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Any scouting tips?

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mullet:
 I like to set up an ambush spot on a well traveled trail. Usually along the edge of planted pines, between a wet area with water oaks. Thats the set up I have this year with a small food plot to help out and a feeder later in the season.

Ryano:
OK, some good stuff here. Here is what I do in nut shell. What I usually do a lot of first is spot lighting since its legal in Pennsylvania. I try to pick out a couple of property's to concentrate on for the season by checking the # of deer using the area and if there are any mature bucks. The area of PA I live in is mostly farm land so we start out by checking the farmers crops as well as some other food sources. Some of the crops the deer like are clover, alfalfa, corn, and soybeans. Also we have a lot of old over grown apple orchards as well as wild apple tree's which can produce big time.  You can usually catch The deer using these fields at dusk and well into the night. This is a good way to see how many deer are in a particular piece of woods. Once I have identfied the food source the deer are using curently(keep in mind this may change through out the season) I do basically the same as the rest of you. First if its a crop field I'm setting up on I usualy find a good trail comming from the woods out into the field and try to follow it back as far as I can and see if I can find any thick cover where the deer may be bedding.  I would then take into acount the wind direction (always try to aproach the stand with the wind in my face and keep it there while on stand if posible) and any natural pinch points or funnel area where the deer have to go to get from the feeding to the bedding area and vise versa. Hillbilly also made a good point. Deer are creatures of edges..they will often times follow a old fence line or work a trail just inside the woods from a field edge. Even better if you find a place where the deer are traveling up and down a old fence line and you find a spot where the fence is down and they will often times cross there as well. These are places I alway look for as well.  :)

Hillbilly:
Or if you can find one of those places out in the woods where there's a big pile of corn on the ground, those are usually pretty productive, too. ;D ;D

Ryano:
That would be illegal in Pa Steve.... ::)   ;D
I don't think our deer even know what a Acorn is here......There's no white oak around hear and very few red.  Wild apples are very hit and miss this year because a late frost wiped most of them out.

woodstick:
i get luckey iam on my hunting land all the time i use binoculars alot to look at draws. plus i know alot of travel areas, and a bunch of bedding areas. my main way is to hunt travel routes, i like to find the ones where you got 2 or 3 trails funnel down to 1. plus like everybody said acorns, or the main food source. if you find the food you will find the deer, or the girls and there will be the boys. good luck. dont know if this will help.

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