Creating a Funnel?

The prickly pear is quite thick where I hunt. If I cut paths through the prickly pear would the game take those "paths of least resistance" sort of creating an artificial funnel?

I bet they would. I know they follow the ranch roads and 4 wheeler trails rather than thickets and high grass on my place.

They will. You can also block off their normal trails to benefit you and make them take another trail.

ATV or UTV dragging a log or fence post behind you is quick. But when it comes back next year it will be twice as thick.

You have to make sure you do not "reseed" the prickly pear when you clear an area, any pad or parts of pads can come back with a vengeance in the cleared area. We went through with frontend loader and scraped an area, and then went back and picked up everything that was left. Still had some come back.

Also burn the stuff that you remove, or you will soon have a new patch to clean up.