Someone finally clued me in, pointing out that I wasn't the first to scout the wilderness in my state and that the likelihood was pretty strong I'd find other hunters in the areas where there is plenty of game.

So I abandoned the search for total privacy and started concentrating on learning what sort of habitat supports the game animals I was after. That yielded results. Here are some basics we've learned along the way - and are still learning:

Preseason Scouting. If you're going to have any realistic chance of connecting with your quarry during the hunting season, you'll need to (1) zero in on an appropriate general hunting area where the animals you're planning to hunt live; and (2) figure out how to catch up with them there. Both these steps require that you learn a good deal about the critters' habits in the wild. And the best way to begin getting these two questions answered is to go out into the wilderness and see for yourself.

Are They Out There At All? If the animals are out there, you will see sign if you know how to look for it. Animals may be well camouflaged; they may have wonderfully sharp eyesight and hearing and senses of smell; and they may know the terrain a great deal better than you. So actually spotting them may be tough to begin with. But one thing they can't do is leave no sign behind... If they walk on the ground there will be prints. And there will be poop - nothing the animals can do to keep that from happening. Other signs too, depending on the kind of animal. So if you've learned what to look for, you'll be able to determine whether the animals you're after frequent the habitat you're investigating.

Where Out There Are They? Once you've identified an area you know contains the game species you're after (you see sufficient sign), it starts to get really interesting. Now you have to learn how to spot them out there! Not only that, but you need to figure out how they can be approached unawares.

Sit And Watch. To figure all that out, you need the answers to lots of questions: What do the animals feed on? What times of day? Where and when do they get their water? Do they travel elsewhere to rest or hide? When? Do they move alone or in groups? Which parts of the terrain do they favor - open fields, hedgerows, ridgetops, woodlots, the tops or bottoms of draws? What do their tracks and droppings look like? Do they leave any other tell-tale marks - trails, wallows, rubs, bedding spots? How do they position themselves (using wind, terrain, cover etc.) to be able to spot approaching danger without being spotted first? How does changing weather alter their behavior patterns? What happens as the seasons change? What about mating time? How do they usually behave when surprised? And so on. There's tons to learn.

The best thing to do is simply to get out there, find a comfortable spot to sit, get out your binoculars (or spotting scope if you have one) and look and listen. You'll need to do that during the actual hunt, too - for many types of hunting you'll spend 80% of your time "glassing" (looking through binoculars or spotting scope) and only 20% on the move. But in order to learn enough about these animals to know how to set about hunting them - and where to point your binoculars during the hunt - you need to do lots of sitting and watching during the off season first.

If you can make some preseason trips out into the wilderness to scout out good areas and then learn about the animals in those areas, you'll put yourselves miles ahead of the many city-based hunters who, for whatever reasons, do no preseason scouting at all and just hope to find a suitable area and "get lucky" all in one go. Many city-based hunters rely instead on returning each year to the same general area where they met with success (or at least saw game) in years past. Then you hear talk around the campfires of the "crummy seasons" they're having - because the animals have moved over to another area (perhaps in response to logging activity, changes in food availability etc.)

Animal Patterns Change During Hunting Season. Of course, come the hunting season you'll need to make adjustments to everything you've learned about the movement patterns of the animals you plan to hunt. The animals will notice right away that things have changed. Cars driving into their areas; camps set up; fires going; and people moving around in the woods. And shots, of course.

This increased "pressure" on the animals forces changes in their established movement and feeding patterns. They may come out of cover later in the evening, return to cover earlier in the morning. They may abandon some of the feeding areas that are farthest from their escape cover. They may increase times between their trips to water. They may bunch up together, or split apart. They may hold tight in thick cover, or stay on the move. For different game animals it'll be different, of course. Your job during preseason scouting is to become familiar enough with the terrain and the animals' preferred patterns so that you can figure out the likely changes that will result during the hunting season.