Combining record-book information with Internet-based resources like aerial photos and topographic maps can help you quickly select productive stand sites.

After an unsuccessful hunt on leased land, I decided to hit some state lands before heading home. About 1 p.m., I stopped at the Weinberg-King State Fish and Wildlife Area near Augusta. The parking area held only two other trucks, which seemed encouraging. Looking at my topo map, I located some promising funnels, set off with a Lone Wolf climber on my back, and before long was strapped into a tree overlooking a creek bottom with a rub line dotting one bank. The wait was short, but the action wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. In the first hour, four separate hunters walked within sight. The last straw came when a fellow with a noisy bucket-seat found himself a spot only 20 yards from my stand! I wished him good luck and headed for the truck.

How can you avoid such overcrowded places? First, be cautious of public lands in the most popular whitetail states, such as Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio. Second, learn as much as you can from local hunters. Several hunting websites have state-based discussion forums, allowing hunters from around the country to talk with each other. My favorite is www.BOWSITE.com .

After choosing a site, select a state that interests you and ask a few key questions: Have you hunted the XYZ wildlife area? How much bow and gun pressure does it receive? Is it known to produce good bucks? Do you have any advice about specific locations to hunt? Hunters are often reluctant to give away their “honey holes,” but most will give you honest answers.

Okay, let’s get back to our scenario. Looking again at New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation website, you find that state forest lands as well as state parks lie within your target area. The website tells you that two of the parks, Buttermilk Falls and Robert Treman, permit bowhunting. A local hunter on www.BOWSITE.com tells you that these parks receive little pressure during the regular bow season and are often a good bet for both does and bucks. Based on this, you focus your remote scouting on these two parks.

Remote Scouting Interpreting topography and habitat features from aerial photos and maps is fun (terraserver.microsoft.com) ). TerraServer allows you to view U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps and black-and-white aerial photos of any given area.

Topo maps and aerial photos give you two kinds of information. Topo maps reveal slopes, benches, saddles, and creek bottoms -- all important features when looking for bedding areas and travel corridors. Aerial photos depict the vegetation in these areas. With a little practice, you can distinguish agricultural fields, fallow areas, thickets, swamps, deciduous forests, and coniferous forests. In TerraServer, you can switch back and forth between maps and photos with a click of the mouse.