Jeff.. hunting is nothing more than an educated guessing game. But knowing a whitetails travels throughout the year (according to preferred food sources and an educated guess) is what puts us on deer in the first place. So the more education one has.. the better a guess one could make.

If I'm not mistaken.. you hunt in a area thats adjacent to a park or Forest Preserve.. You and I both know you could walk it all late winter if you wanted to and really get to know the lay of that land too. Shed hunting is one way you could even do this.

Driving around.. its easy enough. You drive around a night a week around your "block" and watch the deer from afar.. you'll get a pretty good idea of what they are doing this way too.

Even just getting to know the neighbors and talking deer.. most guys WANT to talk.. they WANT to brag.. LET THEM right into your ear.

The best hunters I know of get out and do these little things.. to better educate themselves on what the deer are doing in their little piece of the world.. that way they can better guess their deer.. and thus get on better deer. Anybody can do them.. don't say you can't.. thats an excuse. There's no room for excuses if you really want to get on top of a good deer.