Arizona Hunting Club & Outdoor Adventure Group

What to Scout for Around Feeding Areas

Scouting to find feeding areas is a pretty simple process. Look for the white areas on any topographic map. These areas are big open grassy pastures.

The way to scout a pasture is to walk all the way around the edges of the grass, where it meets a fence line or a tree line. This picture shows a wooded funnel running next to the fenceline, which provides great cover for animals to travel and a great place to ambush them.

In the picture below, you can see where 3 game trails converge at a "T" in the fence line. You can also see that the rancher has purposely built this intersection with a high bottom fence line so that the deer and small elk can crawl underneath it without getting snagged on the fence. You'll also notice the bottom wire is smooth wire, not bobbed wire so that animals will not get snagged.

Animals never feed out in the open of big giant grassy pastures during hunting season. Most likely they will feed at night when you can't see them. This is even more true when the moon is bright and the animals can feed at night in very bright conditions.

There are several things I look for before scouting any pasture or potential feeding areas. The first thing is the proximity of water. The second thing are elevated hills, mountains or canyons where animal will seek shelter during the day. The last, but most important thing is how far away all of these areas are located from the nearest road.

I use a topographic map to find a pasture near big hills, near at least one stock tank and at least 1/2 mile from the nearest road. When I find pasture when these preliminary criteria I go there and start scouting for secure feeding areas or staging areas close to the pastures.

I begin by walking the perimeter of the field. The first thing I look for are fingers of grass that jut into the forest. If I can find one that juts in and then turns or dog legs into the forest, I know that animals will like to feed in these areas because the trees obscure their presence while feeding.

Here is what the same area looks like on a topographic map. See the grassy finger that doglegs to the right in the upper lefthand corner of the map?

While walking, I also zig zag into the woods looking for game trails. You can usually find games trails running inside the edge of the trees 20 to 30 feet inside the tree canopy. Some trails will run parallel to the tree line. Others will come up out of draws and funnels. For example, when walking the perimeter and you see a drainage going downhill with lots trees. Go walk those areas. They are awesome spots for both elk and deer to bed down. If these drainages lead to water holes, creeks or rivers they are even better.

The other thing that I look for are staging spots just inside the tree line. Staging spots are found inside the tree line where green grass, flowering plants and new growth on trees and bushes can be found. While walking, notice the height of the grass. If you see a sudden drop in the grass line, and it looks like someone has been in the area with a mower, this is where the animals have been grazing heavily.

In these areas, you should see fresh green animal droppings everywhere. The more animals, the more sign you should see. These are the areas where deer and elk will feed and wait for the sun to go down before wandering out into the open fields.

If you know where a stock tank is near the pasture, scout the area of forest between the tank and the pasture. Most likely you will find at least one game trail that leads directly to the stock tank. Great place for a tree stand. The same thing goes for cover. Animals like to walk up a hill to bed down. They can watch their feeding areas and the water source all day long for hunters as well as predators.

That is why you should walk these fields way before the hunting season starts. When animals see hunters walking a field, they quietly vacant the premises and go somewhere else.