rfickes87 wrote:moondoondude wrote:Out here, clear cuts and selective cuts are like gold. They produce the best habitat for big bucks in my opinion. Their regeneration is based on a number of factors but in general, 4 - 9 years are the sweet spot for bedding areas, food sources, and maximum utilization. You can't beat a clear cut or selective cut in my opinion, all the ingredients for big bucks.
Moon,
I put a camera on a transition of a mature clear cut and open woods. This is also the military crest elevation of a ridge. Thick cut ontop and open woods below the crest. I left it there all archery season. Shooter after shooter on cam anytime it was leeward. I guess they were going into bed and back out and/Or just cruising for does. You could set your watch to it. I was just laughing every time I'd go back and check the wind. I couldnt believe it. Just as Dan has said before, they love thick to back and open below.
I have another mature clear cut i want to scout. Its a 2 mile walk and it seems to be the best bedding in the area. However this one, it's not on the top of the ridge. It's on the eastern facing side of a ridge. So that good bedding on the military crest that i found in other cuts like before might not be there this time? It'll be interesting to scout on foot and see. Have you ever scouted this sort?
Rfickes87 - Sorry just seeing this.
Yes, for sure. A lot of the terrain here drops and rises maybe 20 - 50 vertical feet repeatedly every couple hundred feet. A lot of gullies and cuts repeatedly, so it offers a lot of opportunities to see numerous southern exposures, numerous northern exposures, numerous western exposures, and numerous eastern exposures. If a large area with this type of terrain is clear cut or selectively cut, you get to see the difference in these exposures repeatedly.
You also get some areas that are more gently rolling that don't have so many cuts and gullies - where you get larger areas that can have a singular exposure (like the eastern exposure you are referencing).
Eastern ridges receive the first sun exposure in the mornings. Particularly in the coldest times of the year in a clear cut or selective cut, deer will bed and hang on eastern exposures since they warm up quickest in the morning (the coldest time of the day). Wherever deer are in the mornings is typically close to where they bed, if not where they actually bed.
I would actually prefer that the clear cut or selective cut is on the side of a hill, like you are describing, because even that slight angle of the hill permits more light to penetrate in and hit the forest floor which in turn creates more, thicker habitat competing for the sunlight. This is why the deer are there - the habitat creates better security, bedding, and food for lots of wildlife (including deer). I would hunt the southern edge of the cut assuming that the cut is on a pretty gradual slope and that there isn't a defining topographical feature to the south that makes up the clear cut's southern boundary. Most of all you have to have a reason that the deer have somewhere to filter out towards the south. Focus your scouting on top third, middle third, and bottom third of the southern edge of the cut. Whichever third is closest to food will probably be where they want to leave the cut.