RedCoat, glad to see you are still at it. We exchanged a few PM's at the end of last season. This is my 3rd season and I've bagged one buck and two does so far all on public. I'll tell you what has helped me this season.

*Always mark any deer you see on your hunting app (Onx or Huntstand) and what direction it was traveling. This lead me to being withing 20 yards of the biggest buck I've ever encountered while hunting. I missed, but that is a different story.

*Go back and look at the map of your sightings and think "There was a reason this deer crossed at this spot". Look for saddles, low spots, funnels, etc....The revisit the area and you'll probably start to see what is happening in that area. Deer are browsers and they are almost always on the move, that is about the only advantage we got.

*Clear cuts. If I can find a place where they cross and get 80-100 yards off of it, I've noticed I'm invisible if I'm still or behind a tree or in a pop up. I had a doe come within 40 yards just staring at me in my pop up (was a buck only day). She looked at me a lot, but I never moved and she just found me interesting to look at, but was never scared.

*Clear cuts again, when you find that place that they cross it will be usually a low spot or a few yards off it.

*Consider seeing a deer on a sit almost as much as a success as harvesting one. That is future knowledge that will lead to a kill. I took one doe off observations from the end of last seaon. I noticed does would go up a draw to eat later in the season. A buck I got was noticing a doe crossing early in the season during a buck only hunt the 1st time I sat on a clear cut. Came back to sit on it later and a buck popped out.

*Last but not least, I've personally seen all my activity between 8AM and Noon. I don't bother getting up at 3AM, I just try to get to my parking spot around fist light and take my time walking in. I think the idea of bumping them in the dark is a little overblown for us Public Land hunters. I've literally walked through somewhere and 20 mintues later seen a deer walk through there and hang out. They are still going where they need to go and if your wearing scent proof boots and walking on a road or clear cut it doesn't seem to leave any real scent that alarms them. Walking through brush and stuff might be different if your scent is sticking to branches.

*Eliminate bad habits like looking at your phone for long stretches. I force myself to look up every 30 seconds if I am checking mesages. It only takes a minute and you can spend 10 minutes with your head buried in your phone before you realize it. I know I've missed deer doing that.