Deer Travel Corridors: How to Identify, Create, and Tips for Hunting Them

The more time I spend in the deer woods, the more I realize how deliberate deer are in their travel routes. Movement between two locations isn’t random. It is often the path they feel safest on while offering the least resistance. These routes are deer travel corridors.

Deer travel corridors are natural or manmade features on a property that funnel deer movement between two locations. Most notably, it influences how deer move between bedding areas and food sources. The most used of these travel routes provide a path of least resistance between two locations without compromising security.

Importance of Travel Corridors for Hunters

Most whitetail hunters have been faced with the situation of their target buck only moving past their tree stand just after dark. In many instances, their stands are set up on food plots or some other form of food. Yes, you could wait for the coveted “cold front” in hopes that the buck will be on his feet earlier in the day, but personally, I prefer a more aggressive approach.

After all, mature bucks don’t get to maturity by moving long distances during daylight, especially in areas with high hunting pressure. In our experience, they often move only a few hundred yards from their bed before dark, and in some cases, significantly less. The solution? Locating and strategically hunting travel corridors.

How to Find Deer Travel Corridors

Finding deer travel corridors is relatively simple. Locate the food, bedding cover, and the terrain features deer will likely use to move between them. To streamline this process, start with aerial and topographic maps. Allowing you to mark possible food sources, bedding areas, and travel corridors between them before you actually walk a property. Ultimately, saving you time while reducing human intrusion on the property.

Starting with Maps

I start with an aerial and topo hybrid map, like the one available with OnX, to identify possible bedding areas and food sources. The aerial imagery with topo overlay allows me to see possible bedding; areas with timber or thick cover. Having the topo lines overlaid on the aerial imagery comes in handy in areas with large tracts of timber that look the same. The topo lines let you pinpoint the toes of ridges or fingers that deer will likely bed on in these areas.

Whitetail food sources are typically the open areas on the map, like ag fields. If the property you are hunting is located in an area without agriculture. Like areas with primarily large expanses of timber, things can be more difficult. In these instances, focus on the areas with the greatest habitat diversity: river bottoms, clearcuts, habitat edges. OnX can be extremely helpful in these situations. Use their layer features showing timber cuts, wetlands, and acorn-producing oaks to locate possible food sources.

Once you have the possible food and bedding cover marked on your map, look for features that connect these areas. Topo maps help you find features such as ridges, saddles, benches, and creek bottoms that connect two areas. In flat areas, lean harder on aerial imagery to find the features connecting bedding and food. These features could be habitat edges, fencerows, logging roads, etc.

Confirm on Foot

Maps will get you started in the right direction, but you’ll want to put boots on the ground to confirm your map findings. Walk the routes and areas you marked, looking for sign. Tracks, droppings, trails, rubs, scrapes, and beds. If you come across a highly worn trail linking bedding and food, you’ve likely encountered a true travel corridor.

In instances where you still aren’t sure, hang a trail camera or two in the suspected travel corridor. A few weeks of photos will show if deer are actually using the area to travel consistently.

It’s also important to note that while walking the location, keep an eye out for possible stand locations. If you plan to hang a permanent set, make sure you have a stand with you so you can hang it if you find the ideal stand site. For hunters who prefer a mobile approach, take notes and drop pins to mark trees you may hunt during the season. Trust me, its significantly easier to have an idea of where a good tree is than trying to find one in the dark when going in on a morning hunt.

How to Create Deer Travel Corridors

In some instances, the natural travel corridors are not conducive to hunting. Sometimes the problem lies with access, while others don’t pinch deer movement enough. Whatever the case may be, adding man-made travel corridors to your list of habitat improvements could be the solution.

Hinge Cut Travel Corridor in Timber

Hinge cutting can be a great way to steer deer movement from bedding areas to feeding areas in the timber. The key to the hinge cut corridor is in the way the trees are cut and the spacing between them. Hinge cut smaller trees at waist height at 5 to 15 foot intervals along the corridor. The fallen trees should lie perpendicular to the trail. The spacing and orientation of the cut trees allow deer to move out of the corridor if they need to avoid predators without compromising it’s to guide deer movement.

Mowing Trails

On properties with CRP, overgrowth fields, or other areas with thick vegetation, mowing narrow trails can make great travel corridors. The mowed path shouldn’t exceed 3 feet in width to mimic a natural deer trail through the thick cover. Mature bucks will still bed in the thicker portions of these areas, but will quickly start to use the mowed trails to navigate in and out of them.

Keeping ATV trails or old logging roads in the timber mowed with a brush hog and the ground clear of any debris can also make good travel corridors for whitetails. The key, however, is to make sure these trails do not receive a significant amount of human pressure via four-wheelers or other ATVs.

Food Plots, Water Holes, and Mock Scrapes

In some instances, there may not be an ideal way to modify or create travel corridors ideal for hunting. In these cases, adding secluded food plots, “kill plots,” just off current travel routes that provide the advantage to the hunter can be a good bet. Once established, these food plots can start to alter the deer trails as they start to hit the secluded food and water before heading out to the primary food sources.

Water holes and mock scrapes are also features to consider adding to your travel corridors. For one, they give the deer a reason to stop while moving down the trail, providing a better shot opportunity for the hunter while providing a source of water or a place to communicate via the mock scrape.

Hunting Tips For Travel Corridors

Stand Placement

Good stand placement often determines success. Consider wind direction and stand access. Having good access will decrease the odds of spooking deer entering your stand, and the wind direction, when played correctly, ensures deer do not smell you while in the tree.

Pinch Points and Funnels

Pinch points and funnels are deer travel corridors that shine the most during the rut, when bucks are on their feet looking for the next receptive doe. Pinches and funnels like saddles, the head of a deep ravine, benches, and river bottoms are hot travel corridors to catch a cruising buck during the rut.

Trail Cameras

While you shouldn’t plan a hunt strictly on trail camera data, they can be a great tool to narrow in on a mature bucks habits. Trail cameras set up in travel corridors can provide insight into where a buck might be bedding and feeding. Use the information from this camera data and previous scouting to determine the best location to hunt the buck without tipping him off to being hunted.

Timing and Seasonal Patterns

Travel corridors used by deer can change throughout the course of the season. During the early and late seasons, bucks are on a bed-to-feed pattern. During the rut, things can get a little hectic, and patterns go out the window in some instances.

During the early and late season, when bucks are primarily on a bed to feed pattern, focus on travel corridors between thick cover (bedding) and the primary food sources. During the rut, switch to travel corridors, pinches, and funnels that connect different doe bedding areas or large blocks of timber.