Their is no better way to maximize your chances at bagging a mature deer than by deer manipulation. This style of hunting preparation is especially crucial to the bow hunter who has a family and limited time to spend in the tree. Beware though, once you get positive results you will be hooked. Here is my story on the first time I was successful:"The Day I Was Hooked On Deer Manipulation" When considering if this is for you rest assured anyone can do it whether you own the property or not. Deer manipulation is based on one rarely disputed fact of deer. They like to travel on the path of least resistance.
Before attempting some of the more permanent tactics I explain below make sure you know and consider the overall needs and movements of the deer. For example where I hunt I have a small river roughly 60 acres away and the deer naturally go between my hunting property which has dense cover and that river. Your efforts will never stop that travel nor should you ever try because it is much easier to use it than try and change it. Most manipulation efforts can be done for minimal cost to you but not without sweat equity.
The first tactic is called hingecutting. This style of manipulation will reap the best results but not without a trade off. It is reserved for the hunters who own their own property because it is permanent. Hingecutting is simply cutting a tree partially down in order to create cover or a barrier depending on your needs. In my earlier post Hingecutting: Soup To Nuts I explain exactly how it is done and many of its uses. I mention it here as one of the best ways to manipulate deer and I wouldn't suggest doing it unless you own the property however it can be done on smaller scales. Usually it is illustrated using 6" to 9" diameter trees but it can be just as successful with small saplings when used to create barriers. For the smaller saplings it is much safer to use a machete instead of a chainsaw. When applying this method to small saplings it will only hold its desired effect for a single season or two.
Fence cutting is another trick that can be used to change the movement of deer. Many hunting properties including mine come with decades old barbwire fence lines. Most of these fences are knocked over or left to be forgotten. They usually follow field edges or property lines. Now I am not going to sell you the notion these old fences hold the key to bagging the big buck. I will however tell you that if you simply cut an opening in a standing fence you will be able to predict where the deer will travel because chances are they cross at the easiest point. Simply make a desired location the easiest to cross and they will. When thinking outside the box, you can imagine how putting a fence up will dramatically change your deer patterns as well. I used this method successfully a few years ago which allowed my late cousin to bag a trophy before his time was up.
Now how many of you hunters have a stand located over a large corn field? If you do then you probably have observed deer coming and going with no rhyme or reason to their travel. If you apply the idea that deer will use the path of least resistance you will find you can manipulate their path right past your deer stand. I wish I had discovered this method years before I had for I would have some nice trophies on the wall. All you have to do is take a machete and cut one row of corn down and like magic they will start walking down that row. You don't have to cut an entire row down from one end of the field to the other. All you have to do is remove the row approximately twenty or thirty yards into the corn field. If it isn't yielding results then extend it further and further in to the field till you see sign of them using it. Again you aren't going to make a deer travel north and south that wants to go east and west but you can move a deer trail over to you instead of having to relocate your stand.
The one often overlooked manipulation effort is giving them fresh water. This method is considerably more labor intensive but it yields results. Many hunters will share the notion that rutting bucks will skip out on food but can not skip out on water. With that said, many bucks will scan a food plot from a distance but not stop to eat. These same bucks will scan a bedding area from a distance as well. Like any animal, bucks can not go without water. So the question becomes what kind of water do they want. Applying common sense would tell me that if you could provide a quiet secluded watering hole they would much use that than a river or lake which provides less cover and more danger. Again be careful because this method is often times permanent. I will not go in to detail on how to achieve the perfect watering hole but I will stress that it should be quiet and secluded. Hingcutting trees around the area might prove beneficial but each property holds its own needs.
Where I hunt we are not in shortage of agriculture. I can not even begin to tell you how much food the deer have to eat but I will just say hundreds of acres. If you hunt over a field or an area like this I will give you another play from my secret bowhunting playbook. The idea is to make the crops within shooting range more appealing than the rest. To accomplish this you can do two things. First fertilize the area within range to get the crops to grow better than the rest of the field. Next take small section of fence to secure off a certain spot. For this I found using rigid fence wrapped in a circle with a five foot diameter works best because you don't have to monkey around with fence posts. All this fence is going to do is prohibit the spot from being eaten. The night or morning before you hunt take the fence off of the untouched crops and take a weed trimmer to cut the tops off. By doing this you will get the fresh scent in the air. Climb in your stand and wait. They will be coming. Just remember that if you utilize this trick for a morning hunt you want to cut it the night before but remove the fence that morning. I also challenge you to put a motion camera over the spot.
I hope this article gives you some tools to get started. Like I have warned you earlier; once you get positive results doing this you will become a manipulation junkie like me. Remember that some of these methods are permanent so get permission when necessary and proper planning is a must.
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