clearing trails to stand location?
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clearing trails to stand location?
What are your thoughts on clearing a trail to your stand location, obviously way ahead of time? Good, bad, a giveaway for deer and other hunters? And if you dont, how do you find your spot in the dark?
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- Singing Bridge
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
DaHunter wrote:What are your thoughts on clearing a trail to your stand location, obviously way ahead of time? Good, bad, a giveaway for deer and other hunters? And if you dont, how do you find your spot in the dark?
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Sometimes it helps, many times it hurts... how's that for clear as mud?
I hunt in thick cover a lot, and once in a while I clear a trail to get me in through some real nastiness. Many times a buck using the bedding area I am hunting will take over my trail as it is better than his own. This isn't an issue if you are burning your bridge for an evening hunt anyway, but in super dense cover I will walk in my discreet little trail I made back in January, only to find my target buck tracks on it and a rub or two, big droppings, etc. right on my trail as I approach to hunt. The bucks have done this to me for decades, it isn't debatable to me on whether or not they will take over my trail, they nearly always do. It may be dependant on wind direction that day, but the bucks will use it.
In less dense cover it may not be as large of an issue, but remember if the trail is better than their own with certain wind / weather conditions, the bucks will use it.
- justdirtyfun
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
I hunt so many different trees and properties it doesn't work well. Yesterday I kicked a few leaves and pulled some branches back but overdoing it would give others a hint of what I'm doing. It is not second nature yet but I'm using a GPS to get into some locations-no trail.
Are you on private?
Glow tacks out on public WILL be noticed by others FYI.
Are you on private?
Glow tacks out on public WILL be noticed by others FYI.
You don't have to be the best, just do your best.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
I like to at least cut branches out of the to avoid scraping noises and less scent. I will also clear out branches and sticks on the ground that I might step on walking in....as far as raking a path....that depends on how many times I plan to hunt the stand which hopefully is very few. From a noise standpoint I am usually going so slow that it is not perceptible to deer as a threat.
I do have a couple sets behind my house where I take a path but these are mostly backup spots that I go to more just to be in the woods or if I am feeling lazy or for some other reason can't hunt a better spot on a given day.
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I do have a couple sets behind my house where I take a path but these are mostly backup spots that I go to more just to be in the woods or if I am feeling lazy or for some other reason can't hunt a better spot on a given day.
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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
Singing Bridge wrote:DaHunter wrote:What are your thoughts on clearing a trail to your stand location, obviously way ahead of time? Good, bad, a giveaway for deer and other hunters? And if you dont, how do you find your spot in the dark?
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Sometimes it helps, many times it hurts... how's that for clear as mud?
I hunt in thick cover a lot, and once in a while I clear a trail to get me in through some real nastiness. Many times a buck using the bedding area I am hunting will take over my trail as it is better than his own. This isn't an issue if you are burning your bridge for an evening hunt anyway, but in super dense cover I will walk in my discreet little trail I made back in January, only to find my target buck tracks on it and a rub or two, big droppings, etc. right on my trail as I approach to hunt. The bucks have done this to me for decades, it isn't debatable to me on whether or not they will take over my trail, they nearly always do. It may be dependant on wind direction that day, but the bucks will use it.
In less dense cover it may not be as large of an issue, but remember if the trail is better than their own with certain wind / weather conditions, the bucks will use it.
SB, did you ever try making the trails as a way to direct them to a more shootable spot?
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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
In my opinion one of the worst things that gives your approach to the stand away, is high grass brush etc. Any scent left at a deers nose level is not good. Walking through tall grass and brush is going to put a buck on alert very fast. I get busted every time going through tall grass. I don't get busted nearly as much on bare dirt/short grass.
I know a lot of hunters that say you can't fool a bucks nose. That may be true, but you can work around it. If you are walking to your stand on bare dirt and the wind is blowing your ground scent off that trail a buck often will not pick up the scent. If you are walking in tall grass at a bucks nose level he will smell it. Just that simple.
If you are hunting a pre set stand I think a cleared path for you to walk on is a good thing. Especially if you plan on hunting that set again. If you are hunting a certain bed and are planning on intercepting the buck before he reaches your set. There would be no reason to clear a path. I can tell you this I always clear a path for my approach on any pre set stand I plan on using. Even if I don't use that stand. That said, I also use old logging roads for that very same reason, to stay out of the tall stuff on the way to the stand.
I know a lot of hunters that say you can't fool a bucks nose. That may be true, but you can work around it. If you are walking to your stand on bare dirt and the wind is blowing your ground scent off that trail a buck often will not pick up the scent. If you are walking in tall grass at a bucks nose level he will smell it. Just that simple.
If you are hunting a pre set stand I think a cleared path for you to walk on is a good thing. Especially if you plan on hunting that set again. If you are hunting a certain bed and are planning on intercepting the buck before he reaches your set. There would be no reason to clear a path. I can tell you this I always clear a path for my approach on any pre set stand I plan on using. Even if I don't use that stand. That said, I also use old logging roads for that very same reason, to stay out of the tall stuff on the way to the stand.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
I mainly just clear around the tree some to help with a silent setup. If there is something that I forsee causing a problem on my trail coming to my tree I will clean it up but other than that I let it go.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
justdirtyfun wrote:I hunt so many different trees and properties it doesn't work well. Yesterday I kicked a few leaves and pulled some branches back but overdoing it would give others a hint of what I'm doing. It is not second nature yet but I'm using a GPS to get into some locations-no trail.
Are you on private?
Glow tacks out on public WILL be noticed by others FYI.
I use a GPS to navigate to my tree without much issue.
I always use 4 glow tacks and a piece of surveyors ribbon to mark my tree if I think that I will use it gain in the future. The surveyors tape goes on the side of the tree I access from and the other three glow tacks are equally spaced around the tree. I mark my trees at stand height so others don't see or mess with them. I have found that most don't look up. The GPS gets me close enough to pick up a reflective tack and then I am all set.
Last season I was hunting with a friend and I told him that I have a tree marked out in the area that he was going to set up a hang on stand. As he was finishing his set up he noticed the surveyors tape on the tree 22 feet off the ground and couldn't figure out how it got up there. LOL It turned out that he was about 8 or 10 feet from "my" tree.
Bob
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- Singing Bridge
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
mheichelbech wrote:Singing Bridge wrote:DaHunter wrote:What are your thoughts on clearing a trail to your stand location, obviously way ahead of time? Good, bad, a giveaway for deer and other hunters? And if you dont, how do you find your spot in the dark?
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Sometimes it helps, many times it hurts... how's that for clear as mud?
I hunt in thick cover a lot, and once in a while I clear a trail to get me in through some real nastiness. Many times a buck using the bedding area I am hunting will take over my trail as it is better than his own. This isn't an issue if you are burning your bridge for an evening hunt anyway, but in super dense cover I will walk in my discreet little trail I made back in January, only to find my target buck tracks on it and a rub or two, big droppings, etc. right on my trail as I approach to hunt. The bucks have done this to me for decades, it isn't debatable to me on whether or not they will take over my trail, they nearly always do. It may be dependant on wind direction that day, but the bucks will use it.
In less dense cover it may not be as large of an issue, but remember if the trail is better than their own with certain wind / weather conditions, the bucks will use it.
SB, did you ever try making the trails as a way to direct them to a more shootable spot?
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We've killed a lot of bucks over many years doing just that. We can't cut on public though, but on private in heavy cover it works as well as ever.
On public, I still hunt trails that were created before most beast members were born. The bucks and deer in general took them over and use them to this day. One of the best bucks I will be hunting this fall, has a primary bedding area with an exit out of it that he uses more than any other. That exit trail was created by my clan more than 5 decades ago.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
I hunt very few spots more than once a year... So it would take a long time to clear enough trails in advance. Also, there are many spots I don't hunt that I have no way to know if I won't hunt till season is done... With that said, there is also the issue that my exact tree and exact entrance vary's based on the exact wind the day I hunt.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
dan wrote:I hunt very few spots more than once a year... So it would take a long time to clear enough trails in advance. Also, there are many spots I don't hunt that I have no way to know if I won't hunt till season is done... With that said, there is also the issue that my exact tree and exact entrance vary's based on the exact wind the day I hunt.
Dan's point is right on the money. I certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to start blazing trails everywhere...
In the wooded swamps I hunt there may only be one way in and out at critical points of entry. Dead tree bridges over deep water channels, for example. It doesn't take much of trail for deer to start following it in really dense cover.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
This is coming from a guy who doesn't have a season worth of prime bedding locations yet. I have been selecting kill trees the last few weeks and have limited my trail clearing to the last 50 yards to the tree. Nothing major, just getting rid of the major obstacles. Once the trail is cleared I walk the trail to the stand just to see how it feels. If I can get to the tree without a major crunch, IMO I am good to go.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
Keep in mind deer love to use trails like that too which to me is a reason not to do it...I would rather they not intentionally head for my entry route.
Just to me tape and multiple thumbtacks is a bit much, I find other people's spots marked like that all the time. Also over time it makes the woods look like Christmas when you shine a light around. Crazy how many thousands of thumbtacks there are in about every piece of public out there!
I put one single thumbtack about 8' up on the side of the tree that I will be approaching....or use a GPS. Luckily I hunt hills which to me are easier to navigate in the dark, I know I can get close enough to spot one tack and probably no one else will. Flat land is much tougher for me.
Just to me tape and multiple thumbtacks is a bit much, I find other people's spots marked like that all the time. Also over time it makes the woods look like Christmas when you shine a light around. Crazy how many thousands of thumbtacks there are in about every piece of public out there!
I put one single thumbtack about 8' up on the side of the tree that I will be approaching....or use a GPS. Luckily I hunt hills which to me are easier to navigate in the dark, I know I can get close enough to spot one tack and probably no one else will. Flat land is much tougher for me.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
JoeRE wrote:Keep in mind deer love to use trails like that too which to me is a reason not to do it...I would rather they not intentionally head for my entry route.
Just to me tape and multiple thumbtacks is a bit much, I find other people's spots marked like that all the time. Also over time it makes the woods look like Christmas when you shine a light around. Crazy how many thousands of thumbtacks there are in about every piece of public out there!
I put one single thumbtack about 8' up on the side of the tree that I will be approaching....or use a GPS. Luckily I hunt hills which to me are easier to navigate in the dark, I know I can get close enough to spot one tack and probably no one else will. Flat land is much tougher for me.
I agree 100% A lot of the places I hunt are private owned by friends of mine. I like to leave nothing but foot prints on any property I'm hunting. This also includes public ground. No reason to pig up the area for the next guy.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: clearing trails to stand location?
On some of the private land stuff I used to hunt I have racked entrance and exit paths in the leaves. I have also utilized the landowners kids to blow leaves off a logging road with a lawn mower. Can really help getting in quiet! Can still get in undetected without that but it sure is faster and easier in the dark.
I have also sprayed herbicide/ and raked trails I hoped deer would utilize. It worked pretty well to get the deer moving near an area I could get a shot. This was on private with the landowners permission of course.
I have also sprayed herbicide/ and raked trails I hoped deer would utilize. It worked pretty well to get the deer moving near an area I could get a shot. This was on private with the landowners permission of course.
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