Very little sign but big buck

[Bobo]

There is an area of public land I hunt. It's river bottom. It's pretty big area. I have notoriously in this area seen very little buck sign except right outside bedding transitions. But the bucks I have seen have, have mostly been on the larger side. Last fall I hunted there. Middle of October. Warmer day. On the way in, I saw zero buck sign. But kept seeing one large track all the way in. Right at dark I seen a nice buck come to the river for a drink. No shot. I knew there was bedding close to there, so I spring scouted it with the intention of finding out how he was using the bedding. The two best bedding locations in that particular bedding area were both wore to the dirt and had a nice rub in it. Those were the only two rubs I could find in that whole stretch of river bottom. I also found a very fresh big lone track going out the back of the bedding area that day. I'm assuming he was still alive this spring, using that area and I jumped him.

Im planning on hunting there again, but with expecting only one shot at it I wanna have the best odds when I do it. With not really expecting to be able to wait for fresh rubs to open up, to give me the green light. I basically decided to wait for a south Westerly wind. On a warmer day at the begining or middle of October and I think I shld be able to get about 75 yards from the bedding. I hope to cut a big track going in again, but he can access it from ways I cant without being busted. Any other ideas of what else I can do or am missing to let me know it's time to go in?

I might ad iv tried to fanangle different ways I could do an observation sit, but I don't think I can. He didn't move far from bedding before dark and it's hard to get in close enough with having to go all the way in and hunt, in my opinion

[Lockdown]

If I relied on big rubs alone, I’d be in serious trouble. I’ve learned to trust the map. If the map says they should be there, the beds are there, and so are some big fresh tracks or poop on hunt day, that’s all I need to see.

[headgear]

I hope to cut a big track going in again, but he can access it from ways I cant without being busted. Any other ideas of what else I can do or am missing to let me know it's time to go in?

This is the tricky party and I know exactly how you feel, some of my spots just have to get hunted but I don't always have a great way to check them for sign or like you mentioned they can enter bedding from several different areas and I might not be able to check all of them. Some areas I will for sure hunt based on history, knowing when an area has heated up in the past, knowing the pressure could put him in there, running some cams to get an idea of when the beds heat up. I'd like to use observation stands more often but most of the time the areas I hunt are thick and there is just no way to see the deer. I always like to see some kind of sign in the area, be it a track or an opened up scrape but like you I have gone into areas without sign and seen shooters before so it is still very possible. Sometimes it just takes years of messing around to get a better handle on an area too.