Coalcracker wrote:You'll be hitting the woods at an opportune time. Late October will be fantastic for finding buck sign. Scout/hunt your way around the area.
If this is a long term(years) endeavor, I would break down the ridge systems into sections. Looking at your map, I found at least (5) main ridge system areas. Many different ways to break it down but I like doing outside/in. Starting with access points along the road. Drive around the entire area using the closest roads to determine the most heavily used access points. Look for back door foot trails or even quad trails (legal or not). When I start boot scouting, I again like "circling" the area around the outer most fringes looking for those hidden or not shown access trails or even logging roads not yet on maps. Doing this could eliminate some area right off the bat. Finally, I would start breaking down the sections. Terrain is great to look at on maps but I'd be looking for edges like clear cuts first. Then, 1/3 elevation and point bedding areas within each section. One section at a time. It may take a year of in depth scouting for each section. Once your done with the general scouting plus the hunts in a few years, you will have (5) main hunting areas which you are familiar. As time goes, you will learn to check specific places within each section that consistently tells you a large buck is "in there". I like to start furthest away because as I'm scouting and hunting, I'm walking through the other sections becoming more familiar and of course looking for sign of a big buck.
For shorter term endeavors, I believe scout/hunting by staying mobile looking for fresh sign would work best. Dan and THP have some really good hunting videos on short term hunts (Challenges) that pretty much spell it out for us.
This is great advice for any area, my mother in law lives in the area so i will be frequenting a lot, I am actually re watching the deer tour/challenges right now.