How much hunting pressure does the public land get west and south of you? As the above posters have said, getting down and dirty on the ground is a necessity...but I do use aerial maps to at least figure out the general area I want to scout.
My thoughts (and I'm nooooo expert by any means): I am intrigued by the boundary line area between the private and public land to the southwest of your house location. It looks like the thickest forest is to the south and west of your property, correct? If that parcel is hunted at all, I'd figure out where the hunters are and where they're coming in (most likely from the west and south) and I'd scout the boundary areas of your property on the west and south for deer sign.
If the public land is hunted I'd think they'd push deer your way in those general areas.
I dunno...I've always loved scouting those transition areas where one type of tree/vegetation butts up against another (like, say, a young clear-cut area of aspen or brush slicing up against a hemlock swamp or something). Those can serve two purposes: easy travel (and browse) for deer as well as having secure cover that can easily be accessed by the deer in an emergency.
Last edited by Michlw39; 11-21-2010 at 05:02 PM.