It was the 2010 Wisconsin Rifle Season and I was hunting my usual stand in my family's swamp. This stand had shooting lanes that were made years earlier by a bulldozer. Since the bulldozer had pushed everything over, water filled in the holes creating more of creeks than lanes. At any rate at the far end of one lane was a narrowing and a slight curve followed by a ninety degree corner. This narrowing had made seeing any deer in the last twenty yards or so almost impossible. My brother's lane ends at this very corner from the other direction. In that 2010 season my brother had seen his usual amount of deer which included does visiting daily and an assortment of bucks on a regular basis. I on the other hand saw nothing. This was extremely discouraging but not surprising seeing is how his stand has always been the hot stand. I took notice that season to something that would forever change the game for me though. One day I walked over to his stand at the mid-day break and noticed that in the twenty yards not visible to either of us were a plethera of tracks. Not just any tracks but tracks of a heavy deer. They had the signature of a mature buck with the split toes and the drag marks leading to the print. I didn't ponder on it too much until after season when I had more time to reflect.
When I began to think about the deer trail I saw I couldn't help but feel like it made no difference how much time a person puts in to getting their stand ready if your gonna overlook the details. So I began thinking of ways I could manipulate the trails deer take. I finally made my mind up that I was going to erect a fence in order to prohibit movement in the undesired area. So I went to the hardware store and bought a twenty dollar spool of electric fence wire and a bag of staples. I went out late winter and began stringing fence wire from tree to tree and vertically every two feet or so as high as I could reach. I did this on the corner where the deer had a dominant path and closed it off. When I finished, the deer were no longer able to cross either lane without being visible from one stand or the other. I was pretty confident that it was going to work.
Fast forward now to the 2011 gun season. I had vacated my stand for one that was showing greater promise. Nonetheless my brother stayed true to his stand and sat the whole season. That is until the Friday of the closing weekend when he decided to head back the many miles to where he lives. It was then time for my late cousin to sit in his stand because many of us were back to work. That afternoon my cousin saw a few doe and soon realized one of which was hot. Bucks began coming out from all directions which pushed the doe to the corner where I installed the fence. Then the big guy stepped out rounding the fence. My cousin shot him and retrieved it a short distance later. What was remarkable was not that he got the nice buck but that if the fence hadn't been there the logical exit point for him was in the blind spot. My cousin was sure that without the fence he would have never bagged his buck of a lifetime. My cousin's life was taken a year and a half later.
Since this first successful attempt on controlling deer I have learned a few things. First, don't attempt a fence like I did for a long stretch. Keep it to 20 or 30 yards. It is after all in the woods and many things can fall and break your hard work. Secondly, hinge cutting is way more practical and natural. Nonetheless either method will work and both are equally effective.
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