I originally set out to go squirrel hunting this morning, but ended up scouting the whole area for whitetails. Since this is my first season to hunt, I' m not really sure what I' m supposed to be looking for, but I think I found some good areas. When I arrived this morning, I just started walking down the road that has been cleared straight through the middle of the WMA. If you follow the trail for about 3/4 mile it ends at someones soybean field, so I took off immediately through the thick brush to the right. Then I came up to the edge of some woods; a little ways in there is a small clearing encircled by woods. To me, it just " looked" right, like deer may wander in to eat the greens in the field, and there were plenty of places in the surrounding woods to set up a blind or a stand. Also, I was seeing fresh deer tracks everywhere. Does this sound like a good area for feeding? What is a typical bedding area like? Oh, one more thing, I found two scrapes at the very end of that road I mentioned on the edge of the field, and there were almost constant tracks from my car parked on the highway to the scrapes in the field' s edge. What should I do? Thanks

When you are scouting for a place to hunt, look for hardwoods. In areas with lots of hardwoods, you should look for large oaks, considering they are the ones dropping the acorns. Look for hardwoods bordering pine thickets. You will find several travel lanes on these borders. Deer will bed down in the cover of pine thickets during the day and munch on acorns mornings and evenings. As for the soybean fields, find a good open area somewhere close to the field so you can see anything that may be grazing. If you are going to be hunting from the ground, try to create some kind makeshift ground blind to conseal yourself. Be sure to use some cover scent and have at it.

Good luck.