Instead, set up an observation stand within binocular distance of the food plot and watch exactly where deer make their entrance to it. Mature bucks may enter on doe trails or come from a completely different direction. Only when you've established a kill strategy should you slip in during the midday and set up an ambush site. Stands pre-placed in early season are best, but this is only possible after consecutive years of hunting the same area.

PUBLIC PROPERTY
As a whitetail archer with more than 40 years of experience, I have the ultimate respect for successful bowhunters who hunt nothing but public land. These sportsmen and sportswomen are the best of the best because they are the most calculated. They not only pattern deer, but they also pattern other hunters who share the same woods. These individuals possess a special fondness for the late season when bucks are more predictable and weather discourages other hunters.

Connecting the dots is what it's all about for late-season hunters on public property. Scouting usually starts for them after the season is over and a snow cover provides the sign of deer whereabouts and travel. Shed-antler hunting is also one of their favorite pastimes. There's better than a 50-50 chance that good sheds found near a food source indicate where that buck will be the next year during the late season.

Since deer on and around public property have been pressured more, they respond to that annoyance by bedding in unbothered places farther from a food source. In two scenarios in my past, I had found a large herd of deer traveling almost a half-mile from "closed for the season" campgrounds to agricultural fields on private property. The campgrounds were off-limits to hunters in both cases. Since these deer were not making it to the picked corn field before dark, it required cutting them off somewhere in the middle.

Most successful late-season archers love snow. It's the best sign for finding mature bucks. Heavy, larger tracks on beaten snow trails tell the hunter where to set up for interception of possible "shooters." But it's important for you not to use these same trails to enter and exit your ambush site. Boot scent is a whitetail's best telltale sign of your intrusion into their world.

Snow also provides the knowledge of where other late-season hunters are trekking the woods on public property. It's a good bet that consecutive days of entering and exiting a wood lot by another hunter has pushed mature bucks from that area. A smart hunter will spend more time finding a buck's new lair than actually hunting him. Sometimes even the best of the best only get one chance to get the ambush right. It's often forgotten that mature whitetail bucks reached that status by outwitting and outplaying many above-average hunters. This animal is a true survivor.

NURTURE NOT NATURE
It's a rare hunter who is born with the innate ability to consistently read mature bucks. Personally, I've never met one. Those who find regular success have made many mistakes over the years and began nurturing the patience to hunt smarter. An aggressive style is great for the rut, but it will cost you accomplishment in the pre-rut or in the late season.