How do you hunt blowdown/tornado areas?

[IkemanTx]

Several of the properties I hunt are covered in severe blowdown areas. I am talking 5, 10, 20 acres of woods where 80%+ of the trees are down in all directions. Most of the historic deer trails are now cut off by them, you basically can't navigate through them, and it seems to turn entire chunks of woods into deer sign deserts. How do you utilize these areas cover that is THAT thick, and do bucks even get far into them? These areas are pretty much all from the last year, and some from the year before, so travel patterns aren't very apparent yet.

Here is a small example from a scouting trip last week.


The only way through is what I call "trunk surfing"

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[Hawthorne]

In my experience deer wont go thru them unless they have a path. I've experienced it in hinge cut areas and timbered areas they left alot of treetops. If you can get in there with a chainsaw and cut some trails maybe make some beds also. Hunting the edges might work.

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[IkemanTx]

Ya, I "can't trim" on this property but I had thought about making some trails into the enterior of them to entice a buck to use them in a more predictable way.

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[Hawthorne]

Yes lead them by tree stand locations even put a waterhole on one of the trails if there's none around. Im putting in a 75 gallon feeder tub this spring in a location between food and bed. Gonna dig a hole so it looks natural. Try to make the beds in strategic locations that a buck would already want to bed.

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[dirt nap giver]

I have a couple areas that this happened to because of straight line winds.
The problem I see with bedding being in the interior is the lack of escape route because of the tangle. Perimeter activity has escalated because the generational trails are still leading to the area.
Personally, I would map out the primary runs leading to and from the area, then map out the secondary trails as well. Because deer wil take the path of least resistance to go around this area, I would look to the shortest route around the tangle to have an increase or an establishment of new trails(shortest distance from A to B). Then look for the bucks to bed on the new travel route side edge. Wind contingent of course.

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[headgear]

They love to bed in and around that stuff but like DNG said there needs to be as escape route, if you can't trim see what you can do to clear some trails and plan some kill spots.

[dan]

Its good stuff. Creates bedding. A lot of people get the misunderstanding that bucks bed in the middle of it. Thats not really true... Bucks bed on transitions (edges) either interior or exterior, but not just randomly in the middle.
Best way to hunt it is to look at the bedding now in spring/winter and figure out how close to get. You don't need to be in the thick, they are set up to monitor predators entering... Set up where they leave as soon as your out of sight, sound, and smell...

[Josh_S]

downed tree tops make a nice set up for a natural ground blind