I love it when a plan.....

[msbadger]

comes together......We had a big leaf fall on monday and Tues....so wed. I set out early in the morning to mow the leaves off my trails....that done I took my trusty metal rake and set out to hand rake little foot paths to and past each of my stands......and a couple of ...OOOOhhhh so long foot paths on property I watch over I also freshed scrapes ...was done by 2pm.....knowing that there was much more leaf drop ahead I prayed for the forcast to be correct...rain after midnight...Well it rained all night and hard for the last few hours...the suns up and I can see the paths are covered....BUT in a soaked fresh layer of leafs....that should with rain predicted sun. stay soft and quiet for a while...making walking to my stands a pleasent thing....no snapping twigs or crunching corn chip sounds and I'll be able to here whats out there in the dark as I head out [;)] Any scent I put out there is now gone and Saturday opener should be a good one...I hope.......

[Goose]

Sounds perfect! Ive heard of people doing that but never have done it myself. Good luck this weekend, sounds like your off to a good start.

[allthingshunting]

if you have the time, i highly recommend it.  Not only do the raked paths not bother deer, we usually have an abundence of tracks within the path itself immediately following raking it.  Not sure if it is curiousity?
 
I know they like the path of least resistence, probably part of the reason. 
 
My questions is this...are they smart enough / concerned enough to realize this helps them be quiet as we as humans have realized?  I know they can be virtually silent even in the noisiest of conditions, but do you think deer are cognizant of the noise they make and how that would alert other predators to their presence?

[Demoderby4]

Yeah i always try to rake a path to my stands, it takes a lot of stress out of the walk into and out of the woods, (i stress over everything) I too notice deer take these paths, tracks are all over them when i make em, they might take it because of the quietness, it makes sense, the less resistant path makes sense too, it might be a combo of both. But like you said, i have been hunting in a warm front with the ground being totally crunchy and i look back to one direction and all of a sudden a deer is there, its amazing, in a frustrating way lol.

[OHhunter]

I may clear some briars or multiflora out to make a path in the summer, but normally go for the low impact, like I was never there approach.  My dad on the other hand believes in deforesting a 3ft wide trail to all his stands, and sometimes clears them  with a leaf blower.

[JOEL]

i would love to do that but hunting state land i try to keep my spots secret

[Demoderby4]

Joel- I have done it on state land and had great results! I don't know how many people are on your land or anything but every time i have done it on state land i walked away with a buck, i understand what you mean by trying to keep your spot a secret though, i always worry that i will find a gut pile by my spot whenever i go back to it, but that hasn't happened yet. But just thought i'd share some of my experience with ya!

[GTOHunter]

I have raked and clean pathes to and from my hunting stands or down to my mineral and salt licks too,my Dad use to clean the leaves all around the tree that he leaned against or layed down under when he hunted so the Deer wouldn't hear him walk or turn around the area around the tree.We have mowed pathes across our fields where we wanted Deer to cross and they will in fact follow that man-made trail!It is funny how the simplest of deeds will improve our hunting! [;)]
 
I think there was an article in the last D & DH magazine about weed eating pathes for the deer to follow to get them to travel past their hunting stands and area's?

[cannycorn2000]

never tried this, but a good idea

[NYarcher]

I think it comes down to the path of least resistance. Minor impact trails i created to portable stands are now deer runways. And i stopped using these trails years ago.