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Author
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Topic: Scouting in the off season
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iblong
PAKMAN
Member # 1291
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posted March 27, 2007 06:10 AM
Will this do more harm than good for both fox and coyotes.Will it educate them.Im talking in the off season.any thoughts plus or negatives.
Bob.
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may the wind allways be in your face and sun on your back.good hunting...
Posts: 4 | From: elk river,minnesota | Registered: Mar 2007
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 27, 2007 09:45 AM
Depends on what you mean by scouting? Learning the country you intend to hunt is a good thing. Observing for sign is a good thing. Making stands with distress and howls, but not shooting, might be considered as scouting? That always has a possibility of educating the animals.
Short answer, scouting has value, during the season and off season.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32363 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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slydog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 389
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posted March 27, 2007 09:51 AM
LB, hit it on the head. calling in the off season or when not shooting can work against you. Learning new areas and determining new calling locations in the off season is on the + side
I try to refrain from using vocalization or distress outside of a calling situation
Just my 2 cents
sly
Edit to add: calling in a non hunted populis is different, inside city limits, edge of town where you can't shoot is a good place to practice with your sounds.
Rich Higgins calls fringe areas in non hunting situations for recearch.
[ March 27, 2007, 09:54 AM: Message edited by: slydog ]
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Smote the Yote with a slydog custom call
Posts: 179 | From: SW Idaho | Registered: Aug 2004
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UTcaller
NEVADA NIGHT FIGHTER
Member # 8
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posted March 27, 2007 10:17 AM
I don't use distress sounds or coyote vocalizations when scouting an area but I will use a siren in the early morning and late evening to locate coyotes and then scout the area during the day time.FWIW Good Hunting Chad
Edit for spelling
[ March 27, 2007, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: UTcaller ]
Posts: 1708 | From: Utah | Registered: Jan 2003
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iblong
PAKMAN
Member # 1291
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posted March 27, 2007 11:33 AM
I guess I should have been more specific.
I wouldnt do any calling,just abit of hiking and investigating.Ijust didnt know if that would make them relocate.ect thanks. BOB
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may the wind allways be in your face and sun on your back.good hunting...
Posts: 4 | From: elk river,minnesota | Registered: Mar 2007
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted March 27, 2007 12:30 PM
I find that no matter where I go, no matter the reason, I can't help myself but be constantly "scouting". Even at times and in circumstances that have nothing to do with hunting, in places I know I'll never hunt, still it's totally automatic that I'm scouting the sign, prevailing winds and the lay of the terrain all the time.
I get around the country side quite a bit during the off season, looking for 'chucks, 4 wheeling, prospecting, camping with the family or whatever. Anytime that takes me into new country, or even a new angle of approach or previously unexplored corner of familiar country, I get pretty serious about scouting it for future coyote hunts. And of course I've found some good spots this way. But, far more common, and still very useful information (to me), I end up just being able to "cross off" a chunk of country as not being as good as other areas and not worth planning a trip for later. Just another piece of the map I can consider mentally "filled in". Of course, what also happens very often, is that I'll just get on the edge of something that looks really promising, without the chance to get right into it and really check it out. Those spots usually end up rolling around in my head until I can't stand it anymore and make a special calling trip to check them out. By the way, one of the things I "scout" in promising looking areas, is just how accurate my maps are for the area. In the wide open areas of public ground I hunt, that's a detail that I think gets overlooked a lot. But it's important to me to know which roads are really there, which ones aren't, which ones are easy to travel, which ones I'll need to bring the Jeep for etc. Some areas, the maps are dead nuts spot on. Other areas, it's crazy how many roads the map shows that don't exist anymore, and how many DO exist that aren't on the map. Knowing all that ahead of time makes planning my calling routes much easier and more dependable. And saves spending half of a prime-time morning back tracking to get around a locked gate or washout or whatever.
So, yeah, I do a lot of "scouting". But, all that said, I've come to hold the opinion that the very best way to scout an area, is to actually hunt it.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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