Can anyone give me some advice on big woods hunting. It seems like deer just roam around. I am use to hunting farm lands that have defined paths from bedding-staging grounds-fields.

You need to talk to TeeJay.

He hunts big woods. See if you can PM him.

Study your lands topography...... Learn andrelate as many terrain features as possible together. Then choose your best ambush sites based on your study.

Good luck!

Any hardwoods, apple trees, they love eating acorns and beechnuts up here. Do you have GPS or a good compass? I like to find a spot that they tend to travel through coming up out of the swamps and into the hardwoods. Most of it is like most anything else you need to put your hours in to have success. In my area deer are far and few in between but still you can have success being patient.
Good Luck to you..

Ive located three great trail around moutain points, and in saddles.. IS it important to hunt trails like this or hunt open oak woods which are filled with acorns their primary food source. Their lots of deer their it just seems like i never see bucks--and i know their are some giants their. i hunt property that border a guy who owns square miles of ground and does not produce. Ive seen bucks but just cant figure out their strategy

Anyone that can figure a big buck out in this stuff and be 100% acurate is pulling someones leg. I live hunting in the open hardwoods after a light rain. Deer appear to travel into them then as it is quite and offers them a chance to lay down and dry off a bit. Also be very alert in them during a cold morning as it is loud walking and you can here the deer traveling a quite of distance away. But on the same side they can here you to.

I would be watching those trails during most of the hunt as the big bucks up here like to travel near them. They will almost always send the doe first at any hint of danger coming there way. If you see a buck going ahead of a doe you know that they are aware of you being there. That means the buck is heading out of there. Bucks do like traveling the ridges up here and most likely the same thing there. But there is an exception and that would be those big swamp bucks. The ones with a dark gray chest that only move up into the hardwoods for building mast to get by during and after the rut. They will normally take the shortest route in and out of the swamp. Good luck to you.

Funnels,land features as others have said.circle bedding cover looking for run ways going in and coming out.Look for rubs and scrapes,rub clusters.Look for the edge of cover downwind of primary runways.Look for directional use.Are all the deer dropping down or headed toward the same area or area's.Hot food sources.
There is a lot of big woods that doesn't get used.Don't set up in area's until you have found sign that is abundant and fresh.Better to scout more than hunt until you find an area worth hunting.
Good luck!

Here in WI where I hunt; we have some big hills...NOT mountains, but you can see what one would call saddles. I've always had my best luck hunting the saddles as deer like "the path of the least resistance". Now, other than the saddles, I've liked any benches or what I call them here anyway...where as you're going some huge hill and it flattens out for a little bit before the incline starts again. If you hunt a saddle or a BENCH that runs around your mountain tops; I would almost bet there will be a scrape line on any bench area you find. Good luck to you as I know how big woods can be, and there seems to be more times than not that are for lack of a better hopeless. Get a good recent photo and topo of the area and many of primary stand locations will be found from those two items alone.

i would also look for benches,but keep an eye out for the best mast acorn crop you can see it works