By Alex Comstock
As I write this blog post in mid-July, I’m coming off a few days of vacation. During vacation, I make it a priority not to work, as it’s easy for me to work on “vacation” as all I need is my phone to work in many cases. One thing I still found myself doing though throughout the last few days, as I do it almost every day this time of year is to open up my OnX hunt app and pour over maps all over. This past week, I was spending most of my time looking at our new property in Nebraska. Team member Kaleb Comstock and I have gotten access to quite possibly what could shape up to be the best deer hunting property I’ve ever had access to. Time will tell for sure, but based on what I believe, it’s going to be really good.
With that said, today I wanted to go over what I’m doing this year, where I’m going to be spending time hunting and how I assess things via E-scouting. E-scouting is essentially just another piece of the puzzle. As I always say, the more pieces of the puzzle you’re able to put together, the more success you will find. And E-scouting is quite the important puzzle piece.
North Dakota
E-scouting is going to be particularly important for me when it comes to hunting North Dakota this year for two main reasons. The first is I’m only going to be out there for a day and a half of prep work ahead of opening day. I’ll be out there two weeks before opener for a day and a half and then will show back up during opening weekend.
The second reason it’s going to be so important is because we want to be hunting some new areas this fall. Whether it’s gaining permission on private, hunting non-posted (legal in ND) or public, I want to have scoured as many areas on OnX as possible. The more knowledge I have going in, the better. You can follow this same script as well. If you aren’t able to get boots on the ground much, or at all before hunting out of state, becoming as familiar with the areas you’re hunting as possible via E-scouting is quite important.
Wisconsin
This season, I will be spending more time in Wisconsin as I ever have. My good friend Drew purchased 200 (!) acres only about a half hour away from home and we will be trying to turn it into as good of a whitetail property as possible. I understand it’s going to take time (years) to get it where we want it, but the planning has already begun.
Our new Wisconsin property will be a ton of fun transforming over the years.
We have implemented six different food plots, and before we got going on planting, I mapped everything out on OnX. I will be taking a deeper dive in a later blog post, as well as with YouTube videos as well. But essentially, I took and mapped out each plot to get an idea of how we wanted to spread them out as well as how much acreage of food plots we had. By using the area shape tool on OnX I was able to come up with approximately four acres of plots total. This let me know how much seed to buy and what not. As we continue to implement our land management plan, E-scouting will be extremely useful. For those of you that are able to manage property, don’t forget about pre season E-scouting.
Mapping out food plot locations has made implementing a plan on our Wisconsin property much easier.
To follow along our Wisconsin and other hunting efforts this fall, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel here! —> WhitetailDNA YouTube
Nebraska
As I mentioned at the top, Nebraska is going to be very interesting this coming year. After gaining permission on our new piece of property, I started pouring over OnX and I was constantly texting back and forth with Kaleb about waypoints, where we should put cameras, etc. If you’re hunting new ground, E-scouting before jumping in to scout or place trail cameras is a must. Once we had an idea of where cameras should go, Kaleb got to work getting those out and our cell cams are already producing. Through E-scouting, Kaleb was able to be efficient getting cameras up and being as low impact as possible. Like I said earlier, Nebraska excites the heck out of me this year!
Thanks in large part to E-scouting, cell cams are already starting to pay off on the new Nebraska property
Minnesota
And finally, the home state of Minnesota. With so many great options this year, I haven’t forgotten about my hunting around home. Though I’m very familiar with everywhere I’m hunting around home, I’m always E-scouting. This is an important takeaway as if you’re hunting areas you’ve hunted for years, don’t put E-scouting in the summer on the back-burner. With my E-scouting, I’m looking at where to put cameras, I track past trail camera and stand locations and hope that they can all correlate to help further my knowledge and eventual success. When it comes down to it, let’s be real, no matter where you hunt or what kind of property, you should be E-scouting this time of year.
Conclusion
Staring at OnX throughout the summer may be one of the most addicting things as a whitetail hunter. If you’re not E-scouting in the summer, you’re missing out on opportunities to learn, whether it’s a new property or a spot you’ve hunted for ten years. There is always something to learn and this is no different. Like I said earlier, it’s a piece of the puzzle. And you don’t want that puzzle piece to be missing.
