Actually, not just a new bow hunter, but a new hunter all together. Took my hunter safety course back about 10 years ago but never took the opportunity to start up hunting. I figured its about time so I went out and bought myself a used bow. Its a PSE Carroll Intruder II from the mid 90s. It came with a muzzy zero effect, string silencers, and a trophy ridge fiber optic sight and a peep. 70# draw. So I've been collecting gear along the way and practicing shooting. I feel very comfortable shooting at 20 yards with pretty tight grouping. 25 yards is still good and so is 30, but I'm not sure if i would be confident enough yet to shoot at a deer at that distance yet. I've already missed opening day by a few weeks, but priorities are keeping me away from the woods until next week.

So, I'm pretty much going to have to hunt public land. I'm in NC and I've been poring over all the game land maps and looking at the sat pictures on google earth and have settled on the Butner Falls - Jordan Lake game lands. Specifically, there is an area that has very distinct boundaries (I really don't want to wander off the state lands into someone elses property) and looks like it could be promising (but what do I know). The sat pic is attached and I've drawn some lines on it. Blue lines are the Eno river and a stream on the land - there's actually a lot of water all over the place in large puddles - probably from the river overflow. The white line is a road and the white square is where I can park. The yellow line is a power line path. The magenta is an access road - the distance from the road to the field labeled "1" is about 0.6 miles. I've labeled the fields with numbers. The red line is a spot around about where, when I was walking it this morning (before work) I saw a deer cross the road. The fields are not being cultivated so currently they are just overgrown grasse, nettles and such.

So, I'm starting off by severely handicapping myself (at least that is what I am thinking) because I don't have a tree stand so I'll be on the ground. I don't expect to have much luck this first season but I would like to at least sight a deer. Anyone have any suggestions as to how to do a ground hunt? Also, any ideas from the satellite pic on where I may want to set up?

I appreciate any input. Once I have a few years and a few deer under my belt, I hope I can be of service as well.

Thanks

Doug