Shreveport Gun and Target Club

More About Cut-Off Zones

Dan hunts one piece of property where there’s a long, wide gas-pipeline right of way. It’s a great spot to rifle hunt, but he’d always thought it wasn’t worth much for bowhunting because he believed deer could cross the open, 50-yard wide grassy pipeline anywhere. But he was wrong.

One morning while checking the gas line from his ATY Dan spotted a dozen deer cross the open ground in a spot that pretty much looked like all the other places along the pipeline. Later that morning, he checked the place closely and discovered deer were moving from a thick bottom on one side of the pipeline to a hardwood oak ridge on the other. But they crossed at a very specific spot, because when the gas company cut the timber to make the right of way, they piled up stumps and logs, and used heavy equipment to push them with piles of dirt to either side of the gas line.

The stumps, logs, and dirt had grown up thick in briers and high dog fennel, so they weren’t easy for Dan to see. Deer could pick their way through the stumps and logs almost wherever they wanted. But there was a very well-defined opening in the log piles at a spot along the pipeline-just where Dan had watched deer crossing it.

“I was tempted to hang a bow stand right on the pipeline, but a bit of scouting showed a better place was inside the oak ridge, about 100 yards from the gas-line crossing,” he says. “It was a natural cut-off spot, since the wind was ideal, and no less than four deer trails necked down to one deep and well-traveled lane leading to the gas-line crossing. First afternoon, I cut off deer crossing the pipeline, I had seven whitetails walk within bow range, including three small bucks. I zipped a high-rack eight-pointer shortly after dawn the next day.”

Cut-off whitetail tactics also work well out West. In the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and other Western states with plains and mesas, whitetails usually congregate in the major drainages, where there are large cattle ranches with alfalfa and wheat fields. Not only are there deer in the big river bottoms, they’re also in feeder creek draws that course down from high mountains through the plains.

During the archery-only season, most deer living around fields are does and small bucks. But good bucks move to and from fields along major drainages from higher elevations. A buck can move a mile or two through a major drainage for feeding with little effort, Dan explains, which is difficult for some Eastern whitetail hunters to comprehend. Stands overlooking such Western draws are outstanding places to cut off bucks moving to and from those alfalfa and wheat fields.

Some of the most productive cut-off spots Dan hunts are found on big river-island points or “necks” leading to grain crop fields. The islands are thick with willows, briers, and impenetrable cover where deer bed, moving to adjacent river-bottom fields at dawn and dusk. It’s trail hunting, and key spots are where one island necks down, leading to another island or to a river mainland shore. Deer traffic is heavy between islands, which serve as bedding areas, and mainland fields. Sometimes there are several well-used trails coming off islands onto shore and into fields. Picking the right trail to hunt can be a challenge. But Dan improves his odds by piling thick brush on a trail or two; the blockage directs deer to use the trail he’s hunting over-an often deadly tactic.

Dan once used the same type of hunting technique on an eight-foot-high chain-link fence. It was on a military installation, and when he first hunted the place, he found a single hole large enough for deer to slip through the barrier. The fence was several miles long, and except for a couple of main roads, the hole was the only place where whitetails could get through.

In each of the three seasons he hunted the fence hole, Dan arrowed heavy-beam bucks. But when he scouted the fence the fourth year, he found three other large holes. Small animals had burrowed under two places along the fence, giving deer ways to cross the wire.

A third pathway for deer was made when a huge oak fell onto the fence. Dan used boulders and rocks to fill the two holes animals had made, then piled brush and logs to fill the gap at the oak tree. That left only his original hole for deer to get through the fence, which increased whitetail traffic. He arrowed a nice six-pointer the first time he sat in the stand over the spot.

“You’ve got to be alert to hunt cut-off zones in thickets where you can’t see far, because a buck can get past your shooting lanes in thickets at close range very quickly,” Dan explains. “You’ve got to be mentally and physically alert all the time while on a cut-off stand in thick cover.”

It seems like the wind blows all the time in some cut-off zones where giant bucks are found, and bowmen must use the wind to their best advantage. Mature bucks are so “wind oriented,” it’s smart to have four or five stands in a cut-off zone hunting area so you can work a prime spot no seaner what direction the wind is blowing.

Never hunt a place when the wind is blowing toward an area you expect deer to approach. Not only will deer spook and remain out of bow range on that particular day, but old, wise, big bucks learn humans are in the cut-off area and that may alter their travel patterns for many days, making the ambush unproductive.

Cut-off zones are great places to collect big bucks, but Dan cautions never to forget that a wise whitetail didn’t get old by being stupid. Plan your cut-off zone strategy carefully, and bowhunt the spot intelligently, never tapping the place when conditions are unfavorable. Time and patience in a cut-off zone are your biggest allies.

About the Author

Albie Berk enjoys hunting and sharing what he has learned and any successful tips he can with others. He enjoys
South Carolina hunting
and usually stays at
Island Plantation

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