Work day pics

[BowGuy84]

Here are two pics from our work day.

left to right
Dave (my housemate and hunting buddy), myself, and my brother (best hunting buddy)

Second is an example of the "deer trails" we cleared to help the deer find their way to our stands. We cleared three new trails about 50-60 yards long. You can see how thick the rest of the area is and we put corn down to get the process rolling even quicker.

No I didn't pee myself but I do sweat that much!

 

[TS_13]

Dang thats thick....

 

[Winchester]

Are you serious? Have you ever tried this before?

 

[JohnnyBond]

 

[BowGuy84]

Yes Im serious, no Ive never tried it before. My land is so thick that I feel they will take easy path of least resistance to get to places. Especially if these trails are rarely touched by humans (to put them in and keep them clean). Why do you ask Winchester? I figure it can't do anything but help.

It was some work but my general idea is to create little hubs that correlate with food sources and cover and interestingly enough stand sites.

 

[Winchester]

Yes Im serious, no Ive never tried it before. My land is so thick that I feel they will take easy path of least resistance to get to places. Especially if these trails are rarely touched by humans (to put them in and keep them clean). Why do you ask Winchester? I figure it can't do anything but help.

It was some work but my general idea is to create little hubs that correlate with food sources and cover and interestingly enough stand sites.

It may work well, I just have never saw anything quite that extensive in the way of a "trail". I asked if you had ever done it before because the trails look to be so big and open, that the older deer may actually not feel safe out in the open, as opposed to the thick security cover they have a couple steps away. Im just asking questions here, in no way am i slamming you or putting your work down, just asking? I personally love to hunt thick cover and im usually trying to create it, instead of cutting it back. I am very careful when cutting even shooting lanes or anything, to not make much of a change or disturbance to an area, course its usually much closer to game time when im doing these things as well. I hope it works for you anyway, good luck and keep us posted as to how the older deer react to your new trails, will be interesting for sure.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Cool. Ive got a few trails I cut thru some thickets that are just about that size, barely big enough for the 4 wheeler. Deer use them pretty well, do alot of rubbing and scraping up and down them. Please dont tell me you cut that red oak down though! lol Looks like your thicket is full of poplar.

 

[BowGuy84]

Winchester,
Not mad at all. I have no shortage of thick...probably about 95 of 104 acres is just as you see here. I have dozer path trails through it that help access it. These are about 10-15 yards wide and plots intersperesed thorugh out. The younger bucks and does use them, but where they come out of the thick and go back in is random. Im trying to focus the randomness and open up more routes for mature deer to cruise and scent check.

The following pic is what got me thinking about this size of trial bc it is basically what this big boy was working down opening weekend of gun two years ago.

Steven, we didnt cut the red oak. We actually cleared around it. It seems like I have a lot of poplar on the side hills and oaks up higher on the ridges.

 

[TS_13]

nice pic! I have cut trails like that and it worked great. They fell right in and used them a lot more than the "natural trails"

 

[KENBOB10]

The trails look good. The first pic looks like the opening credits of a horror movie though. :grin:

 

[rbreedi1]

Cool.. Id be interested in seeing how it turns out

 

[Football Hunter]

looks good to me,theyll use em if you dont "stink em up"

 

[Boone 58]

Every trail i have ever cut.....ever....the deer took it over and it didnt matter if it was 2 ft wide or 4 ft wide......they like the least path of resistance too.

 

[richmanbarbeque]

Very cool.

 

[tnclayboy]

sounds good too me ,at my house I hunt some and I take my lawn mower and clean my trails off every year and they are all covered in tracks . by cutting those trails I can feel the trails when walking in the dark ,if starts getting crunchy im off the trail ,so don't really have to ever use flashlight . My place is not a big buck sanctuary ,but it is a major travel route so I don't loose much sleep over riding a lawn mower though it . Sept is the latest i will do it usually.Also I will add that all my trails lead to my stands and the game trails cross often and some times the deer will use a stretch of my trail before winding off in another direction.

 

[String Music]

It's such a rewarding feeling the first time you climb in stand and a deer comes walking right down the trail you cut. I'd throw a trophy rock on the trails to get them even more acquainted.