3 minute read
Become an e-scouting master
We’ve all done it. Everyone has been bamboozled by Google Earth. Sitting at home during the summer, floating around the backcountry effortlessly scouting for your upcoming hunt. After hours of computer time while you should be working, you finally settle on a handful of waypoints you know will hold a trophy. Fast forward to the day before the opener. As you pull up to the trailhead, you realize you’ve made a mistake. The basin you thought you would “easily” hike to looks like mount everest. You change plans and hunt a much closer, less productive spot telling yourself “there weren’t any big bucks way back there anyway.” Or, the hike is so exhausting, you expel twice the effort you anticipated, and spend opening day laying around camp recovering.
The most common E-scouting mistake is underestimating or misjudging the magnitude of the backcountry, no doubt. Every fall dreams are squashed and plans from the summer are ruined. Google Earth or whatever E-scouting mapping service you use will make the deepest, steepest backcountry basins look like the rolling hills of South Dakota. There are settings that can “exaggerate” the contour of the mountains to help make them realistic. Even then, nothing will be as realistic as boots on the ground.
The second mistake, and less talked about opportunity loss, is skipping over prime mature buck or bull basins and sanctuaries because, ironically in this case, Google Earth makes these hot spots appear too small to carry mature animals, contrary to the first mistake which does the opposite. Or rather, our eyes are not attuned to how little “Google Earth” real estate a trophy buck really needs to hide. In reality, a big buck (or two) only needs less than 500 yards of the right habitat to live in.
“Reverse Scouting” is an idea I developed from making both of these mistakes. The first example came after misjudging the magnitude of multiple backcountry hunts. I was on the mountain questioning myself and the clues I missed. After the hunt, I went straight to my mapping software. Because I had just come off the mountain, I was able to pair a realistic picture of what the backcountry actually looked like with what I was seeing on the computer. Something started to click.
The second example was after a Wyoming deer hunt with my brother in 2017. We killed two respectable bucks in a small, remote backcountry basin. My brother had a previous encounter with one of the bucks during archery season and that’s what led us to check the spot. From the computer screen, this micro basin would have been skipped over by most, if not all hunters, including us. But in person, it was obvious this small basin had more than enough acreage to hold bucks, two of which we killed side by side. The entire basin spanned only about 500 yards X 500 yards or so. As soon as we returned home, I jumped on my mapping software to correlate what I had seen in person versus what it portrayed online. That is reverse scouting.
Whether it’s misjudging the magnitude of the hike or skipping over backcountry pockets that are more than big enough to hold deer, hunters should apply the Reverse Scouting practice by applying an in person picture to the digital portrayal. Then, start assimilating those examples during your digital scouting for the next hunt or season. You will be amazed how much more efficiently you attack the backcountry and the amount of overlooked big buck honey holes and pockets you start recognizing.
