Fall is here and another deer season is right around the corner. Lots of folks will head to camp for a week or a few weekends, while others may travel out of state. Most of us will be hunting much closer to home, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

There are distinct advantages to hunting close to home. One of the biggest is having more time for scouting and learning about deer and the areas you hunt. There’s an inverse correlation between scouting and hunting time. The more time you spend scouting, the less you’ll need to spend hunting.

Study topo maps and aerial photos of the areas you hunt. Deer tend to follow the path of least resistance, avoiding steep terrain and other obstacles like water and human development. They also tend to avoid open areas and seek the densest cover during daylight, particularly if there’s any appreciable hunting pressure. Eliminate the negatives and focus your attention on what’s left.

Next, look for deer. You may spot them in open fields at dawn and dusk before the season. Once the season begins they seem to disappear, but they haven’t gone far.

Research from GPS-collared bucks shows they spend most of their time in approximately 30 percent of their annual home range. If you’re not seeing them, put out some trail cameras and see what turns up.

Talk to locals. Folks love to talk about deer sightings. Other hunters may not be as forthcoming about locations, but non-hunters can often be coaxed into revealing some tips. People who make regular rounds, like the local police, sheriff, warden or postman, can be especially helpful. And don’t overlook obvious things like deer crossing signs. They’re there for a reason.

Speaking of deer signs, they can also tell a lot about what’s going on and where to focus your attention. Deer tend to be rather habitual, using the same areas and same trails year after year. This is also true of rubs and scrapes. New ones turn up every year, but there will always be a few that bucks reuse. Make note of what you find and look for ones reused annually.

This hints at another big advantage of hunting close to home: You can spend more time hunting and maximize that time. By hunting the same areas season after season you’ll begin to notice patterns in both deer signs and activity. More signs usually mean more deer, but some areas seem to be more productive regardless of signs. The more time you spend in the woods, the more obvious they become.

Hunting closer to home allows you to be more selective in when you hunt. Deer are most active at dawn and dusk. Depending on your work schedule, you may be able to hunt one or both of these peak times, still get in a full day’s work and not feel like you missed too much in the woods.

You can also pick your days, and certain ones tend to be better than others. If you see a storm front moving in, head out and catch the minor flurry of deer activity that often occurs just before or after. Deer move more when it’s cold and less when it’s warm. Use the warm days to get work done around home and hunt the cooler days.

If you’re limited in the number of days you can hunt but not necessarily which days, schedule your vacation to coincide with increased activity during the rut. Several years ago I queried biologists from all the whitetail states on when their rut occurs. Answers varied from state to state and even within states. The one common thread was that the rut occurs at the same time every year. In Maine, peak breeding occurs between Nov. 17-23. Peak movement by bucks seeking and chasing does will occur a week or two before that, which is a good time to be in the woods.

That doesn’t mean you should overlook other times. Do your homework, put in your time, and you just never know when a deer might wander by your carefully selected location As a good friend of mine once said, “the best time to be in the woods is when the season is open.” Even a slow day on stand is better than any day at work.

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and registered Maine guide who lives in Pownal. He can be contacted at:

bhhunt@maine.rr.com