ll do that?” When I come to a conclusion, I mark the spot with the “Point of Interest” pin. I also mark every bench and saddle on the property. This gives me a clear plan when I have a few extra minutes in November to check a spot with a quick detour while moving stands midday.

I have access to 400 acres. Even after 40 years, I don’t feel like I’ve stepped foot on every inch of it. There’s always more to explore and more secrets to unlock. But more importantly, I have all of my prepped trees (for saddle hunting) and stands marked and the optimal wind tool engaged. I also have a list of my favorite (nine so far) stands with notes about each one.

The stands are listed in order of best to worst; they are all good, but if I had to kill a buck on day one, I’d go to the stand in the #1 spot, as long as the wind was right for that spot. Each stand has optimal wind direction noted. This way, if I have a north wind, I’m not even thinking about sitting in any stand that favors southerly wind directions. The stands are also marked AM, PM, or AD for all-day sits. Having this information in clear and detailed form helps me make good game-time decisions on where I should be, even when I’m weary from several all-day sits.

This is what I ask my dad to do for me during his trips to Wisconsin. He lives in Michigan but gets over there about six times a year. To get good trail camera photos, the cameras need to be maintained. We use mostly solar panels now, so replacing batteries is a thing of the past. But cameras get whacked by falling limbs or curious bears and need adjustment. Growing vegetation is the number one issue preventing good photos; it must be cleared from in front of the cameras.

I also ask him to put in mock scrapes in key locations. If a camera is not already pointed at a scrape, I have him put a mock scrape in. We also like to have a scrape, real or fake, near all of our permanent stand sites. As the landscape changes from age and timber harvests, new stand positions come into play. When I’m there, I find them and cut shooting lanes. I’ll ask my dad to build blinds at those locations.

I’m still a fan of blinds built from natural materials. I can carry a chair in to sit on and when the blind is no longer in use, it just becomes part of the landscape. Lastly, if I have a tree I like to hang in, but I think it needs a few more lanes cut, I’ll ask him to do some trimming.

I’m working my hunting grounds vicariously through my cameras, onX, and my dad. It’s not perfect and certainly doesn’t replace my living and scouting there 365 days a year, but it’s better than nothing. At the minimum, it fills me full of hope and a strong positive mental attitude when I arrive on November 1.