When scouting a new property or even public land.. How do you decide where the deer are bedding? Or do you just assume they bed in the thickest nastiest stuff around and place a stand between a trail coming out/in that area and a food source? Determining bedding areas has been a problem for me the past 2 seasons because just when I think I have it all figured out here comes a buck in the completely wrong part of the woods.. I think this is my biggest problem when placing stands, not knowing where the deer are bedding
The bucks will always be random during season so finding their bedding area might not be the best plan. I would start by finding where the does bed, better off looking in the winter so you can see the melted beds. Any south facing Hills or natural saddles would be a good place to look.
Post a picture of your hunting area with a topo and maybe we can get a better idea on a place for you to start looking.
It is certainly not easy. There are some good topographical clues that can help you, but boot leather is numero uno in finding bedding areas. Sometimes I find large doe bedding areas in places I'd never imagine. Literally hundreds of deer droppings leading down a ridge right before I find the beds. Many times I find that human pressure will push deer out of the thicker areas and into seemingly open areas because those areas have very little human pressure. Just some thoughts.....still learning to find the beds myself.
Beds also change due to weather and food. So one particular location isn't the cure all. It takes me a few years to narrow down the better locations, because there will be multiple locations. And at what times they are better. Deer, IMO, seem to search out cover that provides protection in the sense that they can see, hear, or smell something before it does them. Not necessarily complete concealment. During the Rut I'm hunting the pinch points anyways.
Once you start finding them it gets pretty easy, my best advise is look where human don't want to go. Not all bedding is created equal and figuring it out is the key to consistent success. Below is a big buck bed surrounded by water/muck and brush. Where no one will go. Here is a bed under a few balsoms along a creek A few examples, and it's true some are seasonal and that's part the puzzle to figure out
Deer bed where they can take the most advantage of their tremendous senses. Smell, sight and sound (in that order IMO). You need to throw that old saying that they only bed in the thicket nastiest stuff right out the window. Sometimes the spot that is most advantageous for their senses is a nasty thicket but it's not true more often than not, especially if you are in hilly topography. Their sense of smell trumps all, they use winds and thermal currents to detect danger long before it becomes threatening to them. When they are able to combine their senses such as smell and sight, they are very difficult to setup on (hilly topography or overgrown hedge rows etc are examples of areas where they can use more than just scent to detect danger). If available deer prefer to utilize edge habitat, where two different types of canopy or topography meet. A lot of times this is right on property borders where the properties have been logged in different years... Where forest regrowth meets overgrown or crp fields... Where timber meets a river, lake, swamp or creek etc etc. Get the old saying out of your mind and look at the big picture on the properties you hunt. Look at your maps and walk your lands and figure out where the deer could best use their senses to detect and flee from what they perceive as danger. Certain smells like humans and dogs do not trigger a panic response like near homes, barns, walking trails etc, but those same smells will trigger a response to not move from their bed until after dark or to flee in other areas. Keep that in mind as you figure your lands out.
I start by going to the thickest parts first, usually where there's tall grass, honey suckle, or pines. Then start checking for matted down areas and use your nose, you'll almost always smell deer urine.
