Buck trees are perfect spots for an archery ambush. Crops and acorns are the key ingredients on many lands, but keep on scouting. Whitetails love persimmons, locust pods, crab apples, wild cherries and other soft mast. Browse such as sumac, dogwood and honeysuckle are staples, especially late in the season. Some biologists say the ideal habitat is made up of about 30 percent brush and edge.
Deer are fringe animals.
They love to travel edges, lingering here and there to browse greenery and to snack on the soft mast that grows there. Look for does to bed in big cover. Small cattail swamps, cedar patches, tangled fencerows and especially ridge thickets the more satellites you can find near spots where does feed and bed, the better. When the rut and hunting pressure heat up, old bucks cruise from cover to cover, utilizing several core bedding areas. The perfect hot spot will be laced with creeks or maybe a river.