Too thick for deer?

[turkeyhunter20]

There is a heck of a difference between thick cover with a few briers and an impenetrable, solid, monoculture thicket of 7 foot tall blackberry briers. I realize that such brier patches don’t exist everywhere, but if you’ve ever seen one, you will know what I’m talking about. I guarantee you that no deer would attempt to push through one under any circumstances.

Yes, deer will plow right through high stem count saplings and NWSGs with ease and love doing it , but solid, large brier patches is a different tale.

I know exactly what you’re talking about and that’s about where this spot has gotten to. If a man got dropped into the middle of it i don’t know that he’d ever make it out in one piece


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[Native Hunter]

I know exactly what you’re talking about and that’s about where this spot has gotten to. If a man got dropped into the middle of it i don’t know that he’d ever make it out in one piece


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Lol, yes - you do know what I’m talking about.

I have a DR walk behind mower. You can slowly do it with that, but you had better have every inch of your body covered with something heavy or you will look like you’ve been hit by shrapnel. At places you will have to back up and hit it multiple times to push through, but if you have the time and patience it will work. Good luck.

 

[jsasker007]

Flail mower and/or excavator would do well with that.

 

[omicron1792]

Agree with all. My summer food plots even get too thick. But when I cut lanes through it I find every single plant on sides of those lanes gets nipped.

 

[b116757]

I do spray my solid blackberry bier patches the quail and rabbits use them the deer may browse the edges some but don’t enter them that I’ve seen. Now where I have plum thicket with some blackberry I don’t usually mess with them much unless they are simply taking over an area completely and I don’t want that much of it. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I had a hillside with a couple blackberry bier patches I would see a covey of quail almost every time I was near that hillside after spraying the brier patches I don’t see the quail in that area even remotely as often as I had been so I’m convinced quail do use them. This is very open county with smaller tree pockets or cover along a seasonal creek bed defiantly not heavy timber. First photo of that 160 with surrounding area to show just how open it is second photo zoomed in where yellow was brier patches blue was a cedar lined fence row I removed around the same time. Defiantly reduced the quail use in that corner idk that it effect the deer use much at all.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The areas my sons and I hunt in Pa. are thicker than your pics. They find their way around in it, making use of any thin spots that happen naturally. I've seen deer trails in briars and even tunnels through stuff like that. Some of the stuff we hunt in is over 7 or 8 ft. tall too, so we use tree stands / tree ladders to see down into it. We've killed our biggest bucks in horrible stuff as they came into tiny clearings, or walked along narrow trails. Shot distances were from 10 yards to about 50 yards through a longer "clearing" that wasn't really clear.

One thing we have done in the worst spots was like Native Hunter said in post #2. We cut narrow, winding trails through high, impenetrable brush & mountain laurel. That made our entry easier, and the deer made use of our trails too - it's easier for them to get around for feeding, rutting, or escaping danger. The deer adopted our cut trails like it was their biggest wish. Try it.

I love the looks of your pics. I'd hunt that area in a heartbeat!

 

[Ikeman]

I wish I still had the pictures, but I used to kayak 6 miles to bow hunt a spot EXACTLY like this.

It was an absolute beast to navigate, but those deer had eaten meandering pathways inside that chest high green briar patch that didn’t look anything at all like trails. I was always bloody beyond belief by the time I got to my tree. It never failed, though, deer were on their feet 24/7 in there. To the point that I had a hard time getting to my tree because no matter what time of day I always jumped deer.


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[Ikeman]

This is a question I wrestle with at my property. I've hunted one piece for 20 to 25 years that has lots of small open, sharp ridge tops with wooded sides. There are several smaller food plots. For several years we saw some good bucks. We then had a cedar harvest and things thickened up. We also planted NWSG. Things thickened up more over time and the buck sightings decreased. About 12 years ago I added on with a similar size parcel that adjoins it. It's a cattle farm. This property has a slightly older class of trees with large, open fields that join in the center. It has fescue as opposed to NWSG. I consistently see more bucks on the 2nd parcel during early and late season. During the heat of the rut, I see an equal number of bucks but I probably see the same bucks more often on the cattle farm and see travelers on the other farm. Movement is harder to predict on the first. Rabbits are more abundant on the 1st parcel and turkey are equal in numbers on each (but perhaps easier to hunt on the cattle farm). I've done cuts on both. I have seen does utilize the cuts to some extent on the 1st and thicker property. I haven't seen any benefit to bucks on this one though. Compare that to the cattle farm where I have seen bucks use areas where I cut timber.

This is entirely opposite of where I am at. We have bermudagrass instead of fescue, but you won’t find a mature buck on a grass/mature thin understory woods property unless a doe is in heat.
If you don’t have nasty, thick cover… you don’t have deer.


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[Bill]

I wish I still had the pictures, but I used to kayak 6 miles to bow hunt a spot EXACTLY like this.

It was an absolute beast to navigate, but those deer had eaten meandering pathways inside that chest high green briar patch that didn’t look anything at all like trails. I was always bloody beyond belief by the time I got to my tree. It never failed, though, deer were on their feet 24/7 in there. To the point that I had a hard time getting to my tree because no matter what time of day I always jumped deer.


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I think true green briars and something like blackberry's are different creatures. I hunted a piece of east coast timber that had a 5 acre patch of green briars and it was exactly as you described. 24/7 deer in it and on their feet. But they eat green briars so it's a bed and breakfast. I've never seen a green briar in Missouri.

 

[H20fwler]

The areas my sons and I hunt in Pa. are thicker than your pics. They find their way around in it, making use of any thin spots that happen naturally. I've seen deer trails in briars and even tunnels through stuff like that. Some of the stuff we hunt in is over 7 or 8 ft. tall too, so we use tree stands / tree ladders to see down into it. We've killed our biggest bucks in horrible stuff as they came into tiny clearings, or walked along narrow trails. Shot distances were from 10 yards to about 50 yards through a longer "clearing" that wasn't really clear.

One thing we have done in the worst spots was like Native Hunter said in post #2. We cut narrow, winding trails through high, impenetrable brush & mountain laurel. That made our entry easier, and the deer made use of our trails too - it's easier for them to get around for feeding, rutting, or escaping danger. The deer adopted our cut trails like it was their biggest wish. Try it.

I love the looks of your pics. I'd hunt that area in a heartbeat!

I have same on east end of my little woods, maybe 20 yards wide by 300 yards long briars/weeds/small trees THICK. When hunting pressure kicks up usually during gun season they dive right into it..and any wounded deer go there to hide or die.
I am in very heavy ag area with small to large woodlots scattered through it..so cover is at a premium.
Friend of mine logged a small woods 10-12 acres out in the middle of a field, loggers took everything bigger than a coffee can and left tops. It was a mess, he just left it go...it grew up thicker than crap you couldn't even walk through it. It stayed like that for 20 years and was a deer magnet during gun season...same thing when running yotes.

 

[bigboreblr]

I walk around the PA state forests in january's flintlock season. I find a spot of birar and wait around an edge of it.

Someday your going to wound a deer and your going to have to track in there. If stumps aren't and issue, cut 2 trails in there. Like a V, but separated at the bottom. You can put a teestand that peeks into both trails. Make them 2 mower paths wide. One year mow to the left, the next mow to the right. IF it has stumps, do a rough cut during a warm spell this winter. Then walk in there late spring with a sprayer.

Not sure how much forestry mulchers are to rent or contract out for a few hours, but might be worth all the hasle of doing it by hand.

 

[Native Hunter]

I think true green briars and something like blackberry's are different creatures. I hunted a piece of east coast timber that had a 5 acre patch of green briars and it was exactly as you described. 24/7 deer in it and on their feet. But they eat green briars so it's a bed and breakfast. I've never seen a green briar in Missouri.

Exactly. Green briers are like Candy to deer and very different in terms of travel compared to blackberry.

 

[Ikeman]

I think true green briars and something like blackberry's are different creatures. I hunted a piece of east coast timber that had a 5 acre patch of green briars and it was exactly as you described. 24/7 deer in it and on their feet. But they eat green briars so it's a bed and breakfast. I've never seen a green briar in Missouri.

I thought Op’s first post said it was briar…?

I agree with you on the blackberry or, more likely around me, multiflora rose. They don’t like that too much. If they are eating on either one, you have bigger problems than a multiflora patch… your deer are starving.

If this is not an edible briar like greenbriar, I would 100% alter this clear cut. If it were me, and it was as impenetrable and tall as described, I would rent a skid steer with mulching head attachment and mulch it to the ground. I would follow this with an herbicide treatment, if necessary to kill the vines/canes, and maintain it as a fire unit. A tall grass and early successional shrub mixture would make an EXCELLENT replacement for bedding cover.


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