Best years after a place is logged

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mheichelbech
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Best years after a place is logged

Unread postby mheichelbech » Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:02 am

What has been your experience with properties that have been logged as to how the hunting ebbs and flows? A place I hunt, I don't know what percentage of it was logged, maybe 30%....but what I do know is that a lot of the areas that got logged are nearly impassable. Either the weeds are too high and too thick or there is just so much downed timber waste that it's worse than trying to walk over tires. Any lanes that you make are quickly picked up by deer. What I have seen is that although there is a lot more browse, the deer tend to stay on the edges and away from the thickest areas. I also have seen fewer bucks and less buck sign....a lot of the places it would be near impossible for a buck with a large rack to get through. I know people talk about bucks being able to get through anything and I'm sure they can but I don't think they'd want to go through these areas unless they had to.

Do you ever stay away from the inner areas that have been logged?

Do you have any successful strategies that work when hunting around logged areas?

Does it ever get where you just stay away from the thickest areas or how do you deal with that? I'm all about going where the bucks are but like I said, I don't see buck sign in a lot of them...


"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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jkelley1487
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Re: Best years after a place is logged

Unread postby jkelley1487 » Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:14 am

2-5 years after a section is logged seems to be the best for me. I usually hunt the downwind edge, along the transition and have had good luck doing so. I've never really got deep into the clear cuts to look for sign within them. I walk the transition and set up where I find sign going in/out or along it.
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Re: Best years after a place is logged

Unread postby SEMObowhunter » Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:24 pm

To me This all depends on what the classification of logged is. If it was just select cut but still has mature trees in it, I’m hunting it this fall. If it was clear cut, and looks like a pasture, I’m hunting the edges of it and will get out in it with a rifle if there are any vantage points or a lone tree left here and there on years 2-5. Have seen awesome hunting in logged areas. They create all kinds of browse and new cover.

My grandpa select cut the family farm 20 years ago in let winter and they were done by august. That fall we killed more mature bucks than we ever had or have since. Tops didn’t bother them one bit.

I hunted a clearcut one year from 2 years old to 6 years old until it got so tall you could t are down in it. It was dynamite and we had awesome luck especially with a rifle. Was a little more difficult with a bow because the trees that were left were just here and there so was hard to have a tree in the right spot to bow hunt but we bow hunted the edges and had great luck. I
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headgear
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Re: Best years after a place is logged

Unread postby headgear » Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:22 am

I love the next 10-20 years depending on the terrain, realistically the new growth is so thick they just hand in there for a very long time. Now if you can add some hills, swamp or other transition that makes it an even better bedding area then you have a nice spot for years to come. Usually the first ten years are the best, then you need the terrain/bedding for it to stay a good area. Places can go hot and cold all the time.
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Re: Best years after a place is logged

Unread postby A5BLASTER » Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:36 am

For me they start to get worth it at the 5 to 6 year age and get better each year after that till they get logged again in the 20 to 25 year age.

Fresh clear cut and clear cuts that are regrowth in younger then 5 years old, are typically to thick to be worth trying to get into them and typically are a huge magnet for the crowds once gun season starts. So I avoid thos cuts.


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