RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
Absolutely Jeff, I agree. I have a place I hunt, a very samll place, maybe 5 acres. But it is a very good funnel. 160 acres of irrigated alfalfa to the east, 300 acres of wheat to the west, bedding areas to the south. It is just a point of trees that extends into these fields from the bedding areas. It is just a travel corridor, or used to be. Before I added some small hunting plots in it, with a mineral station, and some manipulation of the actual travel lanes with a chain saw. Next year I am putting in a guzzler to provide some water.
It has changed from just a travel corridor into an area they are comfortable in at any hour of the day. Deer will move in there all day long due to the heavy cover and proximity to the bedding areas (which are not on my property, and hunted by someone else). I do not have room to put bedding areas in there, I have just tweaked things to make it a more attractive place for the deer.