FORCE
THE BUCK TO COME TO YOU
Cut a Path
EDITOR’S NOTE: By providing the buck a place
to walk, you can lead him out of thick cover with little
trouble.
If you hunt a 2- or 3-year-old very-thick clearcut,
visit the area during the summer. Cut a 2-foot wide
trail through the clearcut in the direction of the prevailing
wind. For instance, if your area primarily has a northwest
wind like much of my home state of Alabama does, cut
the trail to go north-south or east-west. If your trail
runs north-south, place your ground blind on the southern
side of the trail. If the trail runs east-west, put
your ground blind on the eastern end of the trail. Then,
if the prevailing wind comes from the northwest on the
days
you hunt, you’ll have a favorable wind to hunt
these thick-cover trails.
Often you’ll find and bag a big buck in a cane
thicket or a berry thicket along the edge of a creek
or a river. Usually hunters won’t penetrate these
thick-cover bedding areas. But Larry Norton of Butler,
Alabama, a co-owner of and hunting guide at The Shed,
has developed a tactic for hunting cane that will allow
you to take big bucks from these hard-to-hunt places.
“I look for spots along the edges of the cane
where deer trails lead into the cane,” Norton
mentions. “I walk 8 or 10 yards into the cane
along the trail before I begin to cut a path along the
trail with ratchet cutters.
I want to clear the trail to allow the deer to move
easier through the cane and to see them better. I try
to pinpoint two or three different trails that enter
the same patch of cane. Once I get a trail cut through
the center of the cane patch, I connect all the trails
with one long trail 2-feet-wide in the cane. Next, I
cut a trail that I can enter and exit from at the end
of the trail without making any noise and that other
hunters won’t see.” Like the deer he hunts,
Norton has learned how to get in and out of thick cover
without other hunters spotting him. He also has learned
how to take the deer other hunters never see in thick-cover
areas.
TOMORROW: BUILD A HONEY
HOLE
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