Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum How to hunt big Hardwoods with heavy topography.

I've recently been hunting a section of a WMA (area is ~650 acres) that is very deep and not accessed often. It is a huge stretch of hardwoods with small patches of pines along the ridges. It is very hilly, nearly mountainous, and is constant mix of saddles, ridges, bottoms, and bowls.

I've hunted twice now with all day sits. Found more scrapes than I can count, maybe 25, and tons of rubs to go along with them. Did not see a deer the first hunt, then saw some does throughout the day on the second hunt. Have not found a single hint of human sign, I just don't think anyone in this area of AL can/will go back this far. It is remote.

The problem I'm encountering, is I cannot decide where to hunt. Like I said, there are saddles everywhere, buck sign everywhere, excellent open hardwoods mixed with enough cover for bedding, and I can go deeper & deeper avoiding pressure (just getting further from the truck). I'm surprised I did not see a buck. I'm essentially asking for some sort of direction here, I just can't decide. If i were so to speak "hunt the edges" where I am sitting near mixing of areas (such as near a very thick briared field, pine thicket, and hardwoods in a corner), I could not go deeper as everything past 0.5 mile from the road is constant big woods.

Thanks for your time