What do you generally look for when trying to find a bedding area? How do you know when you have found one? Please share your wisdom and knowlege. Thanks!
I look for their beds Honestly each deer is going to prefer different stuff, and bedding areas cycle depending on the weather, moon phase, food sources and what season it is. But, most mature buck daytime bedding will take place in thick stuff or around thick stuff. You also though got higher ground attracting deer, as well as peninsulas, islands...and tons of other stuff. (At night deer will bed anywhere though)
In the mountains I have found they bed on points and on the downwind side of hills in the winter. In some of the old farm country I hunt I find a lot of beds in overgrown farm lots with a mix of cedars and tall grass. Main thing is a deer beds where it feels safe, can see or smell danger, and can slip away fast if it needs too. Good luck.
I see deer bed in standing corn here all the time, I also see deer bedding in standing beans,fencerows upper 1/3 of ridges almost everywhere now that i think of it.
I look for the white tails bouncing away from me.... no joke haha I push deer out of thick stuff everytime I go in to check my camera. I then took a longer route through a cornfield and heard a bunch of commotion in front of me, scared the S*** out of me, I think it was a deer in the corn. They bed anywhere they like.
A mature buck typically beds in the most advantageous spot he can. I've got one buck bedding area I hunt near that is on public land. A buck using this location can watch anyone using the nearest parking lot from his bed! This buck can slip out of this location as soon as they slam their truck's door, without ever being seen. Don't be fooled into thinking buck beds are in thick nasty cover all the time. Mature bucks only live as long as they do because they learn very quickly what and where danger is coming from. Think of the place you'd feel safest sitting all day on your property, and seeing anyone or anything approaching you. That's the first place I'd look for beds. The big thick patches full of multiple beds are typically your doe and fawn/yearling bedding areas. These are rut areas to hunt as the bucks check these areas for hot doe during that time. Unless you want meat, save the stands closest to these for rut. Wanted to add another quick point: 4 legged predators follow deer also. Deer will bed where they can watch or at least wind check their back trail for a predator who may be following the way it walked to it's bed. Lastly, Deer bed where the wind and sight are to their biggest advantage. Often a mature buck will bed facing downwind where he can see for a distance, while using his nose to cover the direction he came in from, both covering his back trail and possibly covering what he can not see by using his nose. Learning exact bedding locations and escape routes from them is easiest in late winter and early spring when you don't have to worry about bumping deer and screwing up your fall hunting. Sorry for the long winded answer, but there's more to it than this as well. Just my .02
