Buck bedding question

[admiral04]

I'm aware that it varies with terrain, location, etc but I hunt northwestern pennsylvania, open woods hill country with some farms here and there but my question is roughly how far do you think mature bucks will bed from there main food source during the early season? I mean do they commonly travel great distances every night? or are they typically in the closest cover? just wanted to get some outside opinions. Its hard enough finding a mature buck around here, lil own find his bed and I really want to apply some best tactics next yr.

[BigHunt]

for hill country it depends on the bedding and food scorce ....i have a bedd located 300 yards from the food scorce and i have pics of the buck showing up about an hour after dark .....i know its the buck bedded there cause i found its shed in the bed....

i find that mature bucks are the last ones to show... that spot i shine and dont see nothing till and hour or so after dark

and others just after dark either way they wait untill its good and dark ....thats why we hunt real close to there staging areas

[Beason]

I just read an article on this forum someone posted about human pressure and the effects on bucks. Mentioned upwards to 2 miles to "main food source". Acouple studies done. I forget whom posted it though.

[BigHunt]

I just read an article on this forum someone posted about human pressure and the effects on bucks. Mentioned upwards to 2 miles to "main food source". Acouple studies done. I forget whom posted it though.

i think that was for marsh hunting

[dan]

Loaded question for sure... Bucks will bed "as close as they feel reasonably safe" to a preffered food source... I find that the older bucks get, the more they lock into certain spots that have great protection, or are completly overlooked and rarly get human intrusion...
So the short answer would be, they could be close, or they could be far... No short cuts, you gotta scout.
Cameras at the food source should tell you to some degree how far they are traveling... If you get bucks on film at 20 minutes after hours, well you can bet he is close. And if he gets there at 11:00 he is either far away or stops someplace else 1st...

[tutone84]

I think what alot of people don't realize is that a deers diet only consist of 13% mast crops (corn,acorns,soybeans, etc) the rest is brouse, and when a deer is on it's feet it is usually eating something, I shot a buck on the 13th and he was full of fat, and there are no acorns this year where I hunt and the nearest farm fields are over 2 miles away, across a river, and because deer don't have gall bladders, they can eat alot of stuff that would kill most animals, my point is there are tons of things that deer eat, so there bedding area wherever it may be is for safety, not food.