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.

Excellent advice Greg H, as usual. Thanks,
Chris

Great tips! I do the same!

I tried this last year Greg, and I saw a difference as well. Walking in, keeping my hands up out of the talk grass, I noticedbetter results.

I found out first hand about 10 or 12 years ago how simply touching a piece of folage can ruin your day. I had slipped into this little spot where the deer transitioned from food to bedding. I climbed up in my climber and settled in. As I sat there I said to myself, "If that one little 1/2 inch limb weren't there it would open up a nice shooting lane to that other trail". I made a note to myself to break it off when I left. I forgot to do it as I shot a buck that afternoon on the other side of the stand. He ran toward the open field and fell. I simply drove to him and loaded him up.A couple weeks laterI wasslipping in to the same stand. I remembered that little limb. I had on just washed, sprayedand aired out gloves. I reached up above my head and broke the limb off. About 2 1/2hours later I'm sitting there and this parade of 4 or 5 does come walking down the trail. I see the one I want and am in position. 2 of the does walk right under my busted off limb, turn giving me a broadside and walk toward the bedding area. My intended target gets about 8 or 10 feet from the stub left where I broke off the limb. She stomps her foot and all the deer go on alert and get nervous. They freeze. She walks like she's ready to explode slowly forward. She gets to my limb and stretches her neck up and takes a whiff. She bolts back where she came from a couple steps and stomps. She throws her tail up and high steps right back where they came from. I mean I had washed, had clean clothes washed in scentkiller soapand had worn gloves to snap the limb which I carried to the base of my tree. Over 2 hours later she smelled my gloved hand on that limb 6 or 7 feet off the ground. She didn't smell the ground where I walked but where my hand had touched. Couldn't believe it.

Pruners lead my way as well. I've got a well worn trail to my primary stand from years of trimming on the way. Every year I'll have to clip a few. The deer have taken it over as well. Every year scrapes appear on my trail...LOL.

Now I have to avoid them as well.

My dad has been doing this forever and I gladly picked up on it as a youngster and do it also myself.

A few good tips Mr. H...
I have taught myself this through the years of hunting and especially the last few successful years have shown it to work.

I believe that this also goes hand-in-hand with hunting a new spot for the 1st time or two.
Basically, your not "STINKING" your area up and educating the deer.
As once you leave a spot that you've hunted, sooner or later the wind will change or the Deer will feed across your path and, BAM, they start avoiding the area / trail.
The more you hunt a spot the odds start to go in favor of the Deer.
Scent control and wind is king and picking "good / great days" can be the key!
Sooner or later I will graduate from a prince to a king, maybe in 1 month to be exact...
Come on Sept. 15th ~ ooo-baby!

Yep, it sure is a good idea to do. One of the areas that I hunt, I have to walk through some very tall grass (over my head). I usually take a sickle to it and make a trail in September. My only problem in doing this is that I am also making a good walkthough for the deer which also seem to use a lot. In that case I'm not sure if I'm helping the matter or hurting it. If I end up leaving it though, I will also get soaked (trust me) from the morning due.

Greg, i thought i might have been slightly crazy going into the honey hole this past winter/early spring and having my way with the trail....soon as i get a chance im going back in to fine tune things...though i tried to compensate for additional growth...my trail and shooting lanes...

did the same thing and made it look completely natural...cant really tell THAT i did it...if you arent looking you wont realize its MY path...and, im a fanatic about touching foliage and having it hit my stand and gear...i usually put my hands in pockets JUST so i cant touch anything with my hands...even if i got gloves on. (i have a terrible habit of snapping off twigs and playing with them as i walk and dropping pieces(laying a human scent trail!) the whole way i walk....

i also piled all the brush i cut into a couple piles...where there was already a big limb down or nasty brushy patch, i piled everything i trimmed from shooting lanes onto it...i hunt from 2-3 trees in that same spot so i was in there a WHILE...

its my honey hole and where i expect the best to come from...try not to over hunt it...not more than once a week and try to make that on the best day possible weather wise..(cooler day...calmer day...light rain etc..) i jsut dont have any other GOOD spots its hard NOT to hunt it...but learned to hunt it as least as i can and be careful in there...