Editor’s Note: How do you scout your hunting land, if that property is 8 hours and several states away from your home? Most hunters’ answers are to go in 1-week early and set-up trail cameras and deer attractant to learn what bucks are where on the property they plan to hunt. But if you don’t have the time and the money required to make several trips  to the  land you’ll be hunting to determine if there’s a buck big enough to hunt on this faraway property, where the buck is bedding and feeding, what trail the buck is using, what time of day or night the buck is traveling those trails, where the buck is crossing a stream, and what stand sites are available to try to take that buck or another buck on the property, why not try to find a scout near that property.

These problems are some a deer hunting friend of mine encountered when he left the South and headed to the Midwest to set-up camp for the upcoming deer season. “I’ll be putting-out trail cameras and deer attractant about 6- or 8-weeks before the season starts,” the hunter said. “This way, when I go in to hunt, I’ll at least know what deer I may have available to hunt.” After talking with him, we discussed his hiring a qualified scout who could gather much-more information more quickly, better and for less money. After talking with the scout over the phone some days later, the hunter was able to develop a fool-proof inexpensive scouting plan that would put him in the right place at the right time during the week he’d be hunting in Illinois.

Finding the Right Scout:

Ask the landowner of the property where you’ll be hunting if he or she knows of a high-school or a college student who’s an excellent deer hunter, lives in the area and wants to make extra money. This young person must be someone the farmer or the landowner trusts and knows well. The landowner will be the best point of reference to find the young person who will be a productive long-distance scout. Based on the recommendation from the landowner, meet your young scout in person or over the phone, and explain his pay rate and responsibilities.

Using Maps to Learn More about the New Property:

www.mytopo.com – This site is a map service. You can order maps of any property in the United States where you want to hunt. One of the great new features that www.mytopo.com has started adding to its maps are boundary lines on all the properties on the map, as well as the landowners’ names. Using several different maps, you often can find small overlooked lands to hunt that you may be able to obtain permission to hunt for free or to lease at a reasonable price. The website www.mytopo.com has topographical maps and also aerial photos of properties with boundary lines and the property owner’s name. Once you choose the maps most important to you, www.mytopo.com will make these maps for you and laminate them so you can carry them with you. More and more hunters scout by using these maps to discover small places they can hunt for deer. Then you also can keep your scout in the other states updated on information you learn.

To learn more about deer hunting, go to John E. Phillips’ books and learn the tactics small property owners have used successfully by checking out John E. Phillips’s book, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties” at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OOC2T0Y#, available in Kindle, print and Audible versions. To receive your free book on “How to Make Venison Jerky,” go to https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/Ece3UZVcOo52cKPJcL.

Tomorrow: What a Long Distance Deer Scout Can Do For You