ORIGINAL: buckeyebuckhntr
From looking at the setup, I believe a little to much emphasis is being put on the food sources. Early and late season these stands could produce but for the rut I think setting up more on the terrain features will bump up your odds.
Lot's of funnels on the southern portion of the map. That flat area to N NE and E of the swamp looks to be some good chasing grounds.
On the east side of the property just below your southern most food plot are those rows of pines that are planted?
Yes, planted pines aboutall 15-18" in diameter or so now.The stand just west of them on that hard edge where they break into hardwooeds and the elevation slopes offI had a pretty nice 110-115" buck walk by at 50 yards that I didn't want to chance a shot on.My half rack 3.5 year old I shot in rifle season came out of there too and one of the other guys had an encounter with the one we found dead there also.
Most of the mature buck sightings over the last 2-3 years have been in the terrain funnels on the south and west sides,mostly on the west side though. The three standsfurthest west produced 4 encounters with mature bucks within 50 yards this year including one real slammer in the 150+ range, however that area is void of deer untilseeking and chasing starts.
Haven't been up around the north/east side of that swamp much. That is really big woods in there with a lot of HUGE hemlocks. Going to have to get in there maybe and poke around to see what is in there. What would you be looking for in there? It's pretty open without many terrain features to funnel them around............there really isn't any pressure in there until rifle season.