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Last week, when I was traveling home from Sioux Falls, S.D. before getting to the bridge, I could see a well-traveled deer trail, when I got closer to it, I glanced where the trail headed inro the trees.

Thetrailwasblockedbyatree thathadfallingintoit,andunless somethingwasdone,therewould be no deer going to and coming from the trail.

There are numerous things to attract and hold deer to the areayou’rehunting,thingsthatI accomplished on the land I used to hunt deer on.

Deerlikeallanimalsaswellas human,whenitcomestogetting to where my deer houses and stands were located needed to be improved.

Just because you have a deer trail close by, you need to walk the trailbeforeseasontoseehowmuch overhead clearance there is and in order to make one that a buck will follow, you need to cut those low hanging branches high enough, allowing a buck to follow without banging his rack against it.

In most cases this can be accomplished with a hedge or tree trimer, allow you to reach up and open up the area that has enough clearancetomakeiteasyforabuck to use the trail.

It’s a good idea to retrieve the branches and brush to have them when you want to limit the deer to the area where you’re set up.

If you are planning on having the deer using the closest trail, I located other trails that I wanted the deer to not use and by placing the brush and tree limits that you cut out in them, I’ll block that trail, eliminating it, causing the deer to usethetrailwhereyou’resetupon.

I did this before season, giving me a better chance at having the deer to come out in the blind I was hunting in.

In order to fill your deer tag, you need to think like a deer, attracting them to the area you’re hunting, making it easier for the deer to use.

Prior to deer season, I’d developed severalRaksminerallickson thepropertythathadbeenhithard by deer in need of the minerals they needed, along with a stock tank filled with water, and at each of these locations I placed a trail cam, giving me vital information on the deer using the property.

Along with this information, I made it easy for the deer to use to bed and to keep them on the property, besides opening up trails, clearing cedars and brush on these trails, It was opening morning, I was in my stand early with everything I needed, binoculars, water, a urinating bottle and energy bars, allowing me to spend numerous hours in the blind.

As the sun appearing on the eastern horizon, I was ready to fill my deer tag as I waited for the deer to come down the trail.

I’d cut numerous cedar trees in the pasture, creating a clear path leading to my blind with some of them piled off to the left of the trail.

It was slow the first hour or so, when I could hear deer running along the trail, I moved my 25-06 closer to the window where I could seeasthedeercameoutof thetrail. It was obvious by the sounds being made that a buck was in hot pursuit of a doe in heat, and as the doe appeared, she ducked behind the cedar piles stopping to catch her breath.

A short while later, a shooter buck, a four by four, picked up her scentcomingaroundthebrushpile where the doe had been, he walked around the pile, did a lip curl to pick up her scent, and before he continuing to pursue the doe, myscopescrosshairswereonits vitals,andwiththeshot,mydeer tag was filled. Gary Howey is an award-winningwriter,producer, broadcaster,formertournament angler,fishingandhuntingguide and in 2017 inducted into the “National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame”.