I just joined this site as I got back into deer hunting this September after 24 yrs and I could use some advice from the pro's. I live in Bibb Co. and am hunting on my parents land which is about 5+ acres but surrounded by alot of unhunted land. I took a 100 lb doe Thanksgiving morining from my 15 ft ladder stand but have seen little since then. The deer are visiting the small food plot but it seems to be everyother night. Today it was raining so I decided to just do some looking around. Last week while in my stand I heard alot of scraping sounds and I found the answer toay. About 20 ft from where I shot the doe I found a scrape with feces in it with a rub, five feet from there was another scrape with feces. Both the feces and the rub were made last night/early this morning. As I made my way through the woods I found scrapes and rubs every where. These were not here 2 weeks ago I know. Now this is where I need some advice, how would you hunt this area based on this knowledge and knowing that the woods are really to thick to get a shot at a deer without having to be 15 yds from him? I am shooting a Weatherby 308, and my stand sits in the bend on an old road bed, there are 7 active deer trails that merge onto the road bed in front of my stand. I tried a mock scrape but no luck. I thought about using doe estrus but I dont think the deer are in full rut yet. I am torn between trying to call him in with doe grunts/estrus bleat or a buck grunt/bleat. I dont think rattling will work very well as there are not very many buck here(I think one is part cow though based on the size of his tracks)
So any advice that could be given would be much appreciated.
Thanks