Trail width and buck use

[Mike Bolin]

Not exactly sure where to post this, so I am just putting here. Having retired in September I had a lot more time in the woods this year. The property that I hunt was logged a few years back and it was left in a mess by the loggers. I cleaned up and leveled out some of the skidder trails and planted them in a mix of white Dutch and alsike clover. Trail cameras showed a lot of use by does and fawns with the occasional photo of 3 different mature bucks.
While on stand in November, I watched a 4-5 year old buck cross thru the thicket, which the trail surrounds, and walk across the planted trail. Once crossing the trail the bucks would parallel the trail at about 10 yards downwind. 3 times I watched this very nice 8 pointer walk out to the trail and grab a bite to eat, step back into the thick stuff and then continue on his way. Most of these trails are 8-12 feet wide. There are a few places that they narrow down to 4-5 feet wide. When the trail narrows down, the buck would walk out onto the trail and move/feed thru the narrow areas, then step back off the trail once it widened out.
I am thinking that I have some work to do this coming spring. Contemplating letting mother nature take the trails back over...maybe just have a 4' swath planted in the middle of the trail. I have known for years that bucks parallel trails from cover to scent check for does but getting to see it first hand has caused to re-think the way I laid things out. One of my original goals was to get something growing to prevent erosion and I did do that.
Mike

 

[j-bird]

i think it is all going to depend on what your trying to accomplish. Narrow trails are more secure feeling to the deer, however it also makes growing anything on them much more difficult as well - at least in thick areas. Also consider that a buck in november is going to travel a little differently than outside the rut. Many bucks when searching for does will try to cross as many does trails as possible to detect a hot doe vs walking along or even parallel to the doe trails. A more experienced buck is going to try to stick to cover as much as possible as well.....he has figured out that more open areas exposes him. i think what you saw was bucks following a secondary or soft edge - this can happen when cover types change or the thickness of the cover changes - this isn't always as obvious to us until we have a reason to look.

Consider what you are using these trails for. Are you using them for hunting/walking access, equipment access, steering deer or even as food plots. You typically can't have it all without giving up something. Sometimes the deer don't even need a path, they will simply follow the edge that develops as the cover type or density changes and forms a natural edge. Logging trails tend to be areas that get some light from the logging efforts and as such tend to get some understory growth with tends to attract deer naturally as well. However it can form edges on the back side as well.

I have some logging trails that the deer use while they seem to ignore others. I can cut trails for the deer and some seem ignored, while I can rake a small path to my stand to clear leaves in the fall and invariably the deer will use them! It's very situational and based on what your trying to do and to be honest we never really know for certain what the deer are going to do.