Hello All.
I'm a recent transplant from Eastern Oregon, and am excited to try my hand at blacktail hunting this year. I've done some reading on the subject, including Scott Haugen's book, seems pretty good. I've started my scouting for next fall on Google Earth, and went out and drove by what looked on the computer like some promising area's this weekend. I live in Pierce County, and would like to try and find a section of private property to work on. I'm well familiar with the trials of asking permission to hunt and all it entails, but I'm having a problem here I've never had before.
Basically, none of my old standby scouting techniques are going to work! Typically in Oregon I would glass private private property from public land, and from the information I gained that way make my decision about where to ask for permission. With the different topography and vegetation here, this isn't going to work. Some of the property I drove by this weekend couldn't be seen from the road at all.
So what do you look for when you're trying to find a piece of private ground? South Slopes? River Bottoms? Another terrain feature? Normally if asked that question at home I would say find a food source, look for the logical bedding ground, and you'll be all set. But I don't know how to do that here, without being able to get on the property in the first place. It doesn't seem efficient to go to the trouble to ask for permission only to find there isn't anything about that property that will attract deer, but I don't know how else to go about it.
Any tips would be appreciated!