To mow or not to mow ? That is the question

I put a new tripod off of a trail between feeder and a bedding / scrape area. It was a.logging trail with mature pines on both sides. Trail has grown up with about 6' pines and deer and hogs meander thru them to feeder. Question is should I now this road ?

If you do, do it now so they get used to it!!!

We will be mowing the end of the month

It has really grown up this year,I guess from all the early rain this year,Standing in the bed of my pickup i can't see my feeder,So yea we gonna mow.

I always look for setups that that require nothing more than pruning a few limbs if they involve travel routes. My mowing is limited to the grassy areas around feeders, and ATV and walking trails needed to get from point A to B. I don't want to change anything that might make a more mature buck alter his pattern of safety.

Mow it now and it will grow up in grass/weeds if it rains anytime soon. Deer will take the path of least resistance when given a chance if the surrounding area to this old trail are thick.

I'd mow it but leave patches here and there, then start corning it.

I've seen this too. But it seems to be more true for travel at night than during the day. Short of the rut, mature bucks want some type of cover for their movements, be it brush during the day, or just waiting until dark.

I don't travel at night so I have only seem them do it in the daytime. The shorter the days get the more active the deer get in daylight as temps cool down.

Just depends on if the trail is straight or winding.

My comment was based on tracks often found on mowed trails and such that we're very obvious the morning after an evening hunt the day before.

Trail cameras can be very telling about this as well.

You've got the mower, make it as straight or windy as you want.

Exactly. Don't want to give all my secrets out at once.

We'll slowly squeeze them outta you.

If deer are moving at night, mowing or not mowing the trail is not going to change that fact. Vast majority of the trail pics I get are at night anyways in the summer heat. Cooler temps bring on more daytime movement along with the rut.

One post at a time

Mow all of it and corn the mess out of it....and invest in a climber since I've never really seen a straight logging rd. (if timberco, be sure they want you mowing the pines)

With curiousity of deer you will have tracks all over it the next day without corn. The will get in a plowed field or all over freshly bulldozed ground.

You will, the issue with a lot of logging rds is that some are more or less firelanes instead of rds, which usually make that a transition zone from pines to mixed forest. There will probably be tracks on it at night from it being the path of least resistance which is why there's usually established trails down the center of grown up logging rds/fire lanes. A mature buck in the pines would be more likely to cross in daylight than walk down the thing and I've noticed they tend to like to cross in bends or right past a bend.

I would imagine that a lot that is dependent on the amount of traffic or new traffic around said mature buck also. Traffic IME tends to alter or change what deer does vs his surroundings or changes to it.

This includes unhunted bucks and those that see reg traffic as part of reg ranch operations. Their habits tend to change regardless until they start starving.

If we mow today,Tomorrow our trail's and around our feeder's are covered up with track's,But our place is so thick in vine's and timber that when we first got it,the ONLY way in was to hire a D-6 dozer for 2 FULL 11-12hr. day's.The day after the dozer work was done ,we was amazed at the track's.I think deer are lazy and they will move with the least resistance's.We have had the same result's after we mow.

tell you something else i do,when we go mow and fill the feeder's,at my stand i will leave my sweatie t-shirt in the stand,and when i go back to check my camera's and feeder's,i will leave another one. Now they get use to my sent and know it's not a threat.Yea,i don't know, but i fill my tag every year

Sounds to me like the advice is telling you that you should be mowing the Friday before opening day or your first hunt.

The best time to hunt a new stand is the first time you crawl into it.

I'D WAIT UNTIL THE WEEK BEFORE
SEASON OPENS. EVERYBODY AROUND
ME ALWAYS DOES. . . . .

(I usually wait until mid-Oct)...know out the planting & mowing at once and 1 last cutting on the hayfield.

Good reading - amazing but true. They are very curious animals. I have game cam pics of deer 3 hours after I put up a new ladder stand and butchered the heck out of trees and limbs all around it. (Made me rethink a lot of things I had been told or led to believe for many years). Mowing now is way too early. I think very earliest would be early september to ensure least amount of "grow-back" come opening weekend of archery or rifle season. honestly I think you could get away with two weeks before.

Seems so obvious after reading it but never would have thought of doing that - great tip. That is why I love this forum.

Mow, Mow, Mow! If you wait you will regret it. We mow the entire lease in mid to end of August.