Hill country clear cuts

[cbigbear]

Anyone have any luck finding/hunting beds in hill country cutovers? The hill terrain WMA I normally hunts had several beetle cuts done early last year. The are now at the age of having heavy cover yet still plenty of food. They seem to be likely buck bedding areas, but new cuts do draw a lot of hunters around the edges.

[dan]

Yes... But usually the ones that are not visible from the road, or are not receiving heavy pressure.

[SaddleMaster]

I have only started trying to learn how to hunt clear cuts in the last couple of years, so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.

Most of them I've hunted are 10-20 acres and around 5 years old but we get several new ones every year. I find a lot of beds in them, but I'm learning that most of them are night time beds. During the rut I'd find beds where you could smell that a buck had been laying there all night. Outside of the rut I've only seen does in and around them during daylight. These cuts are not on points or other features to take advantage of the predominant wind so I'm sure that's part of it. I've cut buck tracks in the snow that went a considerable distance to go from the cut to feed to a bedding point that took advantage of the wind.

[JoeRE]

The best clear cuts for hunting I have seen are small older grown up cuts surrounded by a lot of open hardwoods, so the bedding cover is concentrated, and like Dan said away from hunting pressure. Does swarm to them for bedding in those circumstances, and in the rut every buck for miles seems to cruise past. Bucks prefer to bed off by themselves, outside of the rut anyway, so if an old clear cut has a lot of does bedding in it then you will probably find bucks bedding elsewhere.

Newer clear cuts in hill country are great browse just like in a big woods setting.

[Bowhunter4life]

Hunting clear cuts is where the majority of my bucks have came from over the last few years. I have found tons of buck beds in the clear cuts. They will use the points here in hill country and I have actually watched them bed down from a distance a few times. I prefer a cut that is a few years old. That seems to weed out other hunters cause it's so grown up and thick they can't see over the brush and most of the guys use climbers here so they can't get in those small trees that were left behind when it was cut. I have no problem with my hang on stands getting up about 8 or so feet in these small trees. Just high enough to see above the brush. I have had the majority of my success catching bucks returning to their beds a little late in the mornings. They seem to enter the clear cut from the surrounding timber before or right at first light but once in the cut they feel safe. They will browse and take their time getting back to their beds. I have killed multiple bucks this way. Still hunting the transitional edge too has been a great tactic for me during the rut. Bucks chase the does around these edges if they aren't pressured from others. IMHO in hill country I believe a clear cut is a great location to kill good bucks. One of the cuts I hunt is 2000 acres. Come rifle season when pressure gets heavy the deer flock to it. I will hang a camera up in late October and leave it through rifle season. Up until rifle season I will get the same few bucks on camera but after a few days of gun pressure there will several new bucks popping up on it.

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[SaddleMaster]

Hunting clear cuts is where the majority of my bucks have came from over the last few years. I have found tons of buck beds in the clear cuts. They will use the points here in hill country and I have actually watched them bed down from a distance a few times.

So are you seeing them bed on points within the clear cut to take advantage of the wind like they would normally even if it wasn't a clear cut? Or do you see them selecting bedding differently?

[yungbuck]

Good info

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[Bowhunter4life]

Hunting clear cuts is where the majority of my bucks have came from over the last few years. I have found tons of buck beds in the clear cuts. They will use the points here in hill country and I have actually watched them bed down from a distance a few times.

So are you seeing them bed on points within the clear cut to take advantage of the wind like they would normally even if it wasn't a clear cut? Or do you see them selecting bedding differently?

I see them using points just as they do in all the hills. Taking advantage of the the wind. Here is a set up that produced twice within a few days last year. I was there on opening day and watched 3 bucks come by. 6 point and two 8 points. I killed one of the 8 pointers. My brother hadn't had much luck by the fourth day of the season and I was able to talk him into hunting this location. He did and that morning he killed a 164 inch 13 point which is his biggest to date. Where this stand is located i can see almost that whole bottom and shoot across most of it with a rifle. Red is buck beds the I have found...
Blue is stand site...
Green shade is timber surrounding the cut...
Black is the bucks route...
Yellow is crop fields...


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[dan]

They bed p[oints like usual, and they bed the edge of the clear cut on the downwind side, and they bed under lone trees like in a swamp.

[SaddleMaster]

Got it! Good info and examples from everybody. Thanks!