Am I on the right track?

[botemple]

For the South Dakota archery opener my family and I will be camping a couple of hours away from home. I have been cyber scouting some public land spots near the area we will be camping so I can hopefully be hunting on the opener. Since I am new to "beast tactics" I want to make sure I am on the right track.

Plan A - 320 acre tract of flat land that has hardwoods in the NE and SW corners. The land is separated by a drainage ditch running east and west through the center of the property. To the north of the drainage ditch is grassland with pockets of sloughs with a few trees scattered throughout the grass and sloughs. To the south of the drainage ditch are a couple food plots if they were able to get planted this year. In the center of the parcel I can clearly see a spot where about 7 or 8 trails intersect. This spot is right on the west side of a slough about 167 yards from the corner of the food plot and less than 100 yards from the drainage ditch. I am thinking this would be a great spot for a buck to bed with a N or NE wind as his back would be against the slough and he can smell anything coming from the slough and see anything coming from the food plot or drainage ditch. He can stand up and stretch and not be seen from the road and can escape in nearly any direction he wants if danger is detected. I'm planning on setting up in a lone tree about 100 yards away on a route I suspect he will take to enter the food plot. Since this property is several hours away I am only able to cyber scout so if I get there and I am not seeing any fresh sign then I will move to Plan B.

Plan B - Much larger tract of mixed hills, river bottom, and ag fields. This is going to be just a put the stand on your back and hunt as you go type of option that will only put me in a tree if I find some hot sign.

My question is, am I on the right track or should I rethink my strategy?

[Jdw]

Are you hunting the resident opener or nonresident opener?

[botemple]

Are you hunting the resident opener or nonresident opener?

Luckily I get to hunt the resident opener.

[Jdw]

I would keep the plan flexible until I got there and did some scouting for hunting pressure, checked weather conditions, did some glassing, checked the oaks to see how the mast is dropping looked for hot sign, etc

[botemple]

I would keep the plan flexible until I got there and did some scouting for hunting pressure, checked weather conditions, did some glassing, checked the oaks to see how the mast is dropping looked for hot sign, etc

Thanks the the advice. I'll probably try to observe the fields and parking area from a distance from first light to mid morning. Then I'll maybe check drainage ditch and field edge for fresh sign to gather intel without disturbing the suspected bed. If it looks good I'll stick with plan A otherwise I'll switch to plan B.

[botemple]

Plan A.jpg

Purple line would be my access route, red and blue line are a couple routes coming out of the suspected bed.