SPEED SCOUTING
How many times have you seen or heard of a nice buck that consistently feeds at the same location every evening during summer only to disappear just before the season? In areas with heavy consequential hunting pressure, that vanishing act happens far more frequently than not. Unknowingly, many hunters create the situation with overzealous pre-season scouting and location preparation.
TYPICAL SCOUTING: ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
By traipsing through the woods, busting through brush, hanging stands, clearing shooting lanes and marking entry and exit routes just before the season, hunters in areas with heavy consequential hunting pressure, or HCHP, let mature bucks know it’s time to alter their vulnerable summer habits to elude intruders.
What do I consider an HCHP spot? Areas where bowhunter densities exceed 10 per square mile and gun-hunter densities are double that opening day, and where almost every one of those hunters targets any legal antlered buck. In such spots, many hunters believe if they pass a buck, the deer will get killed by the neighbors after it crosses the fence.
In HCHP areas, bucks of all age groups must learn quickly how to avoid hunters. Otherwise they get wounded or killed. Few bucks
