new hunter need scouting strategy last two weeks of the season

Try Gmap4, on there in the upper right corner choose the aerial Google hybrid map and overlay the USA contour lines. That way you can see the topography and aerial photo together. That will really help you identify possible bottlenecks created by steep hillsides, water, swamps, houses, roads, ect.
On Bragdon, have you hunted just west of Bracken Cir, where that wet area meets the steep hillside? Looks like the deer would be pinched between a swamp and a steep hill, good starting point.

 

Thanks for the Gmap4 reference! No, I haven't hunted west of Bracken Circle, but I have walked that section. Very thick stand of hemlocks surrounding the stream bed. Yes it does look like an obvious pinch point. I'll check it out next weekend

 

I planned to spend some time looking at your map markups today, but now I can't find your post? Did the forum eat your post?

 

Sat a new spot this afternoon. Set up in a thicket of multiflora rose, autumn olive, and tulip poplar that has been growing over some dis-used walking trails. A couple rubbed trees and crossing deer trails, but no fresh droppings. Did not see anything for the last three hours of daylight, but as I was walking out, I was spotted by five does feeding on the golf course across the river. They spooked and ran 30-40 yards towards the thicket at the sharp bend in the river, then calmed and went back to feeding. They clearly felt comfortable there after the last foursome played through at dusk. Any guesses on how to hunt them? Do you think they live and bed on the golf course side, or on the other side? The river is probably 2-3 feet deep at the center and COLD. They could certainly swim across it if threatened, but I'm not sure if they would cross it as a daily routine.

 

I would look to set up just north and east of where you saw those deer, on the large outside bend of the stream, between the water and the last house on that dead end street. I would also walk that whole stream and see if there is any place that they are crossing, especially west and a bit south of that lower cu de sac, where they can cross and have woods on both sides of the water. Look for where it narrows where they can jump it, or where it gets wider and shallower. But that outside bend in the river near where you sat definitely has potential.