MNhunterr Posted November 2, 2008 Report Share Posted November 2, 2008 Hey guys, first post ever on realtree forums! I just have a question. What do you suggest is the best way to hunt big areas of willows? We have an 80 acre plot in Little Falls, MN and 1/4 is willows, the deer always bed down in them and we cannot drive it because it is to thick. I shot a doe on early doe season this year and we couldn't find her, we jumped her once and then she was gone. Anyone have any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeN Posted November 2, 2008 Report Share Posted November 2, 2008 My advice if its thick and the deer are using it as a bedding area STAY OUT!! the deer need places that nobody bothers them in. i have areas of brush to think to fit a pencil in and we stay out of them. my best advice is hunt the edges or the trails going in and out. get yourself positioned between that bedding area and a food source. find the trails and get about 20 - 30 yards off of them downwind. slip in quietly undected and lower the boom on a monster.... hopefully that will help you out a bit... best of luck:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted November 2, 2008 Report Share Posted November 2, 2008 My advice if its thick and the deer are using it as a bedding area STAY OUT!! the deer need places that nobody bothers them in. i have areas of brush to think to fit a pencil in and we stay out of them. my best advice is hunt the edges or the trails going in and out. get yourself positioned between that bedding area and a food source. find the trails and get about 20 - 30 yards off of them downwind. slip in quietly undected and lower the boom on a monster.... hopefully that will help you out a bit... best of luck:) Would have to agree with the above. Good luck and welcome to the forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNhunterr Posted November 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2008 My advice if its thick and the deer are using it as a bedding area STAY OUT!! the deer need places that nobody bothers them in. i have areas of brush to think to fit a pencil in and we stay out of them. my best advice is hunt the edges or the trails going in and out. get yourself positioned between that bedding area and a food source. find the trails and get about 20 - 30 yards off of them downwind. slip in quietly undected and lower the boom on a monster.... hopefully that will help you out a bit... best of luck:) We've tried that many times. For this coming up rifle season we have stands set up on the major trails leading in and out of the willows, but once the deer are in there they do not want to come out until night. We have a monster 8 pointer that will only travel at the times of midnight, and come back around 3 am. Hopefully the rut with change all that. But when we were looking for my deer I shot, there were SOOO many trails in there it wasn't even funny. But yeah, thanks for the advice, I'll see what we can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m gardner Posted November 2, 2008 Report Share Posted November 2, 2008 If you are allowed to, cut trails and openings in the willows. The deer will start to use them. Set up tipod blinds along these openings. If it's a place other hunters can use you will want to go fairly deep to cut trails so that they won't find them along the outside edges and follow them into the thicket. You'll need to do this before the season so the deer will get used to it. These trails will help you slip in and out quietly too. If it's your land and you have a brush hog cut it up into acre lots. Like sendaros in Texas. We had some large tracts of multiflora rose that we did this with. Unhuntable any other way. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeN Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 i do like the idea of cutting paths through. we have talked about doing the same with our scrub brush... i feel your pain our thickets have about a hundred trails we tried to find the most used one and ran with that and like you said the rut should help.... heard one grunting and chasing tonight. got my blood flowing:D:D:D good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNhunterr Posted November 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Yeah, I don't even know if it would be possible to cut paths through the stuff though. You would literally need a bulldozer because it's almost like a dried up swamp and such. It is our land so I might go in with my bigger brother and see if we can rent a bulldozer and hope we don't get stuck, this is for next season obviously! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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