ORIGINAL: eerdog
I would love to do that. My consulting forestry company had a Fecon mulching head we used on a job on a park and I asked the guy if i could grind out the clear cuts and he didn't want me to. He said he was going to get them. But doubt he will since they are over head high now. I can get away with using a brush weedeater to clear out the area around the stand or lanes, but was wondering if anyone ran into a problem with doing clearing out deals this close to season. It would take a good afternoon to get them cleared out enough to see, but my main concern was doing more harm then good... Plus I guess I really shouldn't make too much damage to someone else's property.
eerdog, I wouldn't worry about disturbing the deer. I hunt thick areas that have mountain laurel and I often cut paths through the Laurel, only to have deer start using it immediately. I cut a trail one day and marked it here and there with surveyors tape. I came back 3 days later to hunt it and the deer were already using it! One buck made a rub on a thick stalk of laurel, literally rubbing my surveyor's tape off the laurel I had marked.
Deer are lazy and they will take the easiest path as long as it makes them feel comfortable to travel through. After you make a trail, put a camera off to the side and see how long it takes them to use it. Try to identify areas they are already traveling through and improve the trails. Then go off to the side of the trail, find a good tree with proper wind and cut a shooting lane from your stand to the trail. I would rather be set up in an area like that and know deer are coming through than see for several hundred yards where they might come through.