An excellent stand location can easily be ruined if proper considerations aren't taken when cutting shooting lanes. All too often hunters take to the woods with chainsaws in hand to cut lanes with no real plan. For those that feel this topic is self explanatory, you are correct but if you were never taught or you never put thought in to it. you may need help. The idea I take with me out in the woods is this: If someone came in to your house and rearranged your living room you would probably notice before you entered it. Now if someone moved a few items in your living room you wouldn't notice until you were already standing inside the room. The same rules apply for deer. If you are the one that notices the few items moved before you enter the room, congratulations you are the trophy deer. Below is a compiled list of things to consider when clearing shooting lanes.
1. Holes Instead Of Lanes. This is going to be different for rifle hunters and bow hunters but the same theory applies. Don't clear away areas you cant shoot anyway. Don't take a tree down next to your stand that only needed a few limbs cut. The more cover you can leave the more secure they feel traveling. For example when I cut a shooting hole to a bow bait in a swamp I literally cut just that, a hole through the branches.
2. Don't Cut Them Too Wide. Again the application of this is different for your weapon of choice. Archery being more of an intimate hunt, a hunter will see his trophy and be ready for when the animal steps in his lane or hole. With that in mind it doesn't make sense to make the shooting lane very wide. A rifle stand needs wider lanes to allow the hunter to get ready. But think like a deer and you will think of a lane as danger because to them they look the same as a road. So again plan your cuts and look ahead down the lane to see if it will actually make a difference.
3. Know The Prevailing Wind. Try to select a stand location so you can cut your lanes so the wind goes across them not down them. The idea is that the deer cross your lane instead of using it as a trail. This way it will also cut down on your scent getting you busted. Every area has a dominant wind direction for a given season. If you don't know what the usual wind direction is in your area then I suggest you figure it out before you cut anything.
4. Know Your Deer's Natural Travel. I made this mistake when I was first starting out and spent many years wondering why I wasn't seeing anything. When I finally figured it out I felt dumb. Know where your deer are going whether it be to eat, sleep, or drink. Then know where they are going for each and the general times they travel. The focus then is to cut them off with your shooting lane. Its that simple. The mistake I made wasn't that I was in the wrong place but rather my lane was north and south and the deer were traveling the same direction. So they just walked their own paralleling trail.
5.Don't Cut Right Angles. I saved the biggest tip for last. Hunters have a tendency to cut lanes straight out from their three windows leaving the stand door at their back. Good stand setup but lousy lane planning. Cut the lanes just off 90°. When you do this it gives you a few advantages. First it allows you to look down each lane without moving much. Secondly it prohibits the deer from silhouetting you through the opposite window and lane.
There are so many different considerations to entertain in different settings. I hope these five will give you a good start and if nothing else get you thinking on the right track.
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