Early year Drought and bedding

[Kodiakman]

Here's one for ya Dan.

Will a summer of little to no rain effect a Mature buck's bed selection that will carry over for fall? Will they pattern themselves from year to year pending on water availability? Or do the change in seasons put them back in their old safe spots regardless if the have to travel far for water?

[headgear]

I can't speak for Dan but my area was pretty dry last fall, I feel it opened up a lot of extra bedding the bucks don't normally like to use because things are under water and certainly made for some hard hunting in my area. Dry years also seem to give other hunters more courage to go into areas they would otherwise avoid, I had some atv tracks going through swamps that would have otherwise been too wet to drive through.

I have tons of water this year so that might help me out, we will see.

[Swampthing]

It was real frustrating here too last year. People were accessing all the areas that normally were not hunted. 4 wheelers everywhere also. Nothing worse than walking a 1/2 mile into an area off limits to motorized vehicles and see 4this wheeler tracks.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Stanley]

I think one thing to remember any buck has a few things it must do to survive. Eat, drink, breed and hide. These are the 4 major things to consider, when setting up on a buck. I believe instincts of hiding take precedence over eating and drinking short term. The urge to breed might very well trump all the rest. That is why the rut is a big buck producer. That said if a buck is thirsty, feels secure in his location and water is close by in a secluded environment he will go taste the water. On drought years I do change my tactics to capitalize on bed to water patterns. On normal years I like buck bed to food source. During the rut I would be foolish not to concentrate on buck bed to doe bed.

[Milk Weed Seed]

I posted something similar a few months ago. What I gathered from the responses was, secure bedding trumps proximity to water.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

Here's one for ya Dan.

Will a summer of little to no rain effect a Mature buck's bed selection that will carry over for fall? Will they pattern themselves from year to year pending on water availability? Or do the change in seasons put them back in their old safe spots regardless if the have to travel far for water?

Not sure I fully understand the question, but I will try to answer... A shortage of rain in the summer should not effect the bucks in the fall if they have adequate rain in the fall...
As others have stated, with mature bucks, safe bedding trumps food and water.