Real buck bed/upcoming fall hunt learning thread

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
virginiashadow
500 Club
Posts: 821
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:50 pm
Status: Offline

Real buck bed/upcoming fall hunt learning thread

Unread postby virginiashadow » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:34 am

Please guys, feel free to post topos of your off-season discoveries in this thread so we can all learn. I am going to present one scenario I am faced with this upcoming season. I am new to trying to find deer beds and mature buck beds in general. This off-season I believe I found a bed of a 2.5 year old buck, which would make him a 3.5 year old come fall. The size of the bed and the slightly lower than mid-section rubs tipped me off to such. I know he survived because I found his bed a week after the hunting season, after it had snowed 8-10 inches. I labelled up a map. What is weird (maybe not for some of you guys) is that this buck is bedded by the most pressured area on this particular area. I bet he could literally hear the doors of the hunting vehicles close and could bug out once he felt like he was pressured in the least.

Right across the creek is a large no hunting area that is meshed into this particular 1,000 acre area I scouted thoroughly this off-season (probably 25-30 hours alone I scouted this one area). I bet that buck when he feels pressured just bolts down that hill, crosses the creek (too tough for people to cross) and goes up the hill into the no hunting zone.

I have been watching the Hill Country DVD and Marsh Bucks DVD's over and over and have finally realized I am a little confused as how to set up EXACTLY in regards to a known buck bedding spot given a specific wind. I heard Dan speak a lot about staging areas, or areas 50-100 yards off a bucks bed where he comes out 30-60 minutes before sundown. I want to know how to set up so he cannot see me or hear me, and yet still be in the game when it comes to primetime in the afternoon.

1) Where would you guys set up given a particular wind to kill this buck?

2) How do I confirm this buck is still using this bed without spooking him?

I remember the winds being from the North/Northwest for many days prior to discovering this bed.

TOPO

Image

BUCK BED

Image

RUBS within 5 feet of Bed and going down the northwest part of the pines

Image

Image

SCRAPE

Image

HIS VIEW toward the creek

Image


dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Real buck bed/upcoming fall hunt learning thread

Unread postby dan » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:40 am

Thats a pretty simple bedding area... I will say this though, sometimes when young bucks enter a new age bracket they move to better bedding areas. You might find more 2 1/2 year olds bedding here... But, he might be back too.. For me to hunt a spot like this I 1st consider the bucks "safe zone"
This is an area that the buck feels safe in. He thinks nothing has penetrated this area around his bed while he was bedded.. I marked what I would consider the likely "safe zone" for this bed with a yellow perimeter.
Most mature bucks stage within this safe zone until dark most of the time. So to kill them, I will try and get as close to, or within that safe zone.
I generally set up right on the edge of it. I have watched enough bucks get up a couple hours before dark and never leave this area till last light to know that getting within that zone is key to killing them.
Being a 2 1/2 year old he is leaving to much sign for his own good as they often do, there fore advertising his travel paths...
The two best killing spots for this buck in my opinion I have marked in black. The scrape, and the back side of the rub cluster...
Your N.West wind would work well with the rub cluster stand, but not the scrape stand. I actually believe a N.West wind will give him a false confidence that he can smell danger from the pines...
I would want to look close at the scrape and rubs and tracks when scouting because some bucks leave a bed going one direction, but come back from another.. Not always, but enough to make it worth mentioning.
One interesting thing is that your pic's show it wooded, but the topo shows it as open?
If the pines are thick they should cover your entrance, pine needles are great under foot for keeping quiet.
I marked the scrape stand entrance with an orange line. I would hunt that spot on a West, or N.West wind. If possible the stand site should be placed so neither the wind that is present when you get there, nor the reversing downhill evening thermal will cross your shooting lane when it switches.
I would hunt the rub stand with a West or S.West wind using the blue line rought to get in there...
I would expect this buck to bed there when the wind is West, N.West, or S.West... I would be surprised if this buck is not bedding there when the wind blows to that bed from the parking lot.

Image
User avatar
virginiashadow
500 Club
Posts: 821
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:50 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Real buck bed/upcoming fall hunt learning thread

Unread postby virginiashadow » Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:06 pm

Thank you for the information. Everytime I read one of your posts I pick up some new thought patterns that are helping me chain clues together. I am not sure why the topo is showing an opening when it is wooded. So If I get a chance I should go back in there to double check that the buck is using the same bed because he might have moved on to a better spot because he has aged? Here is an aerial of the spot.

When I did my scouting I walked down from below his bed and came up with a north wind in my face. I jumped a coyote in the pines and he was only about 10 yards from that scrape. I will get back in there this weekend and check his bed, and any potential travel routes for tracks. By the time the weekend hits it will have rained off and on for 4 days, thereby leaving the ground fresh for tracks and info. Also, I am not dead set on hunting this spot, but I want to have options for any wind, and many areas because I never know what areas they may have open or closed on the base I hunt. I would rather go in and hunt a spot I know a buck has bedded in the past than nothing at all. My days of blind hunting are slowly coming to an end as my homework gets passing grades :)

Aerial...

Image


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 79 guests