Mature Buck - Windward Side Bed?

[phade]

What reasons can you think of why a mature buck would bed on the windward side of a hill?

[cbay]

Thick nasty cover and/or doe beds. With any pressure they more than likely wait for the thermals to switch before moving much.

[BassBoysLLP]

I generally always find these when the cover is significantly better, and usually on the south side of ridges. Bucks will also occasionally bed (rut stage) on the north (cold) side of ridges on calm mornings, despite preceding northernly winds) to take advantage of the rising thermal on the south side and falling thermal on the north side.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Buckfever]

What reasons can you think of why a mature buck would bed on the windward side of a hill?

Because that's where his bed is.

[dan]

Either because of a siginicant advantage other than the wind tunnel, or because he has gotton lazy with a bed that usually has a lee ward bed.
I would tend to point at my 1st answer if we are talking mature bucks. Not very random in anything they do.

[Crazinamatese]

This topic is the very thing I been trying to figure out for awhile. I know where a well used buck bed is on north facing slope in some of the thickest briar patch I have ever ventured into. The briars cover that entire hillside and is darn near impenetrable. There is one trail going into it. The bed is dug into the ground about two inches and the best buck bed I have ever seen. I found it last season. It was not used when the snow fell last year. Maybe he was killed that season.? I been trying to find answers as to why he bedded there. My guess is because the cover is insane, but Bassboy makes an intresting point about the sinking thermals. . Im almost attempting to hire Dan to come up and see this bed and get his opinion.

[Buckfever]

I hunted a buck I think it was 2010. I actually had a shot at him at 35 yards but it was a little dark so I didn't take the shot. He bedded on a little shelf that was absolutely invisible from up high. I backtracked him in the snow to find the bed. Except for a SE wind that bed was on the windward side of the ravine. The right spot for the wind would have been across the ravine. But across the ravine is where 95% of the hunters hunted. His shelf was up against a gorge. The hunters would drop down on the opposite side of the gorge cross the creek and then climb across to the flat across the ravine. From his shelf he could watch every single hunter come into the property. Up high on his side I had walked by I don't know a dozen times I had no idea it was there. And if I hadn't smelled him come through the year before I wouldn't have even thought to check that bottom because on the opposite side of his bed from the gorge it's a wide open bottom.

2011 his sign was gone, I haven't checked since then.

I agree with Dan there's always a very good reason.

[headgear]

I rarely hunt hill country but I often see in the swamps next to ridges that the wind kind of bounces off of them and swirls around. Could there be any of that happening on a windward side bed? Maybe not a direct wind but I wonder if a slight angle could give a buck an advantage by smelling everything down the ridge if he can find a good barrier downwind to protect him. No clue if this is right, just kind of throwing it out there for the hill county experts.