Can you guys give some tips for hunting clear-cuts. Do you guys usually look out over the open areas at the edges, or do you usually setback well inside the treeline looking for deer that are also running inside the treeline? What other things do you look for? Any tips would be appreciated

Might help if one at least narrows his location down to a region and maybe list the species of deer one is after.

Find well used trails where the deer are moving between the timber and cut over.

They will usually bed in the thick stuff if it isn't raining hard.

Set up on one making sure the wind is in your favor.

I always liked hunting an over grown cut-over when it was really cold, but the sun was out. Deer would often lay in the cover so the sun could hit them.

If you glass one carefully on a day like this, it's possible to see their exhaust (breath) if they aren't too far away.

Whitetails in the Northeast

And John - At first I was surprised to see deer in the middle or nearly across a c/o and wondered how did they get there?

It finally dawned on me that they had been bedded and had been hidden by rolling terrain or a single bush and gotten up and began moving.

I prefer to have a stand away from the timber, less chance for the wind to give you away in close quarters.

I have killed SEVERAL deer, bucks & does, in c/os. One morning I was glassing and scanned across a little white spot. What was that? Backed up and it was 2 fawns bedded close together. After a little while MOM came around a bush and looked around and in my direction. She left, entered the woods & about 5 minutes later, she came around that same bush to check things out again. It was entertaining, amusing, and enlightening.

DON'T set up looking EAST for a morning. That's okay when it's cloudy.

Here is what I do in the south where a clearcut will grow tall/thick enough in 2 years or 3 at the most that you can't really see thru it or into it from a stand.

I like to get in about 15-20 yards and take a loping shear and cut me a tunnel thru the greenbriar, honeysuckle, blackberry and whatever else is growing about 4 feet tall and about 30 yards long paralell to the side I believe the deer are exiting.

Sit on one end and be ready. I was taught this by a guy who only was referred to as Jungle George and I've found it to be highly effective.

Deer leaving the cutover will stop in that little opening just long enough to shoot. Cutovers adjacent to water has been my best bet as a couple of year cutover down here provides cover and tons of food. If you are someone who has to be entertained by seeing lots of land, deer, etc...it's not that great. It's good for picking up good bucks I have found. The little tunnels make handy spots for putting out a camera as well to get an idea of which ones are being productive.

Now if you are talking about cutovers that are cleared and you can see across I don't have any suggestions, I normally avoid those areas, and most of them around here normally have s shooting box on legs in them - all conveniently at least 400 yards or more from the nearest treeline, stream or any other cover

Recent cut overs usually aren't too productive unless they have a lot of tops (tree tops) left in them.

On these, I would glass the tops carefully, sometimes you can spot an animal lying down. Then you need to decide if you want to put the sneak on 'em or wait him out.

The neat thing about these new cut-overs with tops is that you have a choice. Pull off a stalk or wait. A successful stalk is impossible in overgrown cut-overs, you have to catch them moving.

If the place is barren, You can sometimes catch one in the late evening when they come out of the timber to feed on the new growth at the edges, but be ready for a dark 30 shot.

And yet nearly every one will have a string of box stands 200 yards apart

How long ago was it cut over? If the area held deer before the cut, there should be a trail they use on one or more edges about 20 yards in from the edge. Try to hunt that trail.

In the Florida panhandle driving down I-10 you can see hundreds of shooting houses on every damn clear cut you pass.

Stilts abound. Usually in the middle of the cut so you can scare out every buck that may have been there on your way in.

The oblivious redneck can be useful if you are in a position to use his ignorance to your advantage.

I've heard one can find a deer in a cut

Just my very humble opinion. I do far better in the woods as opposed to looking over the cut. What I think the bucks do here is troll the perimeters looking for does. I see far more buck sign within the first 50 yards of the woods than I do in the cuts themselves.

I've killed a herd of them in cuts. My favorite hunting is a 2 to 3 year old cut where I can see several hundred yards in every direction on a cold sunshine morning during the rut..........

Clear cuts are where the groceries are.

Never hunted the NE but have some CC in the Great Lakes states. Some years just starting a chain saw make the does flock to ya...

They say they are good for groceries for 7 years for pats & venison but they provide good hunting longer imho

Edges but personally prefer squeezes betwixt them or by them in the uncut areas. Prior to 7 or 8 years they are pretty easy to scout rubs...:)

Look for the ones the roadies can't drive thru...

elelbean - FWIW, our regular modern gun deer season began today. The week of Halloween we had a 5 day DOE, modern gun season, but this is the real thing.

Anywho, I SAW 2 bucks this am. The first was bigger but he gave me no shot. The second was on the ground at 8:27 am CST. He responded to Primos Can doe bleat. He came out of the woods, looking for a doe. He never heard the shot.

I checked my records and this makes the 12th buck I have taken out of this c/o since the 06 season. I've killed does & bucks elsewhere on this lease but those 12 have come out of the same c/o and now it's regrowth.

You decide if you want to hunt IN a c/o. It works for me.