HOW TO HUNT CLEAR CUTS

Get High During the Rut in a Young Pine Plantation

Editor's Note: For most of their lives, Larry Norton of Pennington, Alabama, and his cousin Ray Moseley either have been members of hunting clubs or operated hunting clubs. In 2002, they decided to lease some property and allow individuals to hunt on the property known as the Shed Hunting Lodge near Butler in west/central Alabama. All this property lies on either private or timber company lands, with the majority of the land clear cut. Most deer hunters have difficulties hunting clear cuts and uneven-age-stand plantations because they don't know the secrets for hunting these areas. But the six hunters who hunted at the Shed last year all took deer, with four of them harvesting bucks that scored 130 points or better on the Boone & Crockett scale. This week, Larry Norton, who avidly hunts deer for more than three months each year and also is a World Champion turkey caller, will tell you secrets for hunting clear cuts and uneven-age pine stands.

* Put your tree stand as high as you feel comfortable on the edge of a clear cut, if you're hunting a young pine plantation during the rut. Bucks like to chase does out into clear cuts because their chances of running them down and catching up to them is much better in clear cuts than it is in a mature forest. Most of us when we see a buck chasing a doe 500-600 yards from us start watching the buck and looking for a place to get a shot at him instead of watching the doe. For many years, I made this same mistake. But I've learned that if the doe is 5 or 10 minutes out in front of the buck, I need to watch that doe to learn where she's going. If I spot a doe going across the end of a ridge, a hollow, a fire break or a road relatively close to me, I'll quickly and carefully climb out of my tree stand and move to the place where the doe has crossed and get ready, because that buck is going to stay right on that doe' trail. So wherever she's gone, he's going to go. Using this technique, I've been able to take several nice bucks that I couldn't have been able to take if I'd continued to watch the buck and not the doe.

* Use grunting and rattling during the rut in a young pine plantation. This technique can be extremely deadly then. However, I've found that rattling, even during the rut, isn't very effective in the part of Alabama where I hunt, because we have more does than we have bucks. But grunting can be deadly effective. I use the same technique -- cutting and running -- for grunting in bucks in clear cuts that I use when I'm calling turkeys. When I'm calling turkeys, I'll cut and cackle and try to sound like an excited hen. I'll usually wait 5 or 10 minutes, and if I don't hear a turkey gobble back, I'll move on to another location. I use the same tactic when hunting a buck in a clear cut. I want the wind in my face. I'll climb up a tree and get in a tree stand, or I'll sit in a ground blind and start grunting. Unlike most people using the grunt call to try to call in bucks, I don't grunt three times and then remain silent for 10 minutes. I'll grunt for a full minute or two without stopping. I point the barrel of my grunt call in several different directions and move it around so that I sound like a buck that's grunting and chasing a doe all around my tree stand. If I don't see a deer within 10 minutes, I'll go about 50 yards and repeat the same action. This way, I sound just like a buck that's chasing a doe and then loses her and finally catches back up to her at about 50 yards. I've been able to grunt in quite a few bucks by using this technique. If you've ever heard a buck grunting when he's chasing a doe, he doesn't grunt three times and stop. He's continuously grunting while he chases her. Many times you won't see the buck instantly when you start grunting. That's the reason I'll stay on my stand about 10 minutes before I start grunting again when I'm hunting in a pine plantation. We've proved that you can bag deer in a young pine plantation.