My opinion is that deer WILL take the path of least resistance only if they feel safe in doing so, especially bucks. By doing what you are thinking, if you don't choke their travels down to a tiny opening, your chances of doing this successfully will be good. A fence is an obvious thing in the woods though and you may get better results with brush piles or tree tops strategically placed if you had a way to create them. One thing I would think about is, if you put up a fence, will the neighbor get upset over this or wonder what you are doing? Also keep in mind the neighbor will also see this and may set up on the new funnels as well, possibly causing deer to fear the bottlenecks.