Get out and walk the area Dustin. Deer require a place to have cover...water and food. It's probably simple in their mind. Look for any water supply...run, spring, seep, etc. Look for travel routes that allow travel that is relatively inconspicuous. Whitetails like brushy areas for the most part, and if you can find some natural food along with water and cover, then most of the work is done. And know what the local deer population eats for the most part. They love alfalfa, but whitetails are predominately browsers, so see what they are eating in those woods.

Ditto on the water situation. And if you have that many hardwoods, look at your acorn crop. Some years I have noticed we do not get much action from deer on feed type situations, even old harvested fields if the natural crop does good. Also the best "ambush" points for me work along trails between bedding and feeding, and most often at heavy intersections. None of this may be new news, but be diligent about reading the sign. If a trail has lots of droppings and you see a mix of fawn and medium prints, you may get to see a big guy in rut there and not much in the off time. Nothing can replace good old ground work. IMO Hope some of this helps.

They will gorge on acorns, especially on years of light production. On your next walk there, look for "nipped" tips and limbs on the low growth trees. As they walk they will eat at the nose-high shrubs/small trees. Sometimes we mess seeing that since it is usually below our knees along the trails. If someone sees you walking stooped over in the woods, just tell them you have a bad back. )

Maybe purchase a Trailcam. Put it somewhere along one of the better trails. Is that small brown triangle at the bottom left corner a water-hole? If so, you might have a trail between it and the adjacent field up across the road. Most of all, do what George said, WALK-WALK-WALK! Take a few steps and glass, don't just look, OBSERVE! Don't sweat that your not getting anything it's about being out there. I went about 8/9 years without a KILL, some of my better hunts! Good luck and HAVE FUN!

If you think they use those fingers to access the fields I would maybe sit on the road scouting and see which on they are using to cross might be in the dark and then find an ambush place farther south on their route.

Dustin, make trips there if you can on days of different weather. Find what the thermals do on calm days as well as steady wind or gusts. May be the most important thing in an area like that.

I'd look for water too. The one thing I'd quit immediately is putting out corn. I have no moral issues with doing so at all. But, what I've found is the deer get on to you really quick. Especially the older ones. It is the single best way to teach the deer where and when you'll be there.

I also think with feeders up, you instinctively miss out on better hunting. You do all that work, spend all that money, so you hunt them. But, the deer aren't dumb, they know corn doesn't come from elevated barrels that smell like humans. So you end up seeing few, if any.

If I thought the traveled through, it ought to be easy to find the sign. I'd hunt that and you'll kill more and bigger deer. You could send your whole life hunting feeders here, and kill few deer. Much less an older deer. If water were scare, I'd dig a pit if ok with the landowner. That would be the only supplementing of their needs I'd do. If they have natural food, your just feeding the squirrels anyway. Good luck and God Bless

A couple of years ago, feeding became legal in OK. The property owner had feeders out for rifle season. I bought a couple bags of corn at the CO-OP, brushed out the deer tracks around a feeder, put in a bag and the next morning went back to check. Results were a zillion turkey tracks and no corn. That was the last time I thought about using feeders. Follow the advice above and you'll do fine.

All good advice. Legwork especially. There is a snag though; come September deer change their habits. At least in the northeast they do. Scouting now is preliminary at best and stand placement should wait until mid-Sept. Use your map and mark spots now where you think a stand would work. Then in Sept. see if those spots are still viable. Sometimes the changes are subtle but other times deer might give up entirely on a particular piece of property. I had that happen to me. Scouted the summer and hung a stand near a well used trail. Sat that stand a few times and saw some good bucks. Then from opening day to the end of the season I saw no deer there at all. I didn't give up on the spot because I was sure that any day there would be a parade of deer that I'd miss. That was poor thinking on my part. Lesson learned. Anyway, these days I stick to the ground, preferring natural blinds. I can set as many or as few as I like and don't have to worry about theft. Frank

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