Scouting in snow
- Thread starter hbg1
- Start date
Well, you were thwe one out there today. What did you see. No snow here in the east fir us to take advantage of scouting wise. I'd guess deer are sticking to the pine and cedar thickets with some forays into the fields but I'd be interested in what you encountered.
philsanchez76
Well-Known Member
Yes I'm interested too. It's been a dream of mine to scout in the snow. It almost doesn't even seem fair to the poor deer cuz you can just follow their tracks!! I live in middle TN which got walloped by snow but I'm working out in Gatlinburg for 2 weeks where no snow has fallen!!! I'm very jealous. Let us know what you find.
Rancocas
Well-Known Member
Okay, I'm a yankee born and bred. I moved here to sunny Tenasi over 20 years ago, but I had already put in about 40 years of hunting in the snowy north.
Deer won't change their pattern much for a little snow. But when it gets chest deep on them they are likely to stay undercover in the thickets and swamps.
A foot or a foot and half of snow is just "a little snow". Two feet of it is "some snow". Get three feet or more and then you can talk about real snow.
In the Adirondack Mountains of New York I have seen snow drifts so high/deep that they covered the utility lines. Up there the deer go in to "yards" for the winter. This usually is a hemlock swamp. They wander the frozen swamp, half starve eating what tree buds they can reach, and make deep, packed down trails so the snow on the sides of their trails is sometimes higher than their heads.
I lived there in upstate New York and also in Michigan. I was out there, on snowshoes, when it was 20*F below zero! I had enough! That's why I moved to Tenasi when I retired.
Deer won't change their pattern much for a little snow. But when it gets chest deep on them they are likely to stay undercover in the thickets and swamps.
A foot or a foot and half of snow is just "a little snow". Two feet of it is "some snow". Get three feet or more and then you can talk about real snow.
In the Adirondack Mountains of New York I have seen snow drifts so high/deep that they covered the utility lines. Up there the deer go in to "yards" for the winter. This usually is a hemlock swamp. They wander the frozen swamp, half starve eating what tree buds they can reach, and make deep, packed down trails so the snow on the sides of their trails is sometimes higher than their heads.
I lived there in upstate New York and also in Michigan. I was out there, on snowshoes, when it was 20*F below zero! I had enough! That's why I moved to Tenasi when I retired.
buckbstr_1
Well-Known Member
Deer are holding tight to blowdowns, cedar thickets and pine thickets at my place.
flyinpro
Well-Known Member
We have hunted and lived in the same places. Grew up in N Mi and was in NY in the army. Sometimes miss the snow believe it or not. Blessings
Around my yard they are browsing around tree lines looking for anything that isn't covered in snow. Discovered this while walking to check the mail this evening
By what i seen this year on the earlier snow when had and the pattern the deer have used all year and when it snow they did not change there patterns. This is my first year really studying the deer in the snow most of the time when it snows I stay in but this year I made my self get out and scout and hunt at the same time and that's my opinion
I think you are maybe the only one that understood my question, I probably didn't word it like I should have.
Do you think southern deer play by the same rules since we rarely get any snow much less the type of snowfall you referenced
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
My cell cameras have shown either a major slow down in deer movement over that last 3 days of snow or the deer shifted their patterns on my place because of the snow. Pictures don't lie
philsanchez76
Well-Known Member
This is interesting.
I have some cams out too. Most of my cams are now just getting doe groups on them and those does have stayed pretty consistent with their patters and are still popping up on my cameras.
But.. I have one camera in particular that is deep in a buck bedding area (it only gets buck pics) and that camera has shut down completely since the snowfall looking like that bachelor group did change their pattern.
So would snow effect buck groups more than doe groups? not sure but interesting.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
This is a great time to find sets of tracks and just walk them. If you do that enough, you get a sense for how deer travel. It's also a good time to find beds - they are easy to find in the snow. I put more emphasis on WHY they bed in those locations than the locations themselves.
BSK
Well-Known Member
It isn't the amount of snow we have that will change their patterns. It is the extremely cold temps, which will have them holding close to any type of growth that blocks wind and holds a little heat. In single-digit temps, pine and cedar thickets will draw a lot of attention.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Years ago, I worked on a big hunt camp in the Adirondack Mountains. I kept having to reevaluate how I was looking at the property in summer because the hunters showed me pictures of "opening weekend of gun season" and it was often a major winter wonderland, with deep snow. Designing habitat for summer production is very different than designing habitat for hunting when deep snow is on the ground.
Here in the South hunters often argue the merits and detractions of driving an ATV close to their stand. Up there, hunters argue the same thing about snowmobiles.
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
Yeah the beds are like neon signs right now. We found 4 yesterday. All under low hanging cedar trees on the edge of the thickets with long ranges of visibility.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Spot on - The last time it snowed several weeks ago, I found a few with binoculars. All were just over the crest of ridges and points facing south. They had the thick cover up top, northerly wind over their backs and facing S where they could let the sun hit them to stay warm. Open hardwoods in the direction they were facing. They were tucked just inside the thick cover, mostly just in there a few steps.
I spent 5 hours scouting around 250 acres yesterday. I found 3 different deer groups: 6 does, 5 does, & 3 bucks. Each group was primarily along field edges. Almost no tracks in my hardwood tracts or snow-buried food plots (forgot the turnips last year). The bucks had just gotten up to feed right before dark. The bucks had been bedded along a TVA powerline easement, under cedar trees and out of the wind, for a while as there was no snow or ice in their beds. The doe groups were about 1/2 mile apart. The groups fed along field edges on leaves, privet, greenbriar, and bull briar leaves. I was able to get within 75 yards of one group. (by accident) The wind carried my scent straight toward them, but they never ran away. A few deer looked up, raised their noses, but returned to feeding. I watched them for 30 minutes, then was able to retreat into the woods without spooking them. Either they read hunting season is over or they were very hungry after several days of storms ;o) Finding their movement patterns gave me a new idea for shed hunts this spring.
