I have a "large" portion of timber I won't walk in, ever. Exception is tsi work in late winter. Ideally I'd love 85% cover and 15% food roughly. I want variety of cover... Cedar thickets, big timber, overgrown crp. IMO- food must be there year round.... Clover & alfalfa in spring and all the tsi & browse food known to man. Then food lasting (say A grain) til almost spring. South facing bedding, lots of areas bucks never get messed with and hunted "too hard or wrong" too often. " Smart hunting" keeps bucks there Messy hunting runs old bucks out FAST. Including being in timber way too much during off season or checking cams too often, u name it. Low pressure year round is my tactic & my opinion. Aside from farm work & outter areas I can goof off in, I leave the deer alone. But- this all has to sit on top of a foundation of amazing habitat & varieties of food. Then mixed with laying off the trigger on younger great gen bucks and killing old bully bucks. Adding all that together is a big task to see with consistency if that's what a guy wants. I love it. Ain't easy. Then, even if all that works out.... Now u gotta see this old smart dude in daylight in bow range. Youch- it's all harder than folks realize.
*Forgot to mention a HUGE impact on deer.... Entrance and exits - ACCESS.... I'm talking both general activities year round and during hunting. For example.... I only walk my fence lines or swoop way around cover with my travel. I don't take 20 different routes to locations, I try and take the same trails at all time and leave the rest of the areas untraveled. Hunting certain areas from certain directions based on winds, etc. Whether I'm farming, plots or hunting, I always try and walk in the areas that are hidden from cover & food and the total outskirts of the land. Hard to explain over writing BUT it's something, IMO, I really think out hard and stick to. I have certain areas on my farm that are awesome BUT - I only hunt them a few days during the best times and I have a FEW EXCEPTIONS where I don't hunt them period because it's simply impossible and I do more harm than good. I hunt more outskirts of those areas and do all I can for habitat changes to pull em out of those impossible areas a little more. I guess the ACCESS thing is something I'll label with "PRESSURE". You go walking through a mature bucks bedding area 5-6 times & he feels threatened, I just think it's game over. Do it enough, I literally think folks can run those bucks outta there. They will seek and find areas they do not get disturbed.