"Clearing Lanes" or "Clearcutting?" When a bowhunter becomes human Agent Orange.

So, in all my travels, I happen upon dozens and dozens of other peoples' stand sites every season. Everytime I walk into somebody else's set, I always take a minute to take everything all in, and see if I can figure out the nuts and bolts of why this individual chose this particular set. You can learn things from other peoples' sets, you really can.

Sometimes, it's close proximity to a bedding area. Other times, it's a short jaunt from a parking area. Sometimes, it's a geographic chokepoint. Sometimes, it's a foodsource. Sometimes, it's just a total head-scratcher.

But one thing that almost always jumps out at me is other hunters' insatiable desire to exfoliate the surrounding 30 yard radius around their stand sites. I call this stand set the "Circle of Death." It's almost comical sometimes.



Now, I understand that, in order to hunt a stand effectively, you have to be able to shoot, but let's be real here, there comes a point where you stop "clearing lanes" and start eliminating any/all security cover around your stand. I guess what I'm saying is that while it's important to be able to get a shot through the surrounding cover, it's equally important to leave enough cover so as to ensure that you're not just a sitting duck in the middle of a 60-yard wide circle, or even worse, forcing cover-prone deer to skirt your stand.

You've gotta be able to draw your bow, and every limb/tree that you cut off is one less obstruction that you can hide behind.

Today, my buddy called me up to help him hang a stand set in a place where he'd been using a climber all of last season. He's a really dedicated bowhunter, but just never can seal the deal. He's an older guy, kinda set in his ways, so I just roll with it at this point and let him do whatever he wants to do. He's what I'd call a "one stand guy." He'll pick a stand site and burn that tree up for a full season. Note that there's nothing wrong with being a one-stand guy, as long as that stand is a good one.

We load up the gear and hoof it around a ridge to an isolated bench leading into a bedding area. Solid. The only problem is that he felt compelled to saw down every tree 4" or less within a 25 yard radius of his tree, completely eliminating the understory and leaving only the high-canopy timber.

I hung the stand, without question, but he kept mentioning that every shooter buck he'd seen from that particular stand somehow skirted the edge of his range. Bad luck? I don't think so.

 

I totally agree with you on this. I see stuff all the time about how they took 25+ trees out to make a particular stand work and the other day the Drury brothers posted a photo of a lush cedar forest they clearcutted to make a feed field. Thats just ridiculous. Sure cut lanes maybe take out of some the smaller <2" trees that are in your lanes but don't clearcut something. Use it to your advantage. Isn't part of hunting preserving what hunting lands we have?

 

Frantic - I'm not so much coming at this from a conservation perspective, but moreso from the angle that their saw-happy ways will ultimately either cause them to get busted on-stand due to lack of surrounding cover, OR they're destined to have a cautious buck intentionally skirt their stand because he doesn't want to step out of the security cover and into the Circle of Death.

 

I hear ya brotha...

I would rather not get a shot off and be able to hunt the set again with confidence rather than get busted drawing my bow or any movement for that matter.

In fact I may be too bashful while clearing lanes.

 

I have not been hunting long at all but, I have seen this before. It completely baffled me the first time I whitnessed this. I can see a box dlind or a tripod stand hunting a 50acre field with a rifle but, a bow hunting set? Never understood it. I fell that cover is why I harvested the two deer I did last season. Although both were with lead projectiles one was a 30yd shot and if it weren't for the back and side cover I would not have gotten her. The other was a longer shot but, he passed my stand at 40yd before I had the 100yd shot on him due to my house in the back drop. If I didn't have cover probably wouldn't have gotten him either. This season my brother and I were setting a stand and he wanted to break out the chain saw and start whacking. I told him to trust me and don't do that again this season. I got out the loopers and made 2 shooting lanes. There was already a natural lane so there are three. I don't see why guys want to do that. I mean, you want to wear camo for a reason right?

 

I tend to be the opposite of "clearcut guy". I usually sit there on my first sit of the season wishing I had done a little more pruning.

 

I just got done trimming two new stand locations I'm going to use this year. Honestly, I'm not sure how I did yet. I tried to be careful but I may have overdone it. I'm pretty confident in the locations and was sure to have cover to draw in, brush the deer would have to pass by on the trail. Transitioning from shotguns where you can shoot through some brush, it can be very easily overdone.

 

I understand that and definitely agree with you on that. The conservation part is just a point about that personally pisses me off. Maybe its because I live in KS and we don't have that much timber to begin with. I am kind of like jjnowak. I never cut enough because I hate cutting and trimming trees back.

 

Probably in the wrong for doing so and I realize this, but I tend to lean towards the cutting lanes side. I probably cut more than I should. I don't go in there with chainsaws and dozers, but I make good enough lanes where I'm going to get a shot off. Had it handed to me WAY too many times over the years where I watched the deer walk away with no shot. Horray .... that deer never saw me...... wait, I didn't get to shoot it so whats it matter?:p Again, Im not talking 10 foot wide lanes with everything in it's path gone, but ample enough that if the deer is in it, it's getting shot. And we get in and out early. Been done with stands since June. One more quick check sometime in Sept. tomake sure everything is good. Early detection, hunt the wind, lack of movement and pick your spot wisely for the moment of truth is the key for me.

 

I never understood why people call a single stand a "set"?

 

I got somethng pretty good that goes along with this post. My brother-in-law works for the local water dept. He maintains all the well sites at remote locations. He also has permission to hunt the adjoining farmland around the sites. Recently he told me he was working on one of the sites and got the idea to take his bulldozer and excavate around his stand. I thought it was a little much but yesterday we were out there working on one of his stands and I saw that he had pushed all the way down to a nearby creek with the bulldozer. The deer, and other wildlife, were beginning to use it as an entry way to the cropfield when they come up out of the creek bed. Now that's trimming!

Blessings......Pastorjim

 

I have been working on a new spot that I hunted near last year. This year I planted a small kill plot there; however, it is so thick in my woods that I couldn’t find a decent tree that wasn’t directly on top of my plot. I discovered the best tree was about 40 yards from the center of my plot. I could have never made a safe shot had I not removed some of the obstacle in my way. I only had to cut down one 6 in tree and some 1 inchers; however, I want to believe I didn’t overdo the clearing even though it looks wide open now. I have plenty of backing to my stand to break me up, and I only cleared a couple shooting lanes; however, the removal of the one inch tree is very noticeable. There are still plenty of obstacles to use to draw back my bow. I decided to plant even more radishes where I removed the tree.

 

I'm a recovering "clear-cut guy." The first step a few years ago was admitting it and seeking help.

 

I learned early on not to cut down a tree that has a fresh (same season) rub on it. About 20 years ago I was cutting some lanes for gun season and removed a tree with a decent rub on it about 40 yards away. I needed ot at least I thought i needed to remove this tree to see the entrance to a CRP type of field that the deer would filter in from ever morning. My buddy bow-hunted my stand a few times before gun season including the evening of the day that we cleared lanes. He saw deer, but he told me that 2 separate bucks came along and became instantly on guard and nervous around that missing tree. Over the course of the next week the deer literally changed their patterns and avoided this area for a couple of months into winter. There obviously could have been many reasons why including...human scent all over the woods, numerous popple trees missing, etc... Since then if I have had to remove a tree with a rub on it I cut it about 18" above the highest point of the rub. From an elevated position in stand that is usually enough. Currently, I trim less and less each year as I feel the security cover is better than having open lanes for every possible scenerio.

 

I'm the same way. I usually find myself up in the tree hoping a deer walks and stops in the only 2' lane I can see down

 

It all depends on the situation.

Just yesterday I hung a stand in a spot that is the thickest stuff imaginable. The only tree suitable for a stand was 25 yards off the trail, so after a little work I had 2 shooting lanes by simply removing a few small trees and throrn bushes.. It was this, or not hang a stand in this spot. I left the fallen trees in the lane to help thicken it back up, but I guess we will see.

I do agree though that the less you have to remove, the better off you will be.

 

I used to trim as very little as I possible. It only took one time for me to have a nice buck comes through, nose to the ground, and blow through my shooting lane before I could stop him for me to realize I need a bigger window. I stopped that buck but by the time he actually did, he was about 2 feet through my lane. Since then my lanes are bigger. But, when hanging a stand I also make sure I have anough cover that I am able to draw without being detected. I try to find that happy medium.

 

I agree with ya.

My buddy's were like that but I think their coming around after months of hunting and not seeing anything. Only on the cameras.
We moved some stuff this weekend and only cut what we HAD to. Leaving. Few lanes and that was it.

 

I'm still figuring the trimming stuff out. It has always made sense to me to keep the trimming to a minimum, but practicing is a learned skill and I haven't been doing it long enough to know if I'm doing it right or not.

More of my issue with trimming comes from the tree I climb. I climbed a pine once and basically clear-cut the backside of it just so I could get around the face of it in my stand. However, the number of fallen branches had to look just ridiculous to any deer walking by.

On the other hand, I've worked hard to get up in a tree and not cut any branches along the way, only to get to the spot I want to put my stand and realize there are overhanging branches blocking my view from above and I have no way of getting to them to trim them (I need to get something over than just a handsaw at some point).