If you study beds enough it's pretty easy to tell a primary buck bed from doe bedding. Does bed together and use their numbers for protection. Bucks bed solo using any advantage he can get, almost always bedding with a backstop. A tree, rock, stump etc that they bed up against that's usually up wind of the bed. You can find multiple beds in a small area and still be bucks beds, but it will usually be the same buck as he moves slightly to take advantage of a changing wind. Once you start to see buck beds, it gets pretty easy identifying them but it's not as easy as solo bed vs multiple beds.
I'm going out there tomorrow to take a look so maybe I will find some interesting areas! Does a buck use the same bedding area as last fall when the rubs were made? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If a bed is a primary bed you should find rubs from last fall and healed over rubs from years prior. The bed will also be noticeable used over and over again. Now that spring is upon us you should find hair in the beds. When you find a bed kneal in it, think about why a buck would bed there, then what it can see and smell. Then figure out how you can kill him. Keep an eye out for three finger tracks and any identifiable features of the track.
Three finger tracks? I was just out there this weekend, its too wet to get into that area and look around, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks before I can get in there. Standing water in places as deep as a foot...
A track 3 plus fingers in width is a good indication of a mature animal. If you can find an identifiable feature of a track you can use it to identify where he may be feeding and traveling throughout the year.
Oh that's what you meant by three fingers... Haha I thought you meant three toes on the deer. As far as the characteristic tracks, I've never seen a track on our land that wasn't normal... Or I don't remember seeing one.
A lot of tracks when you start to pay attention are identifiable. Examples could be one toe longer than other, toe hooks different than normal, a chip in the hoof. Just the size can help.
I'll start to pay attention, maybe snap some pictures of good tracks. Is width the only good way to measure tracks in wet dirt and mud? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Also worth remembering that usually wet nasty areas that we humans hate have little impact on a whitetail. Sounds like a pretty unique spot so you may have to use an out of the ordinary approach. If there is anywhere you can set up an ambush spot from the cattails I would look into that and you don't necessarily need a blind, just do it from the ground. I have also had some good luck with tripod stands hidden in brushy areas that lack trees in a marsh and if the cattails and brush aren't tall enough for a full tripod there area some models you can detach the top and essentially have about a 4-5 ft tripod you can still hunt. Get some thigh highs or some waders and get muddy.
Oh the deer love it in there! the problem is that its a peat bog so there is no bottom, its just like endless mud so we cant really put a box stand or tripod stand in it cuz it will sink, but once we get out of the cattails then we can get a stand in there.
