Hunting The Clear Cuts!
 

Few Questions on hunting Clear Cuts.

Here in Lower Alabama it doesn't get as cold as most places and doesn't snow but tends to freeze at nights. Temps in the Hi 20's, Don't know if this has a lot to do with it because I here that in Mornin's deer will head for the Clear cut to bed and warm there'selfs up but don't know if this apply's to us in this kind of weather.

So, what time is the best to hunt Clear Cuts, I know being in the Rut it would be anytime of the day but say for instance before the rut? Any pointers on hunting Clear cuts as well?

Please shoot me something, Eager to learn a few things about this kind of set up as they just cut half of my property a year back. Next year it will be a 3 year old cut.

Thanks In adnvance. Dan-

N the day time Hi's are in the 40-50's

In the rut deer will be crossing it.. I like hunting clear cuts anytime other people are in the woods. A 3 year old cut should have some good cover in it. Set up so you can see into the cover, that's where the deer will run once the pressure starts.
-Jake

Lots of food in the clearcuts for the deer also. Briars, honeysuckle and other vegetation is prime.

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How does this Clear Cut Look? There aint much growing in it as far as a food source. Its a bunch of dead pushed over brush, sticks, limbs, stumps, etc.
This is a picture taken from a stand where I will be hunting next year.

It'll look completely different next fall. Shrubs and tree seedlings will be dog-hair thick. You have a golden opportunity here. Right now, all the old deer trails are gone. If you can, nip and trim some trails through, past your stand while the tree seedlings are small. As the clearcut grows up thick, these will be the trails the deer will use and continue to follow.

If that is paper company land, or some individuals that replant it will be a lot different. We usually spray larger tracts with a helicopter in the late summer, burn in the fall and plant with pine seedlings the same winter. Hard to exactly tell with the photo, but that is a recent clearcut.

In Northern Maine we have large tracts of wilderness that is spotted with clear cuts. These areas provide some of the only areas in the North Maine woods where we have a clear shot over forty yards, with the exception of logging roads. I have found the best time to hunt the clear cuts is cold early mornings when deer will use these areas to bed down in a spot where there is a warming sun. I usually try to focus on clear cuts that are south or east facing slopes in the morning where deer can get the sun. Deer seem to favor the edges of these clear cuts opposed to walking through the middle of them. Probably due to the fact it gives them a quick escape into the denser forests. We can confirm this is true when hunting on snow. The deer tracks we see throughout the clear cuts are almost always around the edges.
I know some of this may not apply in the south but wanted to give you my input on your question.

Thanks again to all of you. I don't think it has been planted. Im almost certain that it hasn't

That cut will look completely different next year. It'll grow up thicker than you'd believe. I'd get in there early summer with a tractor and cut some trails through where you want the deer to go. They'll follow the easiest path. The next several years that cut will be a good spot.
-Jake