First part of your question is easy. Find their food source.....and you find their staging area. It'll be a "safe" area that they'll "stage" in.....waiting for darkness or a time to move into their main food source area when they feel it's safe to do so.

Morning staging areas are a little different (in my experience). Here.....they "stage" in areas near their bedding areas.....getting that last-minute feeding in before retiring for the day.

I've had more luck, of late, with thelatter vs. the former.

It can't be said enough, though.....you have to know where your deer are feeding and bedding to be really successful. They also change up (or, at least, they do here). Keeping tabs on where they're eating out is a LOT more than half the battle. It's the "hunt" part of "hunting". The rest is shooting when you've located them.