I'm lucky to be able to hunt hard over the next 2 or 3 days on public land (Sam R. Murphy) and this will probably be my last serious hunting of the season. My son and I might sit in the shooting house at the farm the last weekend. Anyways, much of the area this weekend will be clearcuts, planted pine of various age, and many narrow hardwood SMZs cutting through the pines. I should be able to do a lot of boots to the ground scouting and the recent rain should make fresh sign easier to identify. My trigger finger is going to be itchy so I'm not holding out on a 150" buck. I haven't had much luck hunting clearcuts, but can anyone share how they might attack a new hunting area this time of year with chasing over, acorns mainly gone. Perhaps look for where they are crossing from one thicket to another through the SMZs?

The deer will bed and feed in the cutover. Get up high in a tree on the edge of a transition, drain or a draw in the clearcut.

Hunt the cutover. Climb high, use good binos to disect it in a grid pattern. You may think you can see things good with your naked eye in a cutover but you cant. Good glass and being proficient shooting out to around 300 yds are the two keys to consistently killing good bucks in cutover situations. I absolutely love a 2-5 yr old clearcut. Not that we will get any this season, but on really cold days, the deer will often lay in the sun on a sunny protected hillside to stay warm. I've killed them bedded, walking, feeding and chasing in cutovers over the years. Everything a deer needs is right there.

Abolt, couldn t said it better myself. Thats exactly how i been hunting for years. Love cutover hunting. Only thing to add is on rainy days cutover is darker than deer. Deer will stand out like a beacon on rainy drizzling days with there warm bodies. I got some 12 power bino also. NEVER go to cutover with out them. Might well stay home. Like he said search out every square inch. I have killed many good buck in bed because they was so far away never seen or smelled me across a big hollow in cutover.