What is the longest access trail you have ever cut? I got picked on when I use to be in bigger clubs because of how much effort I put into my access. Most of our guys drove within 75 yards of a stand and walked down the middle of a road to their stand. Just for discussion.

I did one about 3/4 of a mile several years ago. A couple hundred yards were through the thick and that part took weeks. I didn’t see a deer that year at that property

I’ll drive within a reasonable distance of where I’ll hunt and walk the rest of the way. I’ve never found the need to make an access trail.

I just got a lease and many of the food plots are next to the main road. I expect there to be deer feeding in them when going to the stands in the morning. I am thinking of just cutting access from the county roads in to keep from walking through the core of the land.

I don't mind walking a little bit to get to where I hunt. The biggest problem with cutting an access trail is when someone else finds it and follows it.

And the deer will use it

Used to go in cutovers about 20yrds or so and then drop the brush hog to make trails down to and around SMZs. If you do it at just the right time your tracks will be covered up by the time all the other hunters start last minute scouting. Take a sprayer with some brush killer in there late Sept and you’ll have it made. Done this for years and nobody was the wiser.

If will in fact turn into a deer highway.

I didn't care if the deer used it. I typically timed it to where they were in the fields when I was going in. Then when they were bedded I came back the road. Most of the guys in our club didn't hunt the woods so It didn't matter if they found my trails. If they did, they would not normally find my climber by walking it.

I would just walk down the road and get in the stand and not worry about it. That seems to work just fine in places where there is trigger control. The problem with cutting an access lane is going to be the deer will use it and thus you accomplish very little because your buddies go down the road and now you go out through the woods you are just disturbing more of the general area with Human presence. IMO you want to limit that presence and in the event that you can't you want it to be consistently in the same spot or path.

Think about a farmer who feeds cows and does the same thing every day. Deer don't pay that any attention IMO. Routine is good.


If you are having trouble seeing deer you need to stop blasting does. You can spend a dam fortune in money and time but if you want to see deer... stop shooting at them. There is no food plot on the planet that will overcome doe blasting. You can pile corn high as the Empire State Building... won't help.

I usually try to avoid making any type of access trail unless I absolutely have to.....deer will use them, but so will others...I park at least a quarter mile from most of my stand and just walk in to the area....

I bush hog access lanes just for deer on a few of our plots.. They like the easy path as much as we do. Trick is being there when hes using it!

I will tell you something else I learned 2 years ago. I had a spot I liked to hunt sort of close to the property line. I was slipping into the woods in one spot, and of course I never set foot on my path without spraying the soles of my boots with doe p. Dang deer started using my path. And it is not like it was the shortest distance between to points kind of path either.

Every time