Shooting lanes through Norway planting

[Bullwinkle]

i have two fairly large Norway bedding planting’s

One is about 5 acres square the other is close to 9 acres and more rectangular. Both are designed for thermal bedding

I have great stands on the edges of both of these areas

I am kicking around multiple options

1. Do nothing

2. Cut one fairly wide shooting lane /killing plot through center. Maybe 30’ wide

3. Cut multiple lanes but make them narrow. Maybe two passes with no till -14’ wide

Anyone have an opinion on how you’d design something like this? As soon as the norways break the tops of the weeds I want to do this work - my bushog can easily take care of the trees

 

[Chainsaw]

Just an opinion Bull(house bound remember); I don't have a great bedding thermal bedding area like that but if I did before deciding to do anything though, I would want to know if the cameras are showing that there are deer in there that you want to take that are not going by your current great edge stands. If there aren't then what is to gain? And if there are not cameras there to answer that question then I would put them there to gather the intelligence needed.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Both are designed next to destination food plots. I have deer coming out of the weeds now so there is no question deer will use them

Since they grow slowly I have a decent size window to do this without having to remove stumps.

It will hurt me for bow hunting for sure but could make for some cool gun hunting stands and places to shoot does without having them get in the big fields. I bet the bigger deer would come out into a narrow lane before going into a big plot too???

 

[Native Hunter]

When you cut lanes into a deer bedding area, you have just invited every wolf, coyote and dog in the area to go in. For me it defeats the purpose of having thick cover when you make it easy for predators (and possibly trespassers) to go in and ruin everything.

 

[Bullwinkle]

When you cut lanes into a deer bedding area, you have just invited every wolf, coyote and dog in the area to go in. For me it defeats the purpose of having thick cover when you make it easy for predators (and possibly trespassers) to go in and ruin everything.

Now that’s a good point I didn’t think of. Tx.

 

[Kwood]

I agree. Make bedding as thick and secure as you can and figure out where they exit.


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[Chainsaw]

I don't see a lot of advantage of using a great bedding area to shoot does; Isn't it better to shoot them near car road crossings or mini-plots close to the road? We have a doe shooting plot of less than an acre that is 90 yards or less from the road. It is screened from the road. And a ground blind is in the screened area. It is low impact and provides us with extremely easy shots to lots of does. We also have a couple of road crossing spots we shoot does at. If we want to shoot even more we can put a similar mini-plot setup just off the road quite a long distance from the first one mentioned. Sure a buck or two gets scared away from that plot but it also helps teach the young bucks that close to the road areas are dangerous. I think the key to the mini-plot setup is to have it where across the road is poor cover and to put plenty of early season pressure on the plot. What I'm driving at is do we want to teach the bucks that the bedding area of spruce is not a safe place to search for does?

And of course certain property line areas make sense to take does also.

 

[JDunham]

I typed a response and then deleted it right after you posted this. My opinion was similar to Native Hunter's in that I initially thought you would diminish the effectiveness of the cover and do more harm than good. The cruising paths for predators is something I haven't thought of but is an excellent point. I deleted my post to think on it a bit and forgot about the thread until I saw it today. Lots of web surfing today with single digit temps outside. I still think I would leave them to the deer. In my experience lanes have to be pretty large to see a deer and then evaluate it and then shoot it before a deer is through it. Big deer spend considerably less time in the lanes than smaller deer. Lanes big enough to be effective will take away from the attractiveness of the cover to the deer. If the Spruce areas border plots and you are focusing on undetected stand approaches to what stands you have now they will produce IMO. Those spruce blocks are big buck magnets in my area once there is any pressure.

 

[Bullwinkle]

You guys changed my mind. Glad I asked. Didn’t think of some of these points

May as well be patient and let the destination food plots pull the deer out of the norways.

Thanks guys