this past saturday i would have had the chance to take a shot at a big 10 point that we had on our property that i was hunting, if it wasn't for a tree that we hadn't cut for a further shooting lane. we cut the bottom 2 limbs to create a 30 yard shot, but the buck was 35 yards in the lane so i could not get a shot at him. my dad is always hassling me to not cut down small trees because he wants them to grow bigger for the future. so i was wondering what your take is on cutting down saplings and smaller trees for shooting lanes in hope to getting a shot at a bruiser? now i know 35 yards is a shot that some might consider to be too far away to shoot at, but when you are hunting in the area i live in, you are luck to even see a buck all season, let alone get a shot at one due to the lack in numbers of deer in my area. also i have practiced all summer at 40 yards and can easily hit a 6 inch circle at 40 yards so i am quite confident in my shooting ability at 35 yards. just wondering what you guys think of the trimming up/ cutting down trees to make shooting lanes?, thanks.
Is it your dads land? If pops says no, I wouldn't mess with it.... However, I will only do what a land owner allows. I find out their expectations of the land and what they wouldn't mind having done and what they don't want done and you go from there.
Only do as others have said, which is what you are allowed to do. In our woods we rarely cleanly cut a tree down...now hinging it is another thing! For shot lanes I will cut branches but rarely cut an entire tree down as even though narrow trees do help breakup you image from the deer's vision.
If a sapling is in my shooting lane and is still fairly easy to bend I will often bend it out of my way and tie it off to another tree with cord. At the end of the season I just cut the cord and the tree eventually stands right back up where it was.
35 yards certainly is Not a long shot. Cutting trees is truly dependent on who owns them and your shooting lanes need to be dressed up, boxed in, blocked off, widened or narrowed post season. Could you have got him from the ground? Food for thought...dig out a fox hole "blind". Good Luck-
it is not our land, we are the only ones with permission to hunt it, and the owner is an old guy who never uses it or walks in it. he's too old to get out anymore, and i don't really think he cares about the bush anymore. but thanks for the input everyone. and yes i could have got a shot off at him if i was on the ground, i just didn't have enough time to get down out of the stand, he was chasing a doe and she ran him right past me. good luck to everyone in the late season!
Well we all cut "shooting lanes" and have deer stop just outside them. So you can take the approach some of my friends have, and literally clear cut everything under 15' high for 30-40 yards around your stand, or you make selective shooting lanes and accept that sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Personally I like a lot of cover and a handful of shooting lanes as opposed to a wide open area. I'll cut down all the saplings in those few shooting lanes.
