How To Successfully Funnel Deer Into Bow Range

A heavy-racked monster buck slowly descends the hillside bedding area. It hits a man-made trail through the cover and follows it all the way through an old fence gap from decades long past. Pausing for safety’s sake, it scans the area ahead.

Several minutes later, the old buck resumes travel and continues along the cut trail. It passes through a small saddle, hits a wall of hinge-cut trees and turns into the inside field corner. Eventually, it enters the small food plot. It feeds for a few minutes and heads toward the blind.

A surrounding buffer of giant miscanthus creates an hourglass-shape around the plot. The buck feeds at one end before marching through the pinch-point and hitting your planted scrape tree on the other side of it. A smooth draw, steady anchor and release of the arrow does the trick. All you saw was the last leg of the trip, but the success resulted from the eight different funneling factors between the buck’s bed and point of harvest.

If you’re in the hunt for adding or finding funnels on your hunting ground, read on. Here’s the reason for funnels, and templates for creating small-, medium-, and large-scale funneling projects.

The Reasons for Funnels

Funnels are all-important for deer hunters, especially those who carry stick and string to the deer woods. Of course, there are numerous reasons why.

First, convenience, because deer tend to take the path of least resistance. Secondly, security, as funnels oftentimes offer cover on each side, which mature deer especially love. Third, wind, because certain types of funnels influence wind flow to the benefit of local deer.

Of course, there are different categories of funnels. Habitat can create these based on plant and tree types, as well as the successional state of growth. Topography and terrain can do the same, with varying topography influencing how deer traverse the landscape. Lastly, water plays into this, too. And when habitat, terrain and/or water combine to form a funnel, it can be the mother of all funnels to focus on.

Large Scale: Moderate to Heavy Machinery Required

Large-scale changes are oftentimes the best and fastest ways to funnel deer. Unfortunately, these almost always require equipment, and heavy machines at that. Tractors, loaders, excavators and more are needed to complete the following.

Creating trails through thick cover is a great way to funnel deer. As noted, deer take the paths of least resistance. Areas that are thick with early successional cover are beloved by whitetails. These serve as great bedding, feeding and staging areas. But deer also need travel routes through these hotspots, and creating a trail through thick cover can provide an excellent funnel. It might even serve as a whitetail highway. This can be done with a rotary cutter tractor attachment, a brush mower, string trimmer or by hand with a machete and hand tools.

Digging a big water hole is another option. This is good to do in areas where water is lacking. It serves as a major water source and funnels deer into a tighter area. You might need to rent a small excavator (if you’re trained to use it) to complete the task. I’ve done this, and it can knock out creation of a sizeable water source in a day or two.

Planting a food plot does the trick as well. Of course, larger plots are better as feeding destinations. In contrast, micro plots (or kill plots) are smaller (usually 1 acre or less). These feed deer but are designed to funnel deer into tighter spaces close to blinds and tree stands. Generally, the best way to achieve this is by creating food plots in specific shapes, such as J, K, L, T, U, V, W, hourglass, turkey foot, etc. Each of these have key vertexes (or pinch points) that bring deer close.

Another consideration is building a new barrier altogether. This can come in different forms, including installing a fence, pushing fallen trees to create a wall of brush, and more. Or consider cutting a hole through an existing barrier. This might be opening a hole in an existing fence, brush pile, dense forest edge, etc. If it eases passage, and/or forces deer to travel a certain way, it can be a funnel.

Mid Scale: Light to Moderate Machinery Required

Not everyone has access to heavy machinery, nor can they afford it. Fortunately, it’s still possible to accomplish the task with light machinery.

For example, consider (safely) using a chainsaw to down some trees. You might also consider hinge-cutting these in a manner that falls them in a cohesive direction that assembles a barrier that discourages deer movement. Then, leave an opening where you want deer to travel.

Those without a chainsaw, or who can’t use one, might stack brush and trees that are already down. Stack scavenged logs and limbs in strategic locations to force deer toward or away from areas you do or don’t want them to travel.

Third, planting a strategic screen is a viable option as well. Consider Egyptian wheat, which is an annual planting, or giant miscanthus, which is a perennial. While deer can travel through these, they tend to follow these edges more than going through them. Thus, these serve as funneling mechanisms, shield deer from prying eyes (making them feel safer) and provide screening cover to hunters moving to and from hunting blinds and tree stands.

Small Scale: No Machinery Required

Some small-scale projects can funnel deer into tighter areas with no machinery required. These aren’t major changes to the landscape. In fact, some aren’t changes at all.

First, hunt a ridge-line saddle. These cuts through ridgelines create opportunities for deer to cross over a higher elevation without hiking up and over the ridge line. It’s a natural topography-based funnel.

Don’t forget other natural habitat and terrain-centric funnels, either. Banking on an existing bottleneck is a time-tested method. Benches, tree lines, timber pinches, fingers of trees and other land features encourage deer to travel through specific locations.

Some hunters camp out on an oxbow, which deer routinely use as creek and river crossings. Generally, these have banks with a high and low side, and a good crossing, too. Furthermore, deer often bed on the high side of the oxbow in the U-shaped land mass.

Hunting a general creek or river crossing can accomplish the same, oxbow or not. The potency of these increase if the banks up and downstream of the primary crossing are impassable. This raises the odds deer will use the crossing of interest.

Hitting the ditch lines is another viable play. A steep, deep and wide ditch can prevent deer from crossing. Finding that specific location deer can cross can be a solid stand location.

Setting up on a fence gap achieves the same goal. Most fences are jumpable, but deer still prefer gaps. Furthermore, fences intertwined with tree lines and natural foliage are more difficult to cross, too.

Sitting an ag field opening is in the same family of tactics. An inside field corner of an alfalfa, standing soybean or cut cornfield can put a big buck right there in bow range.

Ag aside, natural foliage can achieve the same effect. Home in on edge cover, which deer commonly travel along. Borders between stands of conifers and hardwoods, or mature hardwoods and early successional habitat, are examples. Such areas act as natural funnels, too.

Other funneling tactics are less about “forcing” deer toward, away from or through specific areas, and are more about luring deer into an area. Examples include placing a rubbing post, planting a scrape tree (mock scrape) or even establishing mineral or bait sites (when and where legal).

One form of funneling deer is commonly benefitted from and rarely realized. Whether intentional or unintentional, hunting pressure can serve as a funneling tactic. On public lands, hunting various quadrants of a tract can gradually push deer into other, tighter areas. On private lands, hunting certain stand locations can gradually push deer elsewhere, too. Then, as deer begin to congregate, animals are essentially funneled into tighter spaces.

Compounding Funnel Factors

A primary goal of a bowhunter is learning where deer movement funnels down, in hopes of finding those up-close and personal shot opportunities. For land managers, creating these funnels is high on the list. Whether discovered or created, funneling deer into bow range is important. One of the above stated funnels can be great. Combining several of these funnels into the same area can ramp up effectiveness even more. It just might lead to a monster buck on the wall this fall.

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