Small and inconspicuous ditches, swales, bottlenecks and other wrinkles in the terrain not visible on maps and they are easy to miss, but are great places to kill a whopper buck with your bow. The only way to find these secret funnels is to vary your walks each day as you scout and go in and out from tree stands. Vary your walks and be on constant lookout for a low spot in a fence; a tight creek crossing muddied with deer tracks; a thin strip of slightly elevated dry ground between 2 sloughs; two ditches 2-foot deep that come together into a drainage…. There are literally hundreds of small terrains in the woods that define and confine the movements [...]

1) While you’re out working your land with a tractor this summer, try this. Bush-hog a strip of grass or mow a lane through a thicket right up to one or two of your favorite tree stand locations near a field. Keep those lanes trimmed one more time in late August. Deer will find and use the paths. One day later this fall, a big 8-pointer might walk smack down the strip to your bow stand. The trimmed lanes are also great places to plant mini-plots of attractant clover and chicory just before hunting season. 2) Scour an old grown-up farm field or pasture for hidden fruit trees, like apple or persimmon, or thickets of blackberry. Open up the trees [...]