A Year in Deer: January
Snow on the ground? Time to scout. January is perfect for checking travel paths, finding bedding areas, and maybe even picking up a shed antler or two.
January is a great time to do some invasive scouting — going to areas you would normally avoid during the summer and autumn months. Yes you’re likely going to spook some deer while doing this, but right now is still a few months away from needing to minimize or avoid going into these areas to let things calm down. To aid with your scouting, wait until there’s some snow on the ground. You can use the snow to your advantage to see if deer are traveling where you believe they should be and near where you have your stands set up. Because of weather and other factors, the travel paths might be different now than what they will be when corn fields and food plots are thriving or acorns are dropping. However, you might find spots you previously weren’t aware of where deer are entering or exiting your property.
You’ll also want to be on the lookout for areas with melted snow in oval shapes, potentially with scat and urine around, and typically tucked away in areas with a lot of side cover — trees laying down, tall switch grass, etc. This means you’ve come across a bedding area. Who knows, as you scout these areas, you might even come across a shed antler or two. Finding a shed is exciting because it lets you know there is a good chance that deer will be around next year since it survived the most recent hunting season.
In most states, trapping season is still active in January. As we’ll discuss in other posts, predator management is something you should implement in your hunting strategies to not only improve your deer herd, but also to improve other wildlife, like turkeys. I haven’t gotten into trapping myself but I have sat and called coyotes, albeit without much success. I’ll be sharing more about my experiences as they come up in the early months of the new year.
Finally, assuming there isn’t too much snow on the ground where you live, January is a good time to consider timber stand improvement (TSI) by removing or hinge-cutting trees (more information on this in future blog posts).
Summary
- Invasive scouting
- Predator management
- Timber Stand Improvement