One of our leases has an overabundance of cover due to a lot of overgrown fields, saplings and cedar and pine thickets. My partner and I are considering a plan to bushhog ~3.8 acres of one of the overgrown field areas as soon as season is over and cut some 20-30 ft high cedars scattered in the area to open it up enough to allow more deer sightings. We will leave the patches of sumac saplings and other small trees just bushhogging around or over them. Attached is rough outline of what we want to do, circles are proposed stand sites for E or W winds and the purple areas are 2 old plots and trail connecting them that will probably bring back with WW for next fall in both plots and the trail. Depending on the amount of the cedars we drop we are also considering using the cut trees to funnel deer through the area as the reason we let the plots go was never knew where the deer would show up from as they tend to pop out of the thickets at random places (normally downwind)
. Normally kill at least one mature buck per year off lease but with it being so thick actual deer sightings are low, although trail cams show a good population using our plots (do not actually hunt any plots to keep from spooking deer) and have another lease that is not connected but within 3/4 mile that has 3-4 times the actual sightings but is not near as thick. WHAT AM I MISSING??
I like adding a plot in the far west corner on that northern half of the property. Cut shoulder width zig-zaggy trails connecting all the plots and set your stands up to hunt the trails, not the plots. Having mock scrapes and/or small openings planted with clover or grain along those trails will act as staging areas where deer will hold up a few minutes before stepping out in or out of the bigger plots at darkness. Not only will you not blow out your big plots because you're not hunting them, but also will likely get much better daylight activity in the small staging plots. It will also help dictate a more predictable travel pattern.
Also if you have no creek or pond very, very nearby I'd seriously consider adding a water tank or two. Put them on the same shoulder width travel corridors that you connect the plots with, but do not put them inside the small staging plots. Keep them at least 100yds or further from any plot and hang a stand or two to watch them. That will create yet another spot where deer will stop in daylight, offering you a shot opportunity. Might even look into having a mineral site near one of the water holes. Mineral and water go together like peanut butter & jelly. I understand that deer do not technically need a water source, but the folks who dismiss water tanks are the ones who haven't used them to see how much use they get. They work. They work exceptionally well where deer don't have a creek or pond in the immediate area.
The travel corridors make for defined movement that is more predictable & less sporadic. By hunting the travel corridors you aren't blowing out your major food sources. When you hunt a plot you're hunting deer in a spot where deer congregate to spend a lot of time. They feel more vulnerable there than any other time.And when you spook them off that source once or twice they get very leery of it going forward, and teach their young to be leery of it. While traveling to & from they are less congregated so if you blow one out the others don't know it. They're also inside cover so they'll feel less vulnerable, which means your odds of seeing them in daylight is increased.
That's how I approach habitat and hunting. Being primarily a bow hunter I have to be right up close & personal to shoot a deer. If you're primarily gun hunting then your approach might be much simpler. I do hunt food sources when using a rifle because I can sit 100yds or more away and be completely undetected. So I suppose how I set a property up would depend largely on how I planned to hunt it. That said, being thick like you describe, you might still want to define their travel patterns in some way so you can predictably see more deer.
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