Hunting deer in clear cuts??

I have a stand on tree(largest one in the cut) smack dab in the middle of a clear cut. i can only shoot maybe 20yards in front of me and 10-15yds behind. there are some trails going through it. yesterday i seen a doe browsing under a lone pine tree they left standing 35 yards away with my binos. and behind my stand i got 20 yards of cut then then the woods is small saplings type stuff then begins to open up. can i effectively keep hunting this cut? i have to walk through fairly heavy brush and over trails to get into there. im afraid im going to just screw it up. should i just hunt the edges hoping a deer comes out along it. or go in after them and hope for the best and try to keep disturbance to a minimum? i also just found a small scrape in those saplings. first one of the year.

I was kinda waiting on a response myself and wish I could tell you. Lately it seems I am in all the wrong places for deer at least. I read in a book this year that you might want to be on the edge of the clearcut on known trails, maybe with a rub if lucky. A buck at least, might be using the cover as a staging area before going in to the clearcut. However, that also depends on where it is. I have a clearcut pretty deep in the woods that I doubt the bucks are too worried about crossing.

From your description it sounds like it is a tough spot to hunt. How would you hunt the wind from that spot? I would also worry about my approach. If you have no other way in there, I would take extra care with your boots being scent free walking in. Personally if it is good enough, having taken these precautions I would chance it! Let us know what you decide.

not in this clear cut but another old clear cut not far away, id say 15 year old one i found a dandy rub about the size of my forearm(about 4in diam) or so. but it was one lone rub, i looked around in that area and didnt find another. but i did see a faint trail. hoping its a buck trail. im going to sit on it and see what happens.

(first post) i put a trail cam in there hoping no one steals it. and am going to try hunting thr fringes a few times before i go in there and screw it all up.

I'm hunting a spot in the morning that really has me worried over my approach to the tree. The place is loaded with sign, rubs, scrapes, etc. But there is only ONE approach in and its right across their path. I can only hunt it with a certain wind too. The window is small so I will try to make the best of it.

i didnt get any pictures and im moving on to other areas. the scrape had not been freshened up. time to keep looking.

The clear cut thing never worked out last year and I eventually gave up on it. I think just to hard to get in on deer ESP if there laying I there and also rubbing up against stuff leaving scent spooked em away from the area.

I killed a lot of deer in clear cuts back in Ga. in the 70's. Even fresh clear cuts with almost bare ground except for the few tops left around. It surprised me the deer would go out in there and feed in daylight..but as open as it was you still have a hard time seeing them.

After clear cut has been cut a yr or so and grown a lot of understory it's good also..they like to bed in there and plenty of feed too.