Shed hunting comes during or after the winter snow, which really makes the woods read like an open book. In the snow - you can easily find the most heavily-used bedding areas, food sources and travel routes. Even once the snow is off, the ground is wet, and the muddytrails are very easy to follow. Granted, the winter yarding areas might differ a bit from their early October bedding areas.

Just by virtue of taking a visual inventory of the number and sizes of trails, tracks, beds and sheds - you can get a pretty firm grasp on what and how many deer are wintering in a given area. You can also sketch out the seasonal feeding areas, which will pay dividends if you ever find yourself hunting the late seasons.

Like somebody noted earlier - often, while shed hunting, you wind up following trailsinto areas that are nonconventional and can sometimes surprise you a bit about where certain deer are moving or bedding.