How do you locate travel corridors?

[gbelardinella]

I hunt on 300 acres, 125 are planted trees (6 - 8' tall) that create a dense cover that you just cant see into, 125 acres are agricultural planted corn and soybeans, 50 acres are mature woods and a small swamp area. The entire area is really overgrown, hilly, and extremely hard to scout from a distance. How can I find these travel corridors and bedding areas? What do I look for? How do I know where they are coming and going without being able to visually see them? Will it hurt to walk the property now and try to find them or will this hurt my hunting season?

[ranwin33]

One of the easiest ways is to wait until after the season with snow on the ground.  Their trails are pretty easy to pick out then, and you can get a pretty good idea of the corridor they are traveling.
 
But since you are seeking an answer for the here and now - I'd walk the place and look for trails.  If the cover is dense and the area over grown you should be able to pick out well used trails.  Even if there is not a lot of brush or grasses, look for worn down trails or dirt trails indicating a travel route.  Also look for trails merging into trails which would signify a more well traveled route.
 
How do you tell which way they are going?  If you find a spot where trails merge into one, then most likely the merging trails are moving into the single trail and the end of the single trail would be the destination. 
 
Also, food sources tend to be at the end of trails, so if you find a food source at the end of a single trail that resulted from several merged trails you have most likely found a route that deer are traveling in the evenings as that is when they tend to head to the food source.
 
If you come across just one long, well traveled trail, hunt it morning and evening and see when it gets used most.
 
My experience has been that the same travel corridors tend to get used both morning and evening, though some more frequently than others depending upon time of day.
 
Again, I wouldn't worry about walking the place.  Our season is still a month away, you should be fine and the woods will have had ample time to settle down before the season starts up.
 
Best of luck and enjoy yourself.  Let us know how you do.

[Swandog09]

You can also use some scent control spray to help cover your presence.

[Cgull]

I always get an satellite photo of the property then look for pinch points. Areas that will up your chances of seeing more bucks. then start looking for travel lanes ( heavily worn trails are most likely doe trails , so I look for smaller and less worn trails just off the doe trails). I then try to set up with my back either to the west for a morning hunt and east for evening hunt.

[Stickman]

Get a topo map and find funnels and pinch points, setup as far as you can but able to see the agriculture fields, maybe get in a treestand high up in the evening and observe how deer are entering and exiting the fields. Now is a great time to observe deer in the evenings especially around soybean fields. right now the deer are in my soybean fields starting about 3:00 pm and are still in there at dark. Make sure the wind is not blowing your scent to the field. If your going to walk and visually  look for sign wear rubber boots and go midday.

[gbelardinella]

Thank You all for your help so far. I did walk the property yesterday and found what I believe to be some deer trails. I set up a few trail camera's along those routes to see if I am correct. The trails just don't seem like well beaten down trails though. It almost seems as though the deer take a different route to wherever they are going. The 50 acres of mature woods is located right along the small swamp area and this is where I found some trails but again they don't look beaten down though. This is the only water on the property or bordering property so I would like to think they are coming here to drink.

I've hunted her now three years and it seems the deer are never in the same place as the year before. I've found bedding spots in areas that I have never seen their before. The beds that I found the previous years are no longer their either. People talk about patterning deer but these darn things are making it extremely hard.

Again, thanks for all your help. I am new to these forums but found there are a lot of good people on them that like to help!

Gary

[DeanoZ]

Seems like you got a bit of everything on the property you hunt which is great.  Focus on the fields, thats their primary food source right now and post rut.  Walk the perimeter of those fields staying well within the woodline, but with the fields still in view and you'll find the trails.  Do most of your scouting mid day so as not to bump any deer coming or going from the fields.  when yu find some decent trails hang your cams there.  Get in and get out, spend a day scouting and hanging cams, then wait a coupl weeks and check your cams, find the spots yu'll hunt and then stay out of there until opening day.  I would also recommend as others suggested, getting your hands on a topo map and looking for the funnels and pinch points..these could be saddles, shelf's, stream crossings, ridgeline hilltops, draws, etc.  Get the book Mapping Trophy bucks...its a great primer on locating deer trails and funnels.  All that thick brush and swamps are guarenteed sanctuary's when the pressure is on...good in the post rut.  Hardwoods will be hot once the acorns drop...but that soybean field will be hard to beat early season and post rut.  Good luck!

[gbelardinella]

Thank you for the great advise, I go searching for the book this afternoon. I see you are from New Jersey, My father is from the Bound Brook area.

Good Hunting

Gary

[Sam Menard]

Satellite and aerial photographs are great tools that show changes in topography or in vegetation. Deer will often travel along the edges where vegetation/topography change.

Sam

[DeanoZ]

ORIGINAL: gbelardinella

Thank you for the great advise, I go searching for the book this afternoon. I see you are from New Jersey, My father is from the Bound Brook area.

Good Hunting

Gary

Know the area well, I'm just East of him along Rt 22 in Scotch Plains...welcome to the forum!