creek or river point beds

[PK_]

Say there was fields to the East of that creek. Has anyone ever noticed a buck bed the same way but instead, cross the creek to the fields? Also ive witnessed a big buck walk down a creek with a hard bottom and a have also found sheds in that same creek. Has anyone noticed deer use creeks/waterways to travel?

[ Post made via Android ]

I have seen many bucks travel the upwind side of creeks, ditches, ponds, lakes, swamps, etc... It is a pattern I depend on for aerial scouting and going into properties blind. Much like what SB posted earlier in this thread about bucks using that barrier for downwind protection I believe, or perhaps they are just trying to scent the mainland in it's entirety, or both...

[PK_]

Thought I'd add this to the discussion, to see what other Beasts have found when hunting creek point beds.

Here is a creek, the topo lines represent a 5 foot change in elevation. In your experience, would the bucks prefer the elevated (red) beds I marked... or the river point beds I marked in black... or both?

I'll add my own experiene in this area as well...

Have you ever scouted the small hump by itself with the red line passing through it? Depending on the cover, that looks like a definite bedding area for the areas I hunt with small elevation change like that.

[CMBOSTC]

Here is a spot where I watched several bucks bed, and had some encounters with some absolute monsters. The area is in S.W. Iowa on a farm I asked permission to hunt. They gave permission to anyone who asked, but it was low pressure in regards to what most of us hunt. The light blue dot represents where I hunted. The blue line is my rought in. The red dots are where the beds were, and where I watched bucks bed. They only bedded here on a West wind. They faced the river when bedded. (down wind) The ones I actually saw bed took the roughts I marked in red. I shot the biggest buck I ever shot in this set up, a true world class 12 point typical. But the buck was never found... I also clipped a limb and missed a 160 class 10 point out of this set up, and seen many other bucks go in and out of this primary bedding area. Got to see 1st hand how lesser bucks would be forced to move to the satellite bedding.

Dan, please explain how you were able to hunt that location with a west wind that was blowing to the bedded bucks

[PK_]

This was a morning spot only... If they bedded there they 1st gave me an opertunity to shoot them.

I'm guessing rut. Late return to bed.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[CMBOSTC]

This was a morning spot only... If they bedded there they 1st gave me an opertunity to shoot them.

I'm guessing rut. Late return to bed.

[ Post made via iPad ]

I'm now thinking it was a morning spot???

[dan]

This was a morning spot only... If they bedded there they 1st gave me an opertunity to shoot them.

I'm guessing rut. Late return to bed.

[ Post made via iPad ]

I'm now thinking it was a morning spot???

Correct...

[CMBOSTC]

This was a morning spot only... If they bedded there they 1st gave me an opertunity to shoot them.

I'm guessing rut. Late return to bed.

[ Post made via iPad ]

I'm now thinking it was a morning spot???

Correct...

I saw that as I kept reading. Thanks!

[oldrank]

Man i go spend weeks n weeks on here sucking up this type of info ... thanks guys you have my head just spinning thinking of this stuff......so interesting !!!!!

[Singing Bridge]

Thought I'd add this to the discussion, to see what other Beasts have found when hunting creek point beds.

Here is a creek, the topo lines represent a 5 foot change in elevation. In your experience, would the bucks prefer the elevated (red) beds I marked... or the river point beds I marked in black... or both?

I'll add my own experiene in this area as well...

Have you ever scouted the small hump by itself with the red line passing through it? Depending on the cover, that looks like a definite bedding area for the areas I hunt with small elevation change like that.

Yes I have- this particular area is overrun with hunters, and the bucks typically bed in the red areas to the east of the spot you are mentioning (for the first few days of season, then they spend more time down low in the black beds, out of sight and difficult to approach). They stage toward this spot and I always find rubs and or scrapes on that hump. If it were in my big woods areas with moderate to less pressure I would anticipate bedding, certainly. The bucks really want to be on that little bit of elevation, so they stage to it and mark it up.

[Singing Bridge]

I would say both S.B. Again though, proper cover, and pressure play into it. ;Low pressure would have me expecting beds likely in the black and red spots you marked... If the wooded points (red beds) are open woods hunters frequent, I would expect those spots to be vacant and the black dots in the lower thicker brush to be used more, but if the woods is not heavy pressure, but the river receives boat traffic, just the opposite.

Talk about covering the bases! How many guys can take a situation like this and cover it with all pressure / non-pressure scenarios in a short paragraph? Great post, Dan... gotta love the Beast!

This area receives a pile of hunting pressure. The red beds usually have activity for the first week of the season. The black beds hold better buck bedding through the season because they are difficult to approach and out of sight of predators. There is no boat traffic, as the creek is a small stream that you can cross in a variety of areas... and yet its deep enough that you can't cross it in many places without chest waders.

All those doughnut holes of a slight rise in elevation... see a lot of staging / rubbing / scrapes by the bucks. There is simply too much human activity for them to bed there, but they certainly seek them out. With less pressure these little rises in elevation get some bedding in the big woods areas I hunt especially if it is wet and mucky around them.

[ihookem]

All your knowledge makes me dizzy. I always suspected deer use creeks and rivers for travel. I have river frontage in northern Wis. on the South Fork Flambeau River. River is about 50 yds wide. On both sides , especially the north side there is a trail that goes for as far as I ever walked it on top of the ridge. I'm sure the trail goes from Phillips to Ladysmith to some degree. I have never had good luck seeing big bucks using it though. Is this a big buck trail used to smell does further into to woods? We have shot some smaller bucks going along the trail I also saw some real nice bucks using trails perpendicular to the main trails but this was before bow season. ( opening day bear season of course) Has anyone hunted along major rivers like that? Kind of like northwoods beast hunting during the rut?

[PK_]

Great Feedback SB.

Reading Dan's post and referring to the map, a guy could learn a lot, I tell ya.

[dan]

All your knowledge makes me dizzy. I always suspected deer use creeks and rivers for travel. I have river frontage in northern Wis. on the South Fork Flambeau River. River is about 50 yds wide. On both sides , especially the north side there is a trail that goes for as far as I ever walked it on top of the ridge. I'm sure the trail goes from Phillips to Ladysmith to some degree. I have never had good luck seeing big bucks using it though. Is this a big buck trail used to smell does further into to woods? We have shot some smaller bucks going along the trail I also saw some real nice bucks using trails perpendicular to the main trails but this was before bow season. ( opening day bear season of course) Has anyone hunted along major rivers like that? Kind of like northwoods beast hunting during the rut?

Hard to say based on info given... I would put a trail camera on the trail and see what happens there.

[iplan]

I put a yellow dot where I expect a buck to be bedded.

Fabulous thread, and it really suits my hunting locations. I also second the request for a "river bottom" DVD. Now, relating to the piece of dirt above that you have already graciously assisted me with (which I have not hunted yet), would you say hunting the buck bed indicated by the yellow dot in a western wind would be a morning or evening setup?

Best,
iPlan


PS: I have learned more about deer hunting on this forum than I had learned in the 10 years previous to finding it. Thank you!

[PK_]

Most beds are better hunted in the evening, unless the bucks are only using them on a wind direction that makes it impossible to close in on them and setup when they are already bedded. Even then you can usually get in there when the wind is just slightly 'off' the beds. But if you can't, save that bed for the rut or a moon morning and try to catch that buck slipping in a little late. You can search and find a lot of info on hunting beds in the AM.