Winter hunting strategies...

[Rustic]

This is my 1st yr with trad gear and I'm doing it from the ground. I have a ground blind I visit once a week for a couple hours in the morn and when I toss out some sugar beets the nocturnal deer have a feast. Now theres 1 inch of snow on the ground, any methods or strategies you use?? Do you still hunt or stalk?? Do you find another spot to hunt from??...

[lpcjon2]

Get a license and go out in the woods walk around and enjoy it.

[Jerry Jeffer]

I try to find where they are feeding, or bedding out of the wind and cold, depends on the winter weather. I there is a lot of snow, find a deer yard.

[Terry Lightle]

FOOD!

[RunninWild77]

Find the food, you'll find the deer.

[Doc Nock]

Where there is a running ton of pressure, food will be accessed come dead dark 30!

Depends on access....where it's a checkerboard of posted vs. accessible land, after the gun's go off, they seem to go largely nocturnal.  hang on posted ground in the daylight hunting hours and ooze on over to access land and even food, come evening tide!

[Hoyt]

I'm seeing bucks in the thick stuff. Had another go round with one right after daylight this morning. He won again.

I had glimpsed something off on the ridge next to me about 150yds away. I was moving and twisting to my left to try and make it out when he blew at me from my right. I looked over there and could barely see him in the thick stuff about 35yds.

I guess he saw me..wind was in my favor. He never did run..saw him move a couple more times and then vanish.

[YORNOC]

Originally posted by okla bearclaw:
FOOD!

Oh yeah.

[kill shot]

Doc Noc is right. The deer wont be at your bait untill well after dark. Figure out where they're bedding and set up closer to that area. Between  bait and bedding.

[magnus]

Hunt the thick stuff. If it gets extremely cold they'll have to move.

[Hopewell Tom]

When it's cold and snowy here, I hunt south facing slopes with some blow down on them. They're usually bedded out of the wind and in the sun.
Getting close is obviously the issue, so is the snow good for sneaking on or is it better to set up before light and intercept them coming from eating?
These places may not be year round bedding areas, because they're more open to let the sun in. Also picking the blow down they'll be bedded behind is "interesting." Find the trail(s) they come in on is helpful.
Where I hunt is more big woodsish or the food sources have changed. Brouse is harder to pinpoint in a woods situation, so I'm more inclined to seek out the bedding/chewing the cud spots after the snow hits.
I don't bait as the few times I tried it,I found I was feeding the night shift.

[killinstuff]

The only thing you'll see on your bait this time of year are fawns and spooky does. If your bait pile has been there any length of time every smart deer knows where you sit and checks the area down wind first. If you're going to bait, your first sit will give the highest odds of killing something. After that you just educate the deep population.

We have  a foot and half of snow now so if I had a tag left I'd go to the cedar swamps, look for good heavy used trails and find my tree. I'll break a few cedar branches off and drop them in the trail so any deer that comes along stops for a nibble. The more snow the better.

[Jerry Jeffer]

I went back and read the title of this post and thought..... I didn't fully respond to your questions. My main winter strategy   is to get a handful of great guys together and do a series of small drives. We always have a blast and some one usually gets to see something.