Prospects for 10 Acres of Clear Cut
 

This will be my 4th summer after a winter clear cut of about 10 acres. The area is starting to grow in fairly nicely now and I am thinking that deer will start to use it for bedding. Is this generally the time frame for clear cuts?

As such, I have already started treating this area as a "refuge", staying clear of it except for perhaps end of season scouting.

I had 10 ac. of mostly popple clearcut on my land 3 yr's ago. The deer have been feeding heavily on the regrowth ever since. this year it should be thick and tall enough this year to serve as bedding cover too. I've mainly been hunting the trails in and out of it. No matter the wind direction, I've got a trail I can hunt.

Clearcutting, if done right, is perhaps the best thing a person can do for hunting if they have mature woods. In retrospect, I wish I could have left some strips of wood as safe travel corridors. Also, my logger left all the cuttings and smashed them down with his rig - I think it would have been much better to pile them up or clear them out - it made for difficult travel for the deer. Loggers will pay you to do the cut, and some good money too. Wish I could have been paid less and have be in better shape for hunting. Now, however, the cuttings are all rotting down (finally). I created some trails that I could maintain and even plant with food plot and the deer use these - now I am going to just leave it all alone. We saw some young bucks coming in to the area toward evening last Nov gun season and it was encouraging - should get better in the next few years.

When the cut grows up, the whole site will be a escape/travel lane. I nipped some trails through the first year after it was cut, when the saplings were small. I put the trails around the slash where it was easy walking and led them past where I wanted the deer to go. The deer started using them immediately. Every year since then, I've maintained them.

The deer have likely already been using it for bedding if it is that old. If you can still see in it I would say hunt it until the time comes when u can not, then use it as a sanctuary. The property I hunt has pretty much all been clear cut at one time and is now either mature pine, short young pine, or recently cut. Find a nice S to SE faceing hillside and watch it on a crisp cold morning and you will never get bored. You'll be able to wat h deer coming in to bed down all morning. Of course this is only a good gun tactic. Tough to fling an arrow 250 yards across a clear cut with much accuracy