How to Hunt Clear Cuts

Learning how to hunt clear cuts for big bucks can change your success in the upper midwest in big, wooded areas.

When most people hear the word clear-cut, the first thing they think of is the destruction of their old hunting ground. Yes, I do agree that it does destroy a lot of prime hunting areas and this has happened to me many of times, but there is a bright side to clear cutting. Where I hunt in northern Wisconsinclear cutting is common and I have learned to use this to my advantage to find the travel routes of big bucks. Learning how to hunt clear cuts can change your hunting success in the big woods. 

It can trouble hunters when they find that their hunting areas have been cleared out. Most of the areas where I hunt now are based around cuts aging anywhere from 2 years old to 10 years old and I have found that they make excellent bedding areas.  Some of these cuts grow up and will get really thick after only a couple of years, making them a hot spot for bedding and for deer to feed on the tops of smaller downed trees. On years when acorns and other food are scarce, these food areas can be a prime hunting spot.

Hunting around these areas will help you find the deer. Changes in an area can draw the attention and curiosity of deer and sometimes they find a new safe haven for escaping danger. Not many people want to trek through thick, nasty cuts and this helps deer feel more comfortable, especially on public hunting lands such as the big woods of Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. Hunting around these areas can give you a great advantage over other hunters who look past these areas due to the lack of convenience of hunting them.

Finding the trails that deer use to travel in and out of cuts can set you up for getting the first crack at a buck before he gets to everyone else. Just like anything else in the hunting world, the wind plays a big part on how a buck will move in and out of these cuts. By placing multiple stands around the edges of these cuts, you can every trail covered for any type of wind.

I hope that these tips on How to Hunt Clear Cuts will shed some light onto your strategies and help you put a big buck on the ground this fall. Let us know your favorite hunting strategies and the success stories that you’ve had.