Evaluating Hunting Land

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I'm looking for some advice. I've bow hunted for whitetails in Wisconsin off and on for years, but mostly on private land that I don't own and don't set up the stands. I've recently found a piece of public land near by that I would like to start hunting, but I'm not confident in my abilities to evaluate the land and decide where to place stands and how to hunt it. I would really like to become a better hunter, so I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to give me some tips on how to scout where bedding areas might be, and a good spot for my stand.

That being said, I'll give a description of the property. It sits in south central Wisconsin, the main part is a 40 acre parcel that is primarily covered with boxelder trees, with a wetland area in the middle that has some crazy tall rag weed (I think). It has a drainage ditch that runs on the east edge of the property. It has soybean fields on the North, east & west sides of it. On the northwest corner there is a short section of woods that leads off to another section of upland woods which is all private land. I did a quick walk through and there are some pretty significant trails through the property that terminate at the soybean field on the north side of the property. Access to the property is from the south. I can post up an aerial photo if that would be helpful.

Thanks for any help people are willing to give.

 

Aerial photo and topo map would help to locate bedding areas.

 

Sounds like you may have a food source that the deer are using. I would setup a stand off of one of the well used trails and observe how the deer are traveling.

 

Thanks for the reply's. I have uploaded some maps of the area. One has a close up aerial with my notes on it. To the northwest (on private land) is an area of upland woods. Would the dear be more likely to bed down in that area? How do I determine if deer are bedding on this piece of land? Another thing I wonder about is how do I know how well a trail is being used? There are some obvious trails, but they do have a fair amount of leaves on them, would that mean they are not being used very frequently? Thanks again for the help!