RE: Realization that I don't know much about deer movement, inparticular big buck movement
Whoa! Alot of hunters can never admit that. I am honest to god impressed that you took that step forward, because with the amount of knowledge between some of the people on this website and information available in books as well you are already at table full of help and personal achievment. I too could never admit this until about three and a half years ago when my uncle introduced me to a world called tracking. Despite having bad eyes he was very good at finding deer and just about whatever he wanted to harvest. He was just the tip of the iceberg. He turned me on to something I hated to do for years, reading. LOL! He was convinced that if I would start using what was available to me in the library and learning how to track I would see more deer and put more meat in the freezer.
Two years after taking his advice and spending more time with him learning how to track has really improved my ability to consistently locate quality deer and deer herds, even when I am on a newproperty. One of the biggest tips he taught me was to find an area where there seems to be multiple amount of deer droppings that are fresh, a few days old, and just plain dried out. This is usaully a good sign. His number one was look for rubs on bigger trees. This was usually a place you want to kind stay clear of cause more than likely your bruzer is lying in the area, that is as long as it is a newer rub. His philosophy was find out what types of masts there were in the area if you hunt the mountains andtry and figure out which ones will drop when. Deer are big food opportunists.If I would hunt the farm I would always find a good area between the food and bedding area, near a good water source. I don't know if this helps, but I wish you luck this season.
I posted, "HuntingThrough Books", a few days ago to get some books. THe guys here repondedreally well. I would also pick up a book on tracking and at least attempt to learn some of what is available. This has made me a better hunter and helped me find more game in the last three years of my life.
Good luck Shadow!
Justin