I’m not super familiar with PV, but I had a dedicated hunter tag on it the last few years. I’ve hunted it both early and late rifle for a total of about 8 days. Killed a good buck there in 2020 and my friend killed a decent buck also. Also hunted it last year and passed some good bucks, including the one in the picture. I’ve never scouted a day and I’ve seen mature bucks on probably 6 of those days of hunting. I never hunted it before 2020, so can give no insight on how it used to be, but can tell you that you have mentioned the areas I’ve hunted. All of my hunting has been done within a couple of miles of a road. Both deer killed were within 1/4 mile of the road. My suggestion would be to find water. That’s where the deer will be.