Outside of the rut, we all know that whitetail (read good bucks) spend the vast majority of their time during daylight hours within bedding or security cover. With that said, why do many hunters spend so much of their time sitting over food plots, crop fields and travel corridors during these daylight hours? I mean, why sit where the odds are against you?
Whitetails are still slaves to their stomachs. That being said..... My issue with hunting destinations is....I hate them. I'm always afraid I'm gonna get pinned down. Or, I'm afraid I'm gonna run into my target, heading in....as I'm heading out. Why do so many do it? My opinion is, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. Nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes, that's all ya got. In my case, I feel like on the only property that I think there are bucks bedding, has so many of these options for them, that the odds are better at the travel routes/food sources.
Well, in my case, on 90% of the property I hunt, you cant get to where they bed for two reason. 1. Way too thick, too many briars, and you cant see ten feet around you 2. No trees in these areas even if you could see So Im stuck hunting the destination a lot of the time hoping that I catch them early one day. That being said, I have a couple of spots I can ease close to a bucks bed and they will recieve most of my attention as long as the wind holds true.
The odds are only "against you" if your destination is far from said bedding/security area..........making it more likely then not that your encounters will be at dawn or dusk, if at all. I'll take my chances any day of the week on a food source tucked in close to the safety of home base.........no matter what it is. A strategically placed food plot in tight to thick cover?? Primetime could be anytime.
I'm as close as I dare get (sometimes closer) to their bedding areas. I've got some pretty good setups that I can get into close undetected. I have stands setup in these areas where I can hunt almost any wind too. Hunt the beds... hang the heads
First I'll state that 90% of my hunting (unless I'm hunting for a doe, or an observation stand) is spent in what I believe to be the first 25% of a bucks travel route from bedding to food. With that said, I think it's MUCH easier to see deer in food sources. I also believe that most hunters believe if they sit there long enough, a mature buck will come through. I think most hunters don't understand that mature bucks truly act much different with different behavior patterns, they hear it but either don't believe it, or they are simply too tempted with seeing deer to be disciplined enough to get off the food source and find the bedding area. In my opinion, this is why you hear a lot of "theres no mature bucks in my woods" from people. With that said, I also believe there are parts of the country where a bucks bedding locations are MUCH less predictable and random. Where I hunt in PA, the bucks bedding areas are fairly predictable. I've killed my three best bucks down there very close or actually in where I believe those bucks were bedding. Where I hunt in NY (both southern zone and northern zone), they are MUCH less predictable and it seems like hunting a needle in a haystack, that is also a moving target. Most of my friends that hunt in southern zone NY with me have more opportunities than I do while they are hunting the destinations or the last couple of hundred yards to one, simply because the food sources are very consistently used, while the bedding areas are a crap shoot. Then you have northern zone NY, where there aren't any food or bedding sources that are commonly used.....so it's kinda like hunting for a sasquatch.
I hunted more "origins" this year and saw more bucks during daylight hours than ever. I picked the correct wind, entered and set-up well in advance of sundown, and many times I had bucks come by a good 1-1.5 hours before dark. I never hunted the same spot twice.
I believe cause most hunters don't know any better. In prior years I'd hunt the trails they'd travel and would see them but never close enough. In 2007 I started hunting damn near right on top of their bedding area and wow the close encounters started happening much more. Timing Is everything though and one doesn't want to over due his stay In these spots either. Atlas made a great point too though. You can't hunt ones bedding area If It Isn't In your area either. This has been the case on my land all too often.
I hunt small properties. 100 acres is huge around here, 30-50 is the norm. I hunt whats available to me. That said, I'd take a food source right next to a bedding area any day of the week over another spot. I killed my buck transitioning from a cedar thicket to a cut corn field. This year....there is a 1 acre food plot tucked right up into the edge of said 10 acre thicket. Hunting within the thicket is useless as you will do more harm than good. I'll be hunting the fringe but have a field full of food to help my cause.
I have to be extra careful where I hunt or I'll bump them out and their(including does) main bedding areas will move to where I cannot hunt. In fact, this season I left a smaller property alone until the 1st of November. Saw more activity there than I had in years and I attribute that to the deer being able to be more relaxed. Saw two nice bucks there several times, my fault I missed the one I wanted.
I agree with a lot of what people are saying. But what is comes down to is how the land is laid out, how you can enter the land for a hunt, and the wind. I think the time of season make a difference on how you hunt areas and how much hunting pressure is in your area may force you to hunt different ways. I love getting close to but some times its not in the script.
What I find rather interesting is these phantom properties I hear people discussing all the time where there is this clearly defined bedding area that all the deer just head to in the morning and come from at night like clockwork. Bedding areas broken down into buck and doe bedding areas even..........then the travel routes laid out like a road map leading right to a food source that the deer just poor into and out of on a daily basis. Holy crap...........NONE of that exists where I hunt. First of all there is no such thing as an area I could swear as a bedding area unless it's a sanctuary off limits to humans. The deer in the woods I hunt bed all over the freakin place and rarey in the same place twice.........and when they get up???..........who the hell knows which way they are gonna go. There is food in every direction. You could sit in a tree and watch 10 deer get up from their beds and walk right past your stand one day and then sit there 20 more times and see nothing. It just amazes me how SO MANY guys seem to have these great, well defined bedding areas that they KNOW are holding does and others that are holding bucks and they also have their paths to food nailed down as if they only go one way day after day..........AND they are also able to enter these areas undetected and slip right into perfect position while still being able to leave and the deer are none the wiser. That's a hell of a dream piece of land that an awful lot of guys seem to have access to.
Scott I can honestly say in over 30 years of Bow hunting I have never sat over a plot, never had the chance any way. I have always hunted between Bedding and Food sources and on top of beds. You wont see Bucks or many Does for that matter in the fields (Here) unless its well after Dark so I just cant see even hunting the field edges anyway. For me in my area I think that would be a waste of my time. My son killed his ML Buck yesterday evening and he was a half mile back from nearest field. He has seen Bucks and Does in masses back there in the last week. The spot is where I killed my Buck last year and its fairly close to bedding areas.
Depends on the location of the food source and entry/exit routes. My .75 acre plot is surrounded by bedding areas to the W, SE, and NE. It's small, and neighboring a ~150 acre piece of ground with not agriculture and no hunting (that helps). The location of it also allows me to sneak in undetected, and usually get out undetected. I will agree with Jeff on this, though, there have been times where I get pinned down. That's when I call my dad on my cell, let it ring twice, and he knows to drive the loop around a nearby pasture to jump them. There are NO defined buck bedding areas on my property, therefore I can't hunt them. It's all unique to location.
I believe there are times when you can kill big deer over a food plot, but it doesn't happen often. If I'm hunting a field edge, I'm usually targeting a doe, or I have a decoy in front of me trying to lure a buck out.
