Others call them lucky. They just seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Well, when you get to talking to these "lucky" hunters, you quickly discover that luck has nothing to do with it. Being in the right place at the right time, however, is absolutely correct.

How do they do it? They scout.

Successful big buck hunters, especially when you're talking about bowhunters who need to get close, are scouters first and hunters second.

Ask them how many days they scout a year and the number will far outweigh the number of days they hunt. I know one guy who puts in about 15 scouting days for every day of actual bowhunting. That's serious dedication.

Is there a best time to scout your whitetail woods? There are many who will agree that the best time is NOW. Late winter is the time of year when you can tromp the woods without too much concern for spooking deer - unlike scouting DURING the season when your presence can affect deer movement and potentially spoil your upcoming hunt.

If you bump deer while you're invading their turf during the off-season, there are no immediate drawbacks. Yes, they'll be skittish, and you might disrupt their patterns somewhat. But they'll quickly settle into their routines again.

You still want to be as non-intrusive as possible, any time you scout. A good way to do this is by being intrusive. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain.

What I'm talking about is "speed scouting." Your intent isn't to be sneaky, slow and quiet. Instead, walk at a consistent pace and avoid loitering too much in one area. The deer will see and/or hear you coming and skip off a short distance or hunker down and just let you pass. Then, when they're certain you've left the area, they'll return to being calm.

As you speed scout, pay attention to everything possible: worn trails, subtle trails, tracks and track sizes, old rubs and scrapes, potential stand sites, etc. The "holy grail" of off-season scouting is to find a big shed antler (or ideally a matched set). This assures you that the buck survived the previous hunting season and has weathered the toughest part of winter.

If you're lucky enough to find a shed from a deer you want to harvest, hunt that immediate area the following season. There's a good chance the deer dropped that antler in his core turf.

Always bring your handheld GPS on every scouting mission. Aside from navigational safety, you'll want to be able to punch in waypoints for trail intersections, pinch-points, rub lines and other potential ambush points.

Following your scouting mission, take your waypoint information and go to www.maps.live.com to bring up an aerial photograph of your hunting land.

You can then enter in those GPS coordinates, put icons on the aerial photo, and print out a bird's-eye view of your land to determine the best ways to enter certain spots under different wind conditions.

Seeing the "big picture" of your hunting ground and the areas you found scouting will help you understand deer movement on your spots. Isn't technology great?

Another must-have scouting tool, in my opinion, is my Cuddeback digital camera. When a prime location is discovered, I'll set a camera on that spot to identify what's coming by and when.

This helps me answer the all-important question of "why." Are they traveling to feed? On their way to bed? Some spots are better in the morning; others in the afternoon/evening. The Cuddeback camera gives me the answers I need to hunt more efficiently come autumn.

Stage 2 of your off-season preparation, following speed scouting, is to get into the prime travel corridors you've found and prepare stand sites. This is the time to pick out stand trees, identify ground blind locations and cut shooting lanes.

I think that deer are so intimate with their surroundings that they notice when branches are suddenly missing from certain trees. After all, this is their home. If someone came into your living room and removed things or moved stuff around, you'd notice, too.

So, changing a deer's surroundings in the off-season is a much better time to do it - versus putting them on alert just prior to your hunt.

There are a few other benefits to scouting at this time of year. It's just great to be in the woods interacting with nature and becoming more in-tune with the deer living there. It's wonderful exercise. And it's also a perfect opportunity to take a son, daughter or grandchild along to pass along lessons in woodsmanship.

But the biggest reward of off-season scouting will occur months from now - when you're in your stand and the buck of a lifetime steps out, unaware of your presence. And all because you put in the time to be a scouter first, and a hunter second.

Good hunting.

(Babe Winkelman is a nationally known outdoorsman who has taught people to fish and hunt for more than 25 years. Watch the award-winning "Good Fishing" and "Outdoor Secrets" television shows on Versus (formerly OLN), Fox Sports Net, WILD TV, WFN and many local networks. Visit www.winkelman.com for air times where you live.)