Serious whitetail hunters are always on the lookout for deer, regardless of the time of year. But there’s no question things get more serious as late summer stretches through August. Trail cameras start getting deployed, and evening drives past local farm fields become a daily routine.
For sure, I hang a few trail cameras in late summer, but this is typically when I start putting boots on the ground with an eye toward the coming fall hunting season. For me, late-summer whitetail scouting is about gathering intel. I want to know what deer are around, where they’re going and what they’re doing as I begin setting a hunting plan in motion.
What Whitetails Are Doing in August and Early September
Any discussion about late-summer scouting has to start with an understanding of what deer are doing this time of year. This is an incredibly social time in the whitetail world. Big groups of does and fawns are banded together now, since the fawns are old enough to largely feed on vegetation rather than rely solely on nursing from mom, which they’ll still do from time to time.
The fawns frolic and play with one another, while the does feed in fields to recover from the demands of lactation and prepare for the coming fall and winter. These big groups of deer fill the local farm fields every evening like clockwork, making for good truck-window glassing.
Mixed in with these doe-fawn herds, you might find bucks banded together in bachelor groups. Or you might find these bachelor groups in their own fields—or sections of a field—separate from the does and fawns. Whether or not they mix with the does and fawns really seems to depend on the type and amount of preferred food source. If a small soybean field has the best chow, all the deer will pack in together. But in a big alfalfa field, you’re likely to see the bachelor groups off by themselves. (Those fawns can be annoying little buggers!)
Late-Summer Whitetail Scouting Summary:
- Glass fields from the truck to learn where deer are feeding, entering fields and encountering hunting pressure.
- Pay close attention to doe-and-fawn travel routes; those trails can remain important even after summer buck patterns change.
- Backtrack feeding trails to locate bedding areas, oak stands, funnels and potential stand sites.
- Use mapping apps to identify likely terrain features, then verify them with boots-on-the-ground scouting.
- Try a mock hunt to learn when and where deer move while also knocking the rust off before opening day.
- Treat August buck sightings as useful information—not a guarantee that those bucks will still be there in October or November.
Scout from the Truck
This is a great time to take inventory of the local deer herd. But there’s a big asterisk when it comes to bucks that we’ll talk about in a minute. Bucks—even wily, mature specimens—are pretty visible this time of year, and their antlers are almost fully developed. So you can get a pretty good sense of what’s around by spending evenings glassing local fields.
However, it’s important to understand that some or all of the bucks you’re looking at in August might be miles away come October and November. Doug Doty owns and operates the Illinois Whitetail Services guiding operation in southeast Illinois. With leased properties scattered across several counties around Norris City, Doty often talks about seeing bucks every night in late summer in one of his fields, and then getting them on his trail cameras once archery season starts in October on properties 3 or 4 miles away.
The shift from late-summer to fall ranges among whitetail bucks has been well documented in various studies over the years. Point being, just because you see a buck in a field in August doesn’t mean he’ll still be around come October. But it doesn’t mean he won’t be there either. You just have to recognize the possibilities.
What Late-Summer Deer Sign Can Tell You
- Buck sightings: Good for inventory, but not proof that a buck will still be there in October.
- Doe-and-fawn trails: Valuable travel information that can remain useful well into hunting season.
- Oaks between bedding and feeding areas: Potential early-season ambush sites when acorns begin dropping.
- Terrain and vegetation funnels: Natural travel corridors worth checking for stand locations.
- Mock-hunt sightings: Real-world confirmation of which trails deer use and when they use them.
Why Doe Trails Matter More Than August Bucks
To be honest, I’m more interested in the does and fawns this time of year anyway. Wherever they are, that’s where the bucks will be come November—whether the bucks summer there or not. I want to know what trails these big family groups use to get in and out of the fields. A particular buck you see in August on a given property might or might not be around come November, but you can bet the farm that the trails the does and fawns use to access a field in August will see deer activity through November.
“We spend a lot of time scouting from the truck when we get to new properties,” said Tyler Jones, LaCrosse Boots pro staffer and half of The Element YouTube hunting duo with K.C. Smith. “Scouting from the truck, we can see where pressure might be, what the crop rotation truly looks like and even where good deer trails come into a property.
“A comfortable set of hiker-style boots can help you hop out of a truck on a whim and run up a hill to glass a buck that just ran out of sight or walk down a two-track to get a better look at the best scrape on the edge or even to follow a trail a short distance to see which side of a creek bend it goes on. Scouting from a truck helps us cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.”
Deer are creatures of habit. As long as nothing happens to change the landscape, like a big tree falling across the spot where a trail meets a field, deer will religiously use certain trails. They might not use the same trail every single day, but they’ll use them often enough that hunting nearby is wise.
So in late August, I want to be in a spot where I can overlook a field well before any deer are in it. Then I will take careful notice of where the deer enter the field from the woods. If they use the same trail a couple of times, I’m going to go out the next day in the middle of the day and walk that trail.
Backtrack Late-Summer Trails
Does the trail lead to some good bedding areas? Does it go through an area like a grove of oaks that will become a preferred food source come hunting season? Is there a good-looking spot for setting up a stand that I think I’ll be able to get to undetected come hunting season?
These are all questions I’m asking when I backtrack a trail in late August. And I walk it now because there’s little risk of pushing deer into the next county simply by spending one day in the woods. The field the deer end up in might not be a daily feeding destination come hunting season, but I’ve found that late-summer travel trails to and from fields are still good places to find deer once I’m carrying my bow.
“Backtracking trails can be a great tactic if your target buck is getting to your stand location after shooting light,” said Realtree producer and Road Trips host Bryan Brown. “I typically place multiple cameras on trails leading into where I think deer are bedding. A lot of times a smart, old buck will hang up and take his time getting to his feed destination until it gets completely dark. Sometimes moving only 75 or 100 yards into a transition area is all it takes to catch a mature buck at last light.”
My absolute favorite place to find when backtracking is a stand of oak trees. I live and do most of my hunting in Pennsylvania, where we have a lot of oaks. Pennsylvania’s archery deer season starts in early October, right about the time oaks start dropping their acorns. If there is a better evening ambush spot for early-season whitetails than acorn-dropping oaks that stand between bedding and a destination field, I haven’t found it.
The resident whitetails will flock to these acorns two hours or so before sunset, spend a good bit of time milling around and hoovering up the nuts before heading out to the field at dark. I need a stand in the midst of these oaks.
Besides a stand of oaks, there are other places I look for as potential stand sites while backtracking. Stream crossings, funnels in foliage that seem to force deer through narrow places—any place that seems likely for an ambush.
“I like knee-high rubber boots while back-tracking trails from food sources,” said K.C. Smith of The Element. “They keep scent down and allow me to figure out where bedding is or even how deer travel to ag fields in the pre-season.”
Use Maps to Find Fall Whitetail Funnels
August is a great time to do some map scouting. Maybe you’re hunting a new piece of property, or maybe you’re just trying to get a better understanding of the property you’re already hunting.
Take a look at a property using onX, Google Earth or Apple Maps to find areas that look like they might hold or funnel deer—interior swamps, pinch points created by topography or vegetation changes, etc. These mapping tools often let you toggle between different settings, including 3D and satellite imagery, to get a good sense of what’s out there.
“Mapping apps like OnX Hunt have become an everyday tool for most hunters,” Realtree’s Brown said. “Features like wind direction tools are invaluable when it comes to being successful. For public land or scouting new areas, mapping software is a must-have to be able to identify topo changes, property lines, bedding and feeding areas etc.”
Once you identify potential hunting spots on a map, go out and walk them. Find out if the hunches you got from looking at the maps on your computer or phone pan out on the ground. Are there easy-to-spot trails where you thought they’d be? Is there evidence of deer feeding? Are there any beds or old rubs or scrapes? Maps can help you avoid wasting time hunting and scouting unproductive areas by allowing you to dissect a property before you set foot on it.
I like walking ground in August because the vegetation will often guide you to the deer. This is when foliage is at its thickest. Deer don’t like walking through impenetrable multiflora rose tangles any more than we do. Find paths through the vegetation now, and I’ll bet you can look down and spot deer tracks.
Run a Mock Hunt Before Opening Day
This last tactic is something I practiced a lot more when I was younger and had more free time. But man, is it effective.
I’ll take my climbing tree stand into the woods on a late-summer evening, climb a tree and just sit and watch. I’m looking for the most preferred trail in the woods. I’m looking to see when the deer are on that trail. And I’m looking to see what deer are using the area. (Again, I understand any bucks I see might not be there come October.)
The mock hunt actually serves two purposes. First, it gives me intel on the comings and goings of the resident deer. Second, it starts getting me into hunting mode. Did you ever notice how out of sorts you feel the first couple of times you sit in the woods? You fumble with gear. You move at the wrong times when deer are around. You make noise. It takes a couple of hunts to get me in order, and the first sit in the tree might be my best opportunity at my target buck. Mock hunts help sharpen me for that first sit.
When Mock Scouting Pays Off
One late-August evening many moons ago, I spotted a group of 13 bucks running together while seated in my stand. I kept tabs on the group—which stayed together for some reason—through September, and on opening day, I climbed a tree overlooking the trail the bucks had used on my mock hunt. Right on cue, the bucks filed past me that evening and I promptly missed a gimme shot at the biggest one.
Hunter Hogan is a professional bowhunter and friend of mine who has a YouTube channel bearing his name where he documents his public-land bowhunts. Mock hunting is something he does every year in late summer.
Hogan loves finding big bucks in big swaths of CRP and/or swamps. In August, he’ll take his saddle and sticks and climb high into a tree on the edge of such a place and just sit and watch. He’s looking for bucks that will bed out in the tall grass. By climbing into a tree, he can see down into tall vegetation that would totally block his view from the ground. He often knows about giant bucks on public land that no one else knows about because they can’t see where these bucks are hiding.
And the bucks that Hogan finds in these places in August—especially mature ones—often are bucks that will still be around come hunting season. Mature bucks like these places because they largely feel safe there. In August, Hogan just wants to know a big buck is in such a spot. Come hunting season, then he’ll figure out what he needs to do to get in bow range.
By all means, get your trail cameras out now as we head into September. But don’t rely solely on those cameras. Now’s the time to get out and put miles underfoot. Now’s the time to gather the information that can help put you in the game once hunting season opens.
