Muddy Trails

A turkey foot is one of my favorite sights while scouting the farm. My dog Beans, Wade and I go on an evening “pilfer” every few days in the spring and summer. We hop on the 4-wheeler and drive around our 300-acre Southern paradise looking for signs and clues. We try to figure out where the deer are moving, the turkeys are roosting and of course, take out a coyote if we get a chance! A good muddy spot is the perfect place to find tracks and see who has been there and which way they were going. Snow is also a great time to get outside and look for trails. I followed a single coyote trail for nearly a mile one morning thanks to a light snow dusting. This information is invaluable when your predator hunting and it’s an opportunity you have to take advantage of as soon as it happens - the snow isn’t going to wait for you before it melts! We have set up some really good trail camera locations thanks to a mud puddle and have made some really excellent coyote trapping decisions with the help of some light snow. Even if you’re not into trapping or setting up trail cameras, but you want to improve your chance of landing a trophy buck or 25-pound gobbler, then get outside and look for mud puddles and delay snow man building and follow a trail! You’ll thank yourself later when you set out on a hunt and have an educated idea of where the animals are moving.