How do I spring scout

Spring comes with a sense of renewal, the misses of the fall are now old enough that excitement of next year can begin to creep in. Small disclaimer here: I hunt and scout in Wisconsin we get snow every year which covers the rut sign the deer leave in the woods. If you live where it doesn't snow you will be able to scout much earlier than we do up here above the 45th parallel. 

The thing that makes spring scouting so deadly is that you are scouting in a woods without having to worry about spooking deer.  Most likely the deer you are scouting are living in different cover than they were in November, but if you spook them while scouting have no fear they will return prior to hunting season.

What am I looking for? 

1. Rub lines- These will show travel routes. I am looking for rubs up to my belly button (this means mature buck). I can't think of  stand site that I have prepared to sit over a rub line, however they typically point to a funnel in cover that will likely have a primary scraping area. That's the spot I want to sit.

1. Primary Scraping Areas- What are primary scraping areas? It's a scrape that a mature buck will return to many times over the course of the rut. I won't claim to fully understand the biology of what is going on here, basically some scrapes are more social than others. I am sure that lots of factors matter to this, but once you find one of these they will be back every year, sometimes if ag fields are the cause for the primary scrape once they are harvested the deer will relocate and that spot will not see another buck until November 10th. 

What do I do when I find the sign I was looking for?

This is the fun part! You found the spot that the big bucks, or at least bucks have been roaming. Now the work begins you need to set up an ambush. I am exclusively a saddle hunter so I either set a tree with a preset line so I can use SRT climbing, or choose a tree that I am going to use the one stick to climb into. Set yourself up however you are most comfortable, but keep in mind the best practices I have detailed on the hunters are predators. Essentially make a hutning plan, setup the tree, write down the plan before leaving the woods, and finally return in the fall to hunt based on notes. Pro tip: take notes on your phone and update them as you gather new information.