ORIGINAL: GregH

Aside from hunting the correct wind, I found out a long time ago that by not touching any foliage with your bare skin will increase your deer sightings.

It is best to prepare your entrance and exit trails well before the season. However, once the season rolls around, some small branches and leaves may have grown back and once again are in your path.

Here's what I do....... I always wear gloves and a long sleeved shirt or jacket and a hat. A good quality pruner in my hand leads the way. If the offending limb or branch is small enough, I let it lay where it fell. If the branch is rather large I will pick it up with the pruner and toss it off of the trail. I admit that I'm a bit overboard when it comes to pruning. Not in the sense that I cut down everything in sight, rather that I sometimes treat the job as a flower arrangement. I try to prune in such a way that no one, humans or deer, will notice what I've done. I saw cut small saplings flush with the ground and cover the stumps with mud. Then I place the cut off in such a way that it looks as if it was always there. By the time it dries up it will have been there long enough to seem natural. You have to be careful though, one time I cut a bunch of branches and let them lay right in front of my stand only to have a doe and two fawns come in and feed on them until after dark! [:-]

When walking to my stand to hunt, I avoid all contact with foliage if possible. If I have to make contact with it, I let it slide off of my jacket or pants. I never touch it with my hands, face or bare skin. These tactics have dramatically improved my sightings.

By following these tips you should put yourself in position to take something other than a fawn or animmature coyote!! [8D][:-]

Good luck.