I'll be honest with you, I have never found nor set out to find a buck's bed. I need some information on how to go about finding a buck's bed (can be a buck you are targetting or a mature buck bed you stumble upon). Any informaton would be much appreciated and can be very generalized or very specific.
I'm kind of interested to see some of the answers that certain people will post. I've found one I believe once, but I never proved it. It was next to a beanfield, in a small weed patch on top of hill. In the middle of the weed patch there was two small trees that resembled willow trees. I was scouting one day and saw a path leading to these trees, so for the heck of it I followed this run and went up and peeked inside these willow trees. Well when I did this, the ground underneath was very heavily matted down with clumps of crap everywhere and some discoloring on the ground which to me meant urine. My thought was that it was possibly a buck's bedding area because there didn't seem to be enough sign to be a group of does- it seemed more like a single deer was laying up there. I put out my camera to hopefully find out. I went back shortly after to check the camera and I had these pics: Now I could be right, or I could be totally off base. I don't know. I'm 21, still learning how to hunt, and I know I have a long, long way to go.
Well I just can't sleep tonight so I am pouring over topo/aerial maps thinking of places to scout a few more times this summer before shutting it down by Mid-August to let the woods cool down for 6-7 weeks prior to season. I want some direction on how to begin looking for buck beds. Jeff, thanks for the map study. Every bit helps me understand why people set up stands the way they do, based on all the factors/timing of the hunt. Englum, yeah I would say that is one bad-a buck you photographed.
Jeff/GMMAT- Where did you get that topo/sattelite overlay. That's awesome. Brett- Sorry for the hijack.
Kevin, not worried about it. I remember him saying he uses his county's mapping overlay system from the local government website....or I could be completely misinformed.
This is one area that I haven’t ventured into very much, both literally & figuratively. Most of my main hunting spot is one giant bedding area & deer (both sexes) will bed almost anywhere but I don’t go walking thru the “best” areas just to find a “buck” bed. I just assume where they are by process of elimination. I’ve also not experienced the Jr high dance separation that many of you have with does bedding in one spot & bucks in another. Unless you are calling 20-40 yards away “separate”. I’ll hunt edges of the more likely spots on the sides that have food in that direction (with a good wind of course) and I camp on the routes between them during the rut, even if that route is sometimes a bit of a bedding area itself. And for my Mr. Obvious statement of the day: Sometimes they are bedded in the thickest nastiest stuff you’d expect them to be in & other times they are in oddball places that you’d never expect a deer to lay.
In hill country its pretty easy to find beds... The easiest to spot will be on points, on the leeward side of the ridge in conjunction with the predominate wind directions. In my areas, south winds are predominate almost year-round, therefore without fail I will find most beds on the north facing points. Flat country is a lot harder to find beds in and I struggle with that. The best way is to grid it off and just walk it all. Typically, it will be thick and nasty, but not always. Many times its simply an area that noone esle goes. I've spent a great deal of time the last 2 springs looking for beds. I find it addicting and very exciting. I have stumbled on some great spots and I always marvel at how sharp a deer is in picking his bed.
Most buck beds that I find are either in very heavy grape vines or multi flora rose bushes and always seem to have overhead cover, I find them in the spring while shed hunting. Most all will have dozens of rubs on base ball bat sized trees near the bed. One time I set up close to a nice bucks bed, he got up and rubbed several trees like he was taken out frustration on them, I passed on a twenty five yard shot because he was walking out a trail that led under my stand and there was plenty of shooting light, well he took about five more steps and bedded under a fallen tree, at dark he stood and walked down the trail and safely under my stand. At the time I thought He never knew I was there but he never made that mistake again, a friend shot that buck in rifle season and it fell within sight of my tree stand.
In my area a lot of times bucks will bed in overgrown ditches that extend into ag fields. They can see for a long ways and catch the wind of anything approaching as well, and the wind is usually steady without all of the trees to cause swirls and eddys. Also don't overlook small weedpatches or woodlots. I've seen bucks corral does in these during the rut. Sometimes they bed in these together until she decides to move on. CRP grasses is another good place to look for beds of any kind.
I find buck beds in farm country. My last 15 seasons have been in farm country. It's all about back tracking. Find a buck you want. Look in crop fields in the evenings, mid July or later. Try to figure out where he came from. First look at topo and aerial maps. With the right wind, go looking for tracks, starting from the field. From past experiences, locate the appropriate track. Some times (a lot) you will notice something that will stand out identifying an individual track. EX. A very short inside right front toe. It could mean that it was chipped off. Now back track based on where you think he came from. Always USE AS MUCH STEALTH AS POSSIBLE! Try making loops until you cut his track. Toward the end of August to early September, you should find rubs. A lot of rubs could be the edge of his bedding area or it could be a staging area. Either way.....good find. You could employ trail cams to help, just be careful. Along the way take note of any potential ambush spot. Once you figure the wind is right, sneak in there and get him. This took a lot of practice for me. I can't stress enough... Error on the side of caution! I don't like to get too close. I got busted once in the late season. The buck saw me get into my stand and I never saw him laying there. I thought he was further back. I was surprised to see him get up and slink away! I have been close enough to several bucks that I saw them when they stood up. Others, I have set up on a trail, an edge, funnel, main trail or whatever my last move thought was best and waited for them to come by. Sometimes they don't show up! A lot of times that means you were busted. There are a lot of variables to this. One thing you have to remember is that if your buck is in a bachelor group, he may relocate when the group disperses. Then you'll have to see who's left. You can imagine how good it feels when your plan comes into action and you were successful.
Thanks for the information guys...I have been told about the Blood Bros video and I am going to order it. Greg--great info, thank you very much. The only problem I have is there are no crop fields where I hunt. There are fields that are just grassy and such, but no real crop fields. I can't use trail cams either. I bet some of the nicer bucks do congregate on the big fields on certain nights around sundown. I need to be out there and waiting to see what is going on. The only early season buck I ever sought out and killed I spotted in August on a big grassy field. I ended up killing him the first week of season halfway from where I thought he was bedding and the grass field. That being said, I have so much to learn about spotting a nice buck then putting a good plan together. I have limited access to cruise and spot as I hunt a military base and they don't like people just cruising around before dark. It can be real challenging. THANKS for the information.
Pretty much exactly the same as where I hunt.........wasting time on minutia like this is nothing more then that....a waste of time. I would go as far as saying there really is no such thing (buck beds) in the areas I hunt. The entire area is a potential bedding area, they lay down wherever and whenever they feel safe. I have seen deer bedded in literally every area of the farm I hunt at one point or another. I often wonder when I see people come on these sites and talk about how cut and dry their hunting area is as far as predictable behavior goes why we hear so much about how hard it is to kill these deer. All you have to do is glass a field, find a buck, follow him back to a spot he beds in day after day and setup a couple stands to catch him based on wind?? It CAN'T be that simple........it sure as hell isn't around here. If a buck is that predictible he should be dead in a day or two come hunting season. Now we all know we are not all out of tags come day 2.......why not?
I see that the "farting on stand" thread has more replies that this.....LOL. I guess this is one area many of us need improvement on during the season.
Where I hunt there are huge pine thickets with some of them being 100 acres or so. During the spring I will bust through them to find the big rubs I need to see. Thats all I need to tell me that a big buck is bedding in there. Where exactly in there is a good question,but I set up on the outside edges of these thickets because there's no way to set up inside them. I just pick a spot on the outer edge that looks the best.It might have a lot of buck sign or maybe a nice funnel leading to the thicket.
Rubs coming out of thick area's in to the predominant wind direction are pretty tell tale.I really need to do more with Trail camera's because with the small percentage of older class bucks and the hunting pressure we have and the lack of fields,it is pretty difficult to have any reliable sightings of good bucks in area's that are actually huntable.
I think bucks bed in many areas. But once hunting has started I think most big bucks go to were they do not get bothered. These are in either very thick cover or wide open places where they can see hunters coming from along ways off. I have seed buck bedded in picked corn fields. All you can see is the tips of the antlers sticking about the corn stocks. In hilly country I see them on points. It big river bottoms I have seen many a big buck bed on small islands. It still comes down to a place were they feel safe. Once they don’t that move.
Im with Rybo and Atlas, there just are no true bedding areas on the main property that I hunt. There are spots that get more use than others, but that is usually from does. The bucks really don't consistantly bed in the same areas, they seem to wonder around alot and bed wherever they end up. With that being said, I have an idea of the areas that the bucks prefer to bed in, the only problem is that there is no pattern to them visiting these areas.
