I live and hunt in West Central IL. Our bow season runs well into January. Due to time constraints, I usually hunt the rut as much as possible, then hold out for the late season.

I like the late season for a few reasons- Less bowhunters out and about, and concentrated food sources. It seems the deer settle down and get back into the mode of bedding, eating and relieving themselves. Less available food makes it easier to peg where they will be feeding, and cooler temps usually assure they will show up before sunset.

I have a buddy that has 800 acres of hunting ground, of which well over 500 acres are timber or other cover. He know longer farms the tillable, except to plant winter wheat for deer, done in 5 separate fields. Part of his ground borders a federal refuge, where no hunting is allowed. It is also pretty much inaccessable, so not much human intrusion. My buddy doesn't bowhunt, nor allow bowhunting until after IL's first shotgun season the third week in November. After that, I have the place to myself.

Given these conditions, and assuming hunting will be done the first two weeks in January, how would you go about scouting specifically for bucks? Will they still be rubbing on their way from bed to feed? Will the be back in bachelor groups? How can one use wind direction to predict how the deer will enter the wheat fields?

I'd love to hear how you would approach this situation.