As ranger suggested, you can walk a piece of land and see what's there. That's how I do it. The fact is, if you get yourself in some woods and start looking around, you'll start seeing the signs. If you don't. move on. A way to narrow it is to look for a mix of habitats, say some cropfields that butt up against a tract of woods or brush. Explore the edge of the field and look for obvious trails coming in. Creek and river bottoms are often great places to begin because they tend to be woody, often bisect food sources, and offer water. Old farmsteads are good as they get overgrown with brush and heavy weed growth. There might be some old fruit trees as well.

Walking a fenceline through the woods is another good way. You'll inevitably discover where the deer are crossing it. You might even find that you're walking on a deer trail that runs along it.

I'll say one plug for guns and calibers: I like calibers that are versatile and easy to find shells for. I carry a .30-'06 because it suitable for just about anything in North America, is marvelous for deer, and it has a wide variety of shells and loadings available for it. It's the only rifle I own and I couldn't justify buying a second one. If by chance a hunting opportunity pops up for an elk or black bear, I've got something that will work. Ammo isn't particularly expensive for it and if you find yourself in an out of the way place and realize you left your ammo at home, a mom and pop hardware store will carry that caliber if they carry shells at all. That might not be the case if you're carrying an obscure caliber. Recoil is moderate.

.270 winchester and .308 winchester fall into the same category. A little less oomph, but still useable on many species on the continent.

The gun itself is a Savage 111, a variant of its 110. Savage has been making plain jane guns that are relatively inexpensive for years. They don't look like art, but they are very accurate. If budget is a concern, this is my recommendation. I think they recently renamed this line of guns as Stevens 200 series recently, and are using the 110 series as a fancier line.