There are a lot of hunters out there who believe spring and summer scouting is obsolete. They think it isn’t worth the effort it takes to slip on your Mucks or the gas it takes to drive to the farm. In some cases, they might be right. But mid-year scouting is far from worthless.

For the most part, spring whitetails behave similarly to summer whitetails and roughly 40% to 50% of summer whitetails won’t relocate come fall. My personal data and experiences (I keep a detailed journal) have shown that almost half of the deer monitored during the off-season will still be there come fall. That’s reason enough to spend some time glassing.

Some people take their observations as absolute reality. In most cases, there is much more going on with whitetails than what we see on the surface. Just because you see a deer enter a field via a particular trail this summer doesn’t mean it’ll use that trail every day. On the other hand, just because you don’t see a deer using that field doesn’t mean it isn’t close by. They might be keying on different food sources elsewhere in the vicinity.

Throughout the years, I’ve been fortunate to monitor a lot of different bucks over several consecutive years – even in heavily hunted areas. I’ve learned a lot from each of their year-to-year behaviors and habits – both of which have opened my eyes to numerous things.

I was blessed to watch one particular buck for five straight seasons. He’d spend much of his time where I hunted from December to mid-September, but then spent mid-September to November elsewhere. That was his rut range, but he’d make several October and November excursions back to where he spent the summer.

Yes, this buck was part of the 50% of the bucks that left during the fall. Interestingly enough, approximately 2/3 of the bucks he ran with in bachelor groups during the summer almost always stayed on that property where I could hunt during the rut. Also interesting, during the last year of its life (the neighbor killed the buck right across the property line), this big buck changed its rut range and spent a lot more time where I hunted.

There are two takeaways from this deer and its bachelor companions (and plenty more similar experiences). One, while some will leave, a good number of the bucks you monitor in bachelor groups this summer will most likely stay there. And two, just because a deer does one thing this year doesn’t mean its patterns won’t be different next season.

Oftentimes, people think deer have vanished in the fall when they really haven’t. They’re just transitioning to different food sources and the hunters haven’t transitioned with the deer. Just because those deer aren’t hitting the same camera you’ve had on the edge of the soybean field doesn’t mean that deer isn’t still there. Maybe it’s hitting the acorns that just started dropping down the creek. Maybe there’s a clover patch it’s frequenting up on the side ridge. My point – don’t just automatically assume deer up and left. It’s more likely that they’re just using a slightly different part of their home range (approximately 650 acres for most bucks).

Now, if you routinely see a lot of bucks during the summer and hardly any in the fall, there are likely several problems in play. A) You don’t have fall food sources. B) You don’t have quality fall bedding cover. And/or C) You and those who hunt with you put too much pressure on that spot. All of these things and more can cause deer to move elsewhere. Luckily, all three can be fixed with a little work and planning. But that’s for a different article on a different day.

The take-home message here? Spring and summer scouting are completely valid. You just have to know how to recognize their value and benefit from it.