This would be my compromise for anybody new deer hunting and not willing/able to do what
@kyler1945 recommends.
If you wanna use the computer, pay $30 to get access to P&Y records. Make a spreadsheet with the following collumns:
- Counties in your state
- acreage per county
- human population per county
- P&Y record entries per county
- Human population/acreage
- P&Y entries/Acreage
- P&Y entries/Human population
Bonus points if you can get DCNR trophy/harvest information.
I'd use that to identify the top 10/20% of counties in your state. You should be able to do it in half a day.
Then, look for huntable land in those counties. National Forest, Forever Wild, WMA, COE, utility, school board, indian reservation, large tracts owned by a california-based commercial real-estate firm...whatever.
From those tracts, look for and give preference to:
- bow-only
- Lottery draw
- restricted season (example: a local wma only allows rifle hunters Thursday-Friday and it's bucks only. another can only be deer hunted Saturday-Monday)
- tracts with exclusive water access (if that's a thing in your state, buy a boat. Alternatively, you can try to buy a boat.)
That should leave you with 99% of the acreage in your state(s) weeded out as sub-optimum and not worth the boot leather. Congrats.
Once you've identified a parcel, start walking.
Notice I haven't said anything about a topo map or scouting app yet. In order to avoid getting lost, you will need to simply locate the signs and paint blazes around the property. Then, follow them in a big old polygram until you get back to your truck.
Alternatively, start walking any parcel you can legally hunt that's boat-access only.
Mark every deer you see. Hunt the stretch of property where you see the most deer during daylight scouting hours. If you have enough experience to identify stuff like feed trees, scrapes, etc, then you're permitted to use those in your criteria for stand selection, with
one caveat. Experience means you have at least once located that sign, hunted it, and killed a deer there. Otherwise, assume you don't know enough to hunt anywhere except where you know you've seen deer during daylight.
This approach lets you weed out potentially millions of acres of sub-prime habitat from the comfort of your living room. Once you start walking, you're walking what's most likely the least pressured areas in an above-average (for your region) tract of land.
Anybody can do this, and I would place my $100 bet on the hunter using this "tactic." I feel confident he'd outhunt both the "walk a straight line" hunter and the "ask the interwebs" hunter; keeping time, money, skill level, and days afield equal.
If you absolutely refuse to consider any properties not close enough for you to drive out, hunt, and return in a half day, Don't make the spreadsheet. It'll most likely just hurt your feelings. Just get the harvest/trophy data for whatever's within an hour or two's drive, choose a parcel based on the criteria above, and walk the