Arizona Hunting Club & Outdoor Adventure Group

What to Scout for Around Game Trails

When walking down game trails I look for the same things that we have covered for stock tanks, pastures and bedding areas. The main thing I look for are fresh tracks and to see if there are tracks leading both directions on the game trail.

I also look to see if the dirt that contains the tracks is soft or hard and whether or not there is any debris in the tracks. Soft dirt that is still powdery to the touch and tracks that are free of debris are usually very fresh. If the dirt has solidified and the tracks are full of leaves, pine needles and other debris means, they are more than a couple of days old.

Individual tracks are nice, but a good game trail should look like a regular garrison of deer and/or elk are walking back and forth on the trail every day. If so, you should be able to take a pine tree branch and sweep away all of the tracks for a segment of 10 ft. Visit the site again in the morning or later that afternoon and look to see if any new tracks are present. New tracks mean you are on a hot trail. Game cameras work best for this purpose since you get photos of the deer and elk coming down the trail, plus the time and date the pictures were taken.

When looking at the tracks, try to see whether or not there are any dew claws directly behind the hoof print. If you see dew claws, this means that soil is very damp and/or the animal is very big and heavy. Big bulls leave deep tracks with the clearly visible dew claws. Their walking stride is 30 to 60 inches, but when running this length can increase to 14 feet. When walking, their hind hoof prints fall slightly ahead of and overlap their fore prints. When bounding their hind prints and fore prints are separate.

The other primary sign I look for on a game trail is fresh droppings. Old hard, dark brown or faded white dropping are old.

You want to find droppings that are green, shiny and squish easily when you step on them.

When I find fresh droppings, I usually scrape them all in a big pile and tread on them for a while to make my boots smell like elk droppings. When looking at elk dropping, you should note whether they are spread out along the trail or lumped together in clumps.

Old hunters say that cow elk always use the restroom while walking, so their dropping will be dribbled down a trail. The same old hunters say that bull elk tend to stand still for long periods of time and their droppings end up in big clumps.

Another important thing to look for are signs of grazing. If there is a big herd moving up and down a trail, you will see grass near the trail that has been grazed to the ground and the end of bushes below 4 feet high will have the new green growth chewed off. When a herd of elk move through an area, they eat everything within their easy reach.

This photograph shows grass that has been grazed low by the deer and elk.

This photograph shows the end of a young oak tree where the new growth has been nibbled off by the deer and elk.

As you walk the game trails, also look for a series of scrapes and rubs. Deer rubs are one to three feet off the ground on smaller trees. Elk scrapes are usually above the three foot line and on bigger tree trunks. Rubs are like calling cards left for the ladies. When cow elk hit estrus and are close to ovulation, they will follow these rubs and the scent left by the males.

As you walk game trails, add waypoints to your GPS unit every quarter mile. Download the waypoints when you get home and you can begin to assemble your own personal map of the elk or deer highway system in your preferred hunting area.

If you cross other game trails, always walk them to see where they go.

You cannot see everything using a topo map. So when you see great choke points that will squeeze animals down a specific path like a gate in a fence line or fallen trees or a narrow ridge saddle or field draw, always mark them so you can see where they fall on your topographic map.

If you did your homework properly and programmed the GPS coordinates of possible benches and potential bedding areas, scan for these waypoints as you walk down all game trails by keeping the GPS tracking for the nearest waypoints. The more you scout, the more you will know the woods like the back of your hand, but until then always scan for stored waypoints that looked good on paper or the Internet as you hike through the woods. This will allow you to always know what is on the other side of the hill and to be able to determine whether you should investigate or not.

If the game trail crosses river beds, walk up down the river bed looking for deep pools or puddles of water that are great for attracting solitary bulls or pressured herds. Look for good places to use a shovel to make a hole deeper or put in some sand bags to dam up the creek to hold more water. Sounds crazy, but safe water is like goldmine for wildlife during heavy hunting season. Add some mined salt rocks and alfalfa pellets to a small water hole, and you will create the perfect stopping spot for elk and deer.

If you ever get the chance, try to scout your hunting area, in season or not, when fresh snow falls. Use this opportunity to track both deer and elk using the snow. The purpose isn't to find the animals, but to learn what areas they like to explore in search of food. Notice where they dig in the snow and where they bed down. Add waypoints to your GPS when walking snow trails. This is a great way to pattern elk and deer movements. Deer and ek will stay in the same area for a long time before heavy snow pushes them out of the area. They do this because they know where the food has been all year and will stay there until the snow makes it too difficult to eat. If you mark these trails, they can be a real asset for next year's early hunts.

Remember to bring binoculars and use them while walking down game trails. If you are quite and look while walking, you will see a lot of animals before they see you. Without binoculars, many times the elk and deer will smell you or hear you and move out of the area without you knowing about it. Many times they will just walk out into the woods and make circle and come up behind you. Always walk a little while, then stop and look backwards every once in a while with binoculars to see if any thing is moving behind you. Also, squat down and look under the tree limb canopy. You may not see the whole elk or deer, but many times you will see their legs or ears twitching.