My ability to map scout and quick scout will be put to the..

[virginiashadow]

I hear your points, however I will be hunting 30,000 acres in OH. If I mess something up being aggressive, then I will move on to another spot. This will be rut hunting. In PA, I will be hunting thousands of acres as well. I am being aggressive....calculated based on the wind, but aggressive. I have nothing to lose.

[DEERSLAYER]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info. I have been trying to use Bing maps using the birds eye view to get a more accurate look at the hunting, notably the strip mined areas. I have never hunted strip mined areas. You should have seen the section I scouted in PA....rocky, hilly, tangled, mess. I am trying to find funnels and high ground benches to hunt. The Ohio hunt should be rough, but I will be on stand sun up to sun down for five straight days. After that it is to PA for about 10 days, where I will hunt 8 hour days, getting out of the woods about 2pm each day to meet my kids as they exit school.

How about this? I knocked on some farmers house to gain access to the better parts of the public hunting ground. That part does not have good access and one has to walk 3/4ths of a mile to a mile across some nasty terrain to get to it. The farmer not only granted me permission to access the best part of the public hunting area from his farm, but he also granted me permission to bowhunt his 200 acre farm. Now most of it is croplands and grassfields, but it does have some slivers of woods that border the public land spot. It is the thought that counts and I will be getting him a gift and also will give him some venison when I get one.

That's awesome about the farm and the access. It sounds like those slivers of woods could be a good rut spot if they are connecting woodlots, big timber or some other type of cover. Especially if they cross each other. It doesn't take much cover to be used as a travel corridor.

[virginiashadow]

Day 2 of scouting went great. There was bear crap everywhere. I thought I saw the back of one run away today but it was probably my imagination running wild. I almost got bit by a snake as well. Crazy PA. :)

Jumped a bedded 110-120 inch buck today. I scouted a ton but 90% of the deer sign including some larger deer tracks was located in about a 50 acre spot where the public land border the private land I gained permission to hunt. Found a couple "4 finger tracks" approximately 200 yards from where I jumped the buck. All the terrain comes together on one edge of a lake where a large stream empties into it.