When I do this, I'll check for any type of deer sign, especially big-buck sign. I mentally mark the ones that are the most impressive. Check ingress and egress routes the deer are using to be sure your stand location is still right.

One pattern to watch for: At some point each year, deer will shift from summer feed to acorns. This will happen everywhere eventually, but it will start at different times in different counties. Often the Lowcountry deer will, almost overnight, abandon the corn piles you've been supplying them with for weeks.

You'll be well served to have a good stand or two ready near the oak trees when this happens. When the deer are done with the acorns, it's back to the corn. The same processes are true in areas where corn is not legal to use. Just substitute the natural foods (or food plots or agricultural crops) they're using for planning purposes. But when the acorns become available, regardless of where you hunt, I'd have some places ready to take advantage of that strong tendency of the deer.

Once you've got a handle on the above, get the heck out of Dodge so to speak. You can spend just a few minutes in the immediate area where your stand is located and still learn a lot about the up-to-the-minute deer status. Then on opening day, based on wind, weather and the location of your various stands, you can make a really good assessment of where to be that gives you the best odds of success.

The key here is to simply fine-tune your effort. As my buddy does, you should have done the primary, deep scouting long before the beginning of the season. A quick update on the latest tendencies of the deer is all that remains.

These are things you need to be doing now if you're going to be hunting in the next week or two. To spot-check an area, simply park far enough away so deer won't be spooked. Arrive in the middle part of the day to avoid "personal" contact with deer. Bumping deer still occurs occasionally, but generally, on a hot August day, deer will be bedded down. Check out the sign you're looking for, then slip back out.

Also, and this is important, never walk into the area from the direction the deer may be bedded. Even if you have to walk a long way around, you need to come in from what some hunters call the "back door." Again, the less human scent or activity the better, but you do need to spot-check to see what areas are hot with fresh deer sign and which ones are not. Deer hotspots can and do change rapidly during the early season and you've got to keep tabs on their activity without blowing them out of the area.

One tactic to remember about Lowcountry hunting is that placing stands near the swamps is always a good bet for early-season hunting. Deer love to hang out in these dark, watery areas during the heat of the day and thus, when they do begin to move around in the evening, they don't have as far to travel to reach your stand site. That's why it is imperative to set up near their bedding area. If you set up too far away, you may still see plenty of deer sign, but it may be from deer activity that occurs long after legal shooting time.