RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

My buddies joke that I'm a lumberjack - I trim so many shooting lanes...If I think that a branch could get in the way, I trim that one AND then the one next to it too just to be safe;)

I don't like missing shot opps at deer because I don't have a shooting lane and most of us have been there at one point - LOL

My buck last year I shot at 35 yards in a pretty thick grove. If I wouldn't have trimmed as much as I did I wouldn't have had a chance... He also came in a totally unexpected direction too - so some of that 'extra' triming paid off.

I don't do much special with the braches I trim... If there is a trail or paththat I don't want the deer to take, I'll pile them up there.Or I'll pile them up inbetween a couple of trees or next to some old deadfall that has been sitting around a while...

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I find when you only clear out a little......you get in yoru stand in the fall and foliage all over the place has covered up your "lane" I try not to go crazy, but limbs/trees etc....need to be cut, and I cut them! also a 2ft lane....leaves you little room for that deer if he decides to stop less tahn a foot on either side.....then all you have is a neck or gut shot.....deer don't always listen to me, so I like more width than 2ft.

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I rairly trim more than a branch or two. I currently do not hunt anywhere that is that brushy as to need 'lanes'

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

Side note is I like to hunt thick woods and swamps, so a couple of branches usually aren't enough to zip a Thunderhead thru

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I usually wait until the leaves fill the branches, that way I wont have to go back because I missed a spot.

Last year in september I was in one of my stands and a doe walked underneath and stopped to check out the fresh cut branches. Something about the smell of fresh cut leaves and tilled earth that attracts them...at least for me!

We cleared over 2 acres of dirt for our new plots, and the next day you wouldnt believe how many tracks were through the overturned dirt. A week later, not a single track!

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

Not a big lane trimmer. I'll snip a few branches here and there to give me some shots, but I don't like to ope things up real big.

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I do this too. I cut as close to the ground as possible for the smaller stuff and then I place the cutoff's like a flower arrangement so that the trimming is not noticable.

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I do this too. I cut as close to the ground as possible for the smaller stuff and then I place the cutoff's like a flower arrangement so that the trimming is not noticable.
[/quote]

That's sweet buttercup!
ha-ha

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

Sorry Ed, it's for the deer, not you dear![8D]

RE: Clearing shooting lanes
 

I do the same. I am more concerned with other people finding my spots. The woods are always changing and I think the deer are used to that. I believe it's the scent you leave that spooks the deer more that a few branches missing.