Me? I gotta walk it over and see what's there. See the cover, the old sign, the new sign..I can play with topo's and satelite pics later, once I have a better understanding of the lay of the land, and possible food sources and bedding areas.
I generally start learning the property lines(tax maps, and on foot). I will check out aerials and topos marking areas of interest. Talk to whomever I am getting the land from and see what they can tell me about hunting pressure, crops, farmers or other human traffic, if anyone else has permission, deer info(i.e "I always see deer coming from that thicket." Once I actually am on the land I look for food(crops, oaks, etc), water, transition areas/breaklines etc. If I will have the property solely I will post it if allowed.
Get the Topos and walk the land. One thing that is often overlooked is finding old stands. The last property I hunted(Raceway) had a stand not more than 60 yards from my hottest stand nailed up in the tree and I never saw it until last year. The last three properties I hunted all had old wooden stands up in the trees in areas close to where we had our best success, the old timers were on the deer
I would start with marking topo and aerials maps with areas I believe to be pinch points, bedding areas, or any other feature I want to check out. Then I would get my boots on the ground and try to verify what my maps told me, marking on the maps other areas/information I found while walking it such as major creek crossings.
Since you posted this now, we'll assume now. I'm walking it. As much as I can cover in as few a days as I can before it gets hot. Look for rubs lines & old scrapes. Terrain pinches & vegitation edges. Look for oaks. Pay attention to any bedding areas or places of concentrated deer sign. either mark it in your head, on a map or a GPS. Over the summer try to use any observation points to watch deer there. Pick your hunting spots & adjust if needed throughout the season.
In search of what??.......are you trying to correlate the topo to the actual land you have or just confirming what you already know. Golden nugget right there........not sure why so many guys ignore this one (pride maybe) I killed a nice buck a few years ago in a spot on a farm I had ignored for years..........it wasn't until I was dragging him back that I noticed an old lock on about 20 yards behind me full of leaves and debris from years of being abandoned. Another time I was on state land with my brother (unknown area) and when the light hit I could see the old remains of a wooden stand about 100 yards away.......I watched 3 bucks walk right past it by the time 10 o'clock hit (one a HUGE bodied 8 or 10).
And look for and mark what?? You guys are all mentioning topos........I'll be honest and admit I don't even use them. What am I missing out on?? I have always just walked the land and used aerials once they became available.
I start by looking for draws that go to ridge tops. Wider with steep sides. Water - creeks that run in between ridges. There are usually crossing points. Those help define the trails. Benches, wide space between contour lines on a ridge side, that run up to ridge tops, usually to the back/wide part of the ridge. I have yet to find one of those and not find a deer trail on it. Saddles between draws that deer can travel through perpindicular to the ridge. I mark these spots with my map software then download them to my GPS. Once I start walking the land with the topo and GPS I can start mapping sign and trails. I lay all of that out on the topo and it gives me a real good picture of the deer movement through that area.
No rules. Walk the whole piece. Look at the cover, observe the culture of the trees, is there some new growth areas, or is it old woods. I just read a neat article on Grouse and Deer Hunting, if you are flushing grouse in a certain area more frequently than other areas. This is a good indictor of where a Deer would feel "safe". What are the closest food sources to this cover. These will be the first hit in the evening and the last hit in the morning, as deer browse to primary source. Perhaps I use Topos and Aerials in Reverse to say Bruce or Josh..those more adept at reading them. I want to see for myself where the deer are traveling, then I coorelate that later with the maps to see why. Perhaps this method would serve me if the time ever came where I didn't have the advantage of walking the land first. I trust my woods knowledge more than my map reading skills.
