What are your thoughts on bumping a buck from his bedding area. Often we read, watch, hear that you better not bump a buck from his bedroom or that's it. He won't tolerate it and he'll relocate. If this happened repeatedly I can buy in, but occasionally bumping a buck from his bedroom won't make him relocate in my opinion. If a buck relocated each time he got bumped, especially in farm country, he'd never quit relocating.... Always be on the run, and a buck doesn't get old by fleeing to new, unfamiliar areas all the time. If HE busts you in your treestand, then I can certainly see him steering wide of that spot, but if you bust him while scouting, hanging stands, etc....I can't buy that he is out of there? What say you?
Personally I have bumped bucks out of their bed and seen them later several times. I agree with your thoughts on this. Deer get bumped by numerous things and don't relocate. Constant pressure and bumping is another thing. That said, I hunt public land that sees a fair amount of activity and the bedding areas continue to be used by the same deer repeatedly. Others my have seen something different. One thing I have noticed is that older deer that see a lot of activity near their bedding areas start showing up more after dark on my cameras when they were previously visible during the day. However,the rut changes all that.
I think it will be deer by deer, some will tolerate a lot some will not. I think all bucks it would take a lot to push them out of their core area but if bumped from a bed on the fringe of his core area he may not be back for a while.
There are hunters who purposely do this. It's an aggressive move, but can pay off. Bump them out of their bed, hang a stand and let it rest a while until conditions return to the same and get in really early trying to catch him coming in. Continued bumping will definitely alter their bedding. They bed there to feel safe afterall. Occasional bumps are going to happen regardless of intentional or not.
Why would someone continually bump a buck out of his bed? Once you bump him the first time you should figure him out the best you can hang a stand and wait for the opportune time to hunt. This one time I bumped a buck, went back to my garage to get a stand to hang and by the time I got back he was already back there and I bumped him again. I did see him from the stand 2 weeks later but was never able to get a shot.
Tried that once, came back a few days later and could see in the snow where the buck walked around the tree my stand was in. Never saw that buck again. Then again this was before trail cameras.
I can't speak for midwestern hunters, especially MN hunters, but in my neck of the woods in CT, theres enough unhuntable land around to say that I cannot afford to bump a buck from his bedding. He'll just wader off onto another property, never to be seen again. I would say that with enough pressure (could be limited pressure), bucks will move from their core bedding areas. I personally would not risk the pressure until close to the rut, when the risk is worth the reward. To give you an idea how sensitive the bucks are around here, trail cameras are not an option due to human scent. So to relate to your post, I would not recommend encroaching too close on a known bedding area until the time of year and wind direction is absolutely ideal
