Okay, I am certainly no expert on game management. I dont shoot small bucks and plant some food plots that is about it. My questionj is this. I have some area in our timber that are so thick that I cannot hardly even walk through them. I know they say that big bucks like thick cover and this is where they will be but I cannot even hunt this area. Any of you guys ever clear out areas with like a bush hogger or something? I am not going to do it during the season but something that I could do in the spring. Any advice would help!!!

Just cleara fewnarrow shooting lanes. If you cut brush and trees pile it up. Do not burn the brush piles, they make good cover for small game and quail.

If it's under 5 acres, I'd leave it alone and cut lanes on the edge of it. If over then cut lanes that would make 3-5 acre bedding areas. If it's in the middle of a large property, leave it be and don't hunt but once or twice a year.

like hawgnman said, if it's a small area i would hunt the edges of it. if it is a big area, one option is to take a walk behind tiller in there and cut some trails. deer will eventually use the trails that you cut. some small shooting lanes will also work, but don't go too crazy. i have about forty acres of our farm that was clearcut and is almost unhuntable. we call it the badlands. we cut some trails and some shooting lanes, and have taken two nice buck out of there so far.

I love answering questions like this since this is what i want to do once i get out of school. If it is a small thicket then don't do a thing to the inner part of the thicket. Just go and bush hog a two pass ring around the outside edge. What this will do for you is create what is called a transition zone, which is just that, an area between two diff. habitats. These are the areas that have the prime natural browse that deer seek out, such as freshly popped up clover and tender shoots of grass. This will cost you nothing but the price of your gas and a little time. To keep the small tender shoots of clover and grass coming you might mow it a couple of times intermittently throughout the summer, this will also help to keep the fox tails and and such down along with the multaflora rose and briars that pop-up. sorry that this was so long but i couldn't think of a shorter way to put it! If you have other questions send me a pm.

Adrian