Cut-Off Zones 2 Print E-mail


"Figure where deer are feeding, learn where they're bedding," Dan says. "Now locate a place to cut off the bulk of them from a tree stand. Last year, for example, I discovered a very deep, 'wash-out' creek in a draw between a pair of oak ridges that deer were just hammering. The ridges were open, and it seemed like every oak was dropping acorns, so deer weren't concentrated enough to make bowhunting around a single oak very promising. But the creek between the two ridges was super deep, a real pain in the neck to cross. It was hands-and-knees work getting down and then up the other sideexcept for two places where the banks were less steep, and well-worn whitetail trails crossing the two spots showed deer had found them, too.

"It was a perfect cut-off zone, and I hung a stand 20 yards away, downwind of one creek crossing. From my stand, I also could see the second crossing about 70 yards away. I wanted to put my stand between the two crossings, but the wind was wrong, and I couldn't 'cover' them properly from one stand anyway."

His second morning in the creek-crossing stand, Dan saw a high-rack eight-pointer cross the distant spot, and he passed a pair of 18-month-old bucks that walked over the creek near his stand. A bit after 9 a.m., though, on that frosty morning, a wide nine-pointer showed up, and Dan took him broadside as he slipped across the creek just 18 yards from the archer's tree. Dan had effectively cut off the buck's travel route from one oak ridge to another, and the deer paid the ultimate price.

It's important to concentrate bowhunting efforts on deer-travel patterns according to the way animals are acting at a particular time. The important thing, believes Dan, is the current pattern, because whitetails regularly change their habitssometimes from week to week.

At times animals move into areas to feed on acorns or apples. Other times they may work corn or soybean field edges. They may go to water, or walk ridges during the rut. Once Dan figures the current deer travel pattern, he goes into the area and looks for a natural barrier that prohibits their free movement to the place they want to go.

"I don't look for tracks or trails, rubs or scrapes," he explains. "What I want to find is a small lake or pond in the woods, 'down' timber, felled trees, a fence, deep ditch, or thick brushanything that inhibits ease of deer travel through an area. Once I find such a barrier, I place my stand near it knowing deer will walk around the barrier and I'll cut them off when they come within range. I hunt this way a great deal, and it works well."


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