Hunting bedding areas and mid day movement

[Tadmdad]

Many threads on the forum discussing tactics on how to setup morning/evening hunts on beds, how we scout and things to take in to consideration when using these tactics.

Most of our groups deer hunting is done in northern big woods, and are based around the rut, wheter it's in the seeking,
chasing, or lockdown phases. The areas we hunt are low density deer population, and low hunting pressure and remote. As I think back over time, I would guess that 1/2 of the bucks we have killed are midday, seems like 10 am- 2 pm at times are the best time to be in the woods. Although much of this can be related to the rut, of chasing or seeking bucks. Can think of quite a few that we have killed in bedding areas, where the buck is just up milling around and feeding midday. Spent many years hunting Michigan high pressure areas, midday was some of the best time to hunt, but related to hunter movement bumping deer, more than normal deer movement.

Just curious on how some of the members approach midday movement. Maybe in high pressure areas it's non-existant? If you setup on a bedding area early and a buck approachs in darkness and doesn't give you a shot, do you stay put? Stay in stand waiting for him to move? Slip out quietly? Sit all day, waiting for him to get up in the evening? Or if you don't see a buck in the bed, do you move to another setup for midday? Or call it a day?

[dan]

Interesting topic Tad... During the rut I do hunt a lot of mid-day hours. I also hunt mornings and evenings. I hear a lot of people talk about hunting all day in the same stand, and others discussing waiting till daylight to go in, and some others talk about just hunting mid day hours and leaving before dark...
I think a lot of these approaches only cover one thing a buck does... For example, a guy who sets up in a cruising travel funnel is likely only going to see bucks when they cruise, midday.

I try to look at what a mature buck does during shooting hours and hunt the percentages. Rather than sit in one tree all day, in the morning I hunt buck beds. Mature bucks seem to go back to bed around daylight give or take a little...
Later in the morning they rise up and start thinking about the ladies and begin to cruise. Exactly when they do this seems to very, but it seems to peak sometime between 9am and 2pm on most properties so I make a move to hunt funnels between bedding, or near doe bedding at that time frame...
In the evening the does tend to move towards food. Bucks know there hang outs and will check for hot does. When does come from many bedding areas and congregate at one food source, mature bucks won't be real interested in running right out into the food source to check the does like the younger bucks, however, they will travel what I call a parallel trail that crosses the doe trails entering the food source. These trails are usually 50 to 100 yards back from the food. Bucks will check each doe trail they cross to see if the does are hot. They usually do this at last light. Its easier to find these trails in agriculture areas because farm fields are such a defined food source, but it can work in isolated acorn patches too, or similar to...
These trails are hard to see cause they are generally only used by the mature bucks and only for a short period every year. I usually locate them by finding rubs along the doe trails leading to the food. Some people will mistakenly think those rubs are from bucks traveling to the food, but if you look close there will be rubs on the other doe trails right along the same intersection, and these rubs will pop up only during the rut time frame.
And, I do hunt evening buck beds during rut too, which is how I killed my big one last year. I seem to have the most consistency on mature bucks ( 5 or older ) during the rut, hunting beds. But you certainly do see occasional success the rest of the day on mature bucks hunting the other methods, and you see a lot of 2 to 3 year old bucks.

As far as sneaking into buck bedding areas midday during rut? I have been successful doing that, but its usually evening before the shot gets taken. I have seen more mid-day movement from mature bucks in big woods settings. I believe this might be because they get harassed at night by wolves and need to feed some during the day, and because they don't get harassed during the day by humans like farm and suburban areas.

[G3s]

I spend the majority of the rut hunting big woods deer and I have had the same experiences as you Tad, 10-2 is the best time to be in the woods in my opinion. I hunt daylight to dark the entire rifle season in the UP and seldom before 9 or 10 do I see a mature buck on its feet.
I have noticed that the deer seem to gravitate towards food and water 3 or 4 times during an afternoon. I have seen the same bucks and does lots of times throughout the day at the same watering area. I focus my set ups around those areas in the big woods because of the lack of distinctive bedding areas. It seems often times the deer bed wherever and whenever they want with in reason. Because of the lack of topography, I focus my hunting in and around the river bottom using the curves and bends in the river to my advantage on how the deer travel along them. I don't generally adjust my stand location during the day...so maybe I am missing out on something there also. This should be a great topic to follow

[gjs4]

This is "pressured area"..and for midday during archery deer move within their home realm....during firearms they move subtly in spaces with vast escapes (ie CRP or moreso standing corn)..I cannot say i have ever set up on a slammer in his bed and seen him rise in his thicket just to dump him...but have seen many deer move slowly (VERY slowly) in open areas like your woods midday....seems most hunters here break for lunch and think our brown buddies have found it to be a safer time to move esp if there is a coinciding front or rut phase

[Tadmdad]

[quote="dan"] Later in the morning they rise up and start thinking about the ladies and begin to cruise. Exactly when they do this seems to very, but it seems to peak sometime between 9am and 2pm on most properties so I make a move to hunt funnels between bedding, or near doe bedding at that time frame...[quote]

I have witnessed this tendency many times. I also will hunt funnels/pinch points midday, usually between bedding areas.

I find this is when I do my most still hunting, in the big woods seems that every year is different, deer seem to exist in pockets, with large areas that have very little activity. IMO it changes year to year, based upon food sources, bedding areas and predators (wolf population is very high currently), guess it's away to take inventory and adapt to location changes. But also have killed several bucks over the years midday in bedding areas, doesn't seem that they are cruising, more just up feeding in a secure location. As you pointed out Dan....think it relates as much to predator activity, seeing most of the wolk packs are not on the move midday.

The buck I killed last year in the BWCAW, was such a situation. Athough we were in the chasing phase, and he was on a doe about 1 pm, had never hunted that particular area before, but the deer activity was in a small pocket, maybe 200 acres (small by big woods standards). I had noticed the wolves were following almost every deer track that I came across, they also were digging for mice, which is unusal for wolves, they must have been hungry. But the deer were staying in small pockets, and staying put, if you weren't in the right location or pockets, the deer weren't moving and you saw nothing.

[Tadmdad]

Because of the lack of topography, I focus my hunting in and around the river bottom using the curves and bends in the river to my advantage on how the deer travel along them. I don't generally adjust my stand location during the day...so maybe I am missing out on something there also. This should be a great topic to follow

I agree with this.....in the 20+ years hunting the western U.P., most of my locations related to water, river bottoms, creek bottoms, beaver ponds. Most of the area the high ground was open hardwoods, and that is where all the hunters would gravitate too, so they could see . Can't ever remeber killing a buck in hardwoods up there, the first little hunting pressure the deer would move to the bottoms or swamps, basically water, where there was the thickest cover. Over the years, got pretty good at patterning hunters on their baitpiles and how the deer reacted to the pressure, filled many tags that way.

[Tadmdad]

Dan..... in your earlier post you talk about parallel trails, maybe a seperate thread. This is a good midday tactic, as you stated in marsh/ag land, this mostly relates to a food source, and matures bucks will scent check trails accessing the food source, usually right at dark. Noticed the same thing in N. big woods, but most times relates to bedding areas or swamps, where bucks are scent checking entrance/exit trails, for does that are ready. Have witnessed bucks with there nose on the ground midday, like a birddog, following a hot doe.

About 7-8 yrs ago while hunting in the BWCAW, killed a nice buck following a doe while still hunting, buck dropped about 15 yards away, was about 11 am. As I was thinking about the drag, was aways back in, caught some movement and here comes a young 8pt, nose on the ground, following the trail. Walked right up to the buck I just killed, sniffed him for about 10 seconds and moved on, 15 minutes later I hear a noise behind me, and heres this young buck on the dead run chasing that doe. Fun time to be in the woods during the rut, never know what might happen next.

[headgear]

My bigwoods rut philosophies have changed a lot over the years, especially the past few years when I have gotten into hunting buck bedding areas but this will likely be my plan of attack for the forseeable future. Like Dan mentioned I now think it is extremely important to hunt different areas at different times of the day. I use to sit all day in one stand but it seems like I often would only get action during one part of the day, moving around should really help that and put me in the best possible spots at the best possible times.

Mid-day is easy, I want to sit on a funnel, the bigger the better. I've got a few of them that connect some huge chunks of land (square miles) so that really helps up the odds. I also feel the more remote the funnel the better, big bucks will feel much safer crossing during shooting hours when there isnt' any human scent showing up all fall.

If it is morning or evening I am focused on bedding, both buck and doe. I generally target buck bedding first and then as the rut ramps up I transition to doe bedding. With buck bedding I want to know the place inside and out and have a pretty good idea where he is coming from in the morning so my entrance doesn't cross his trail to his bed. Otherwise I setup where he is staging in the afternoon. For doe bedding I want to get right inside the does bedroom, thicker the better. I don't see bucks cruising downwind of a bigwoods doe bedding too often, it seems like they want to get right inside the cover with the does so that is where I hunt. In the morning the does can have a buck in tow or the bucks cruise through right at first light, some mornings I can hear them chasing well before first light. We also have great luck in the evenings, the bucks either find a doe and bed up with her all day or they find her midday when they are cruising around and I am sitting a funnel. I have run into bucks midday in doe bedding areas but it is hit and miss, I seem to have far better luck sitting a funnel mid-day.

After lock down I have no clue, the deer just dissappear on me but I think I will try and hit buck bedding again just to try something different. I am pretty sure someone on here mentioned hunting buck bedding after lock down or later in Nov and having some luck. I also might try some off the wall places to see what I can stir up, with miles of wilderness the deer could be anywhere so I might as well have a poke around and see what I can learn.

[Tadmdad]

I speak to big woods hunting because that is what I'm most familiar with.....would like to hear some of the other Beasts speak to the OP, thinking we may see some similiar things, but maybe opposite. Always good to share ideas and observations.

[phade]

This discussion is solid.

I admit to being a funnel fan during the chasing phase of the rut, but on occassion will really hammer those buck trails in the evening as Dan indicated. I hunt in ag land..small broken woodlots with corn, alfalfa, and the rare soybean field.

Dan - I really liked the fact that you move 2x or maybe to a third spot in a given day. Can you provide more insight (or anyone who wants to chime in) how you do this? When I pull an all-day, usually 3-5 a year based on whn I can get off of work, I may sit one stand all day or I may make that move to another stand site around lunch time (or 2-3 if action is seen midday). I'm curious to see how much land you burn each time doing this in a given day, paths you take, etc. I'm interested to see how this applies to small parcels that are common in my area.

Where I hunt, I'm in small blocks of private ground. For example, my family owns 109 acres, but out of that, only 15 is woods with remainder in ag of some sort...and that is similar to the entire area. Do you usually stick to one parcel, or will you go to another during the moves?

[headgear]

Great question phade, a plan of attack is very much needed. I can't speak for farmland but I have been giving this some though for my bigwoods areas. I haven't really hunted this way a lot, mostly just sitting a funnel all morning and mid-day and then moving to doe bedding in the evening but I really want to try bedding/funnel/bedding and make a couple of strategic moves. I might actually have a couple areas that could be buck bedding near a funnel but I need to do more scouting, right now it is just a great funnel that holds potential for buck bedding.

To break it down a little more I would always check the wind/weather to find the best bedding to setup on in the morning. I would want to get there at least an hour early and slip in nice and queit. Now the big concern I have a lining up areas to hunt semi-near each other. Maybe hunt a bedding area on the way to or near a funnel. Because the bigwoods is so big I don't want to waste a lot of time hopping from spot to spot, some places are so remote and far off I could easily spend two hours bwtween spots so I want to optimize my time but still hunt the best setups under the right conditions. I would think hunting a bedding area for an hour or two max in the morning might be enough and then I would want to get to my funnel by 9-10am and sit there until 2pm or so. Then make another move and get in a two hour evening hunt on another bedding area. To Dan or anyone else is this similar to your approach to hunting different locations during the rut? I will likely have a lot of fine tuning to do but just want to see what others are doing to get some ideas.

[phade]

Great question phade, a plan of attack is very much needed. I can't speak for farmland but I have been giving this some though for my bigwoods areas. I haven't really hunted this way a lot, mostly just sitting a funnel all morning and mid-day and then moving to doe bedding in the evening but I really want to try bedding/funnel/bedding and make a couple of strategic moves. I might actually have a couple areas that could be buck bedding near a funnel but I need to do more scouting, right now it is just a great funnel that holds potential for buck bedding.

To break it down a little more I would always check the wind/weather to find the best bedding to setup on in the morning. I would want to get there at least an hour early and slip in nice and queit. Now the big concern I have a lining up areas to hunt semi-near each other. Maybe hunt a bedding area on the way to or near a funnel. Because the bigwoods is so big I don't want to waste a lot of time hopping from spot to spot, some places are so remote and far off I could easily spend two hours bwtween spots so I want to optimize my time but still hunt the best setups under the right conditions. I would think hunting a bedding area for an hour or two max in the morning might be enough and then I would want to get to my funnel by 9-10am and sit there until 2pm or so. Then make another move and get in a two hour evening hunt on another bedding area. To Dan or anyone else is this similar to your approach to hunting different locations during the rut? I will likely have a lot of fine tuning to do but just want to see what others are doing to get some ideas.

Yeah, this is interesting indeed. For me, it'd have to be completely separate parcels for me. At most, I can squeeze out a single move in the day, but in doing so, I've covered the huntable ground. Your thinking is along the same lines as me, but I'm dealing with travel time becuase my access parcels are small, and about 30 minutes apart in most cases...which requires the whole process (stand set up/take down, changing clothes for the ride, etc.). I like this way of thinking and I'm certainly going to try this route this fall. I wonder how far the minimal move is (obviously dependant on the hunting ground and usual factors).

[dan]

I certainly go in with a plan... But rut can have a way of changing plans. Generally the morning bed hunt is over relativity quick. If I don't see a mature buck in the 1st hour, I likely won't see one.. Young deer are a different story.
So, I feel I have plenty of time to switch stands and set up before the next movement.
I do not change clothes though... I could care less about foreign odors.
I usually quit the midday stand in the early afternoon giving me plenty of time to make it to the late evening parralel trails. However, this is a good time of year to keep attention on the moon position and if its over head / underfoot at a certain time, you can bet I will likely be in a funnel at that time...
Most of this types of hunts are done in hill country in areas with lots of public land. But, I would still be wanting to make moves on small parcels too.

[headgear]

Yeah, this is interesting indeed. For me, it'd have to be completely separate parcels for me. At most, I can squeeze out a single move in the day, but in doing so, I've covered the huntable ground. Your thinking is along the same lines as me, but I'm dealing with travel time becuase my access parcels are small, and about 30 minutes apart in most cases...which requires the whole process (stand set up/take down, changing clothes for the ride, etc.). I like this way of thinking and I'm certainly going to try this route this fall. I wonder how far the minimal move is (obviously dependant on the hunting ground and usual factors).

Yep a lot of logistics involved here and like you mentioned a lot of it depends on where you hunt. During the rut I hunt about 10 square miles of public ground, most of my time is spent within a 4-5 square mile area but some of my best spots are at the far ends of this range so I won't be able to pull off hunting different areas all the time but I do have some easy access locations that can work and a few spots I can string together to get in 3 different hunts if I am a mile+ from the truck. Making a move won't alwasy be easy but I should be able to get a little more creative with my setups.

At the very least it will be fun to really break down my area in more detail and have a serious plan of attack. Looking back at some of my recent bucks I took off this ground one was at doe bedding right before dark, two others were at funnels (one mid-morning and one mid-day) and a couple of other nice bucks that got away in the morning near buck and doe bedding.

[headgear]

I certainly go in with a plan... But rut can have a way of changing plans. Generally the morning bed hunt is over relativity quick. If I don't see a mature buck in the 1st hour, I likely won't see one.. Young deer are a different story.
So, I feel I have plenty of time to switch stands and set up before the next movement.
I do not change clothes though... I could care less about foreign odors.
I usually quit the midday stand in the early afternoon giving me plenty of time to make it to the late evening parralel trails. However, this is a good time of year to keep attention on the moon position and if its over head / underfoot at a certain time, you can bet I will likely be in a funnel at that time...
Most of this types of hunts are done in hill country in areas with lots of public land. But, I would still be wanting to make moves on small parcels too.

Thanks Dan, basically what I was thinking but just wanted to be sure. Good tip on the moose phase stuff, I always keep a note in my pocket during the rut and note the overhead and under foot moon times during the rut.

One thing I know for sure, this style of rut hunting will be a heck of a lot more fun than sitting those all dayers in one spot like I use to do. I know a lot of people preach all day sits during the rut and I have seen bucks all times of the day but I feel the biggest of the bucks are moving at these key times of day in specific areas and you really up your odds by hunting these spots.