Taking over doe bedding areas

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KIoutdoors
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Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby KIoutdoors » Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:07 pm

So I dove into a piece of public scouting for the first time since last year and I was coming into what normally is a doe bedding area but this year it was filled with rubs, no actual bed but that's expected cuz they are really yarded up this winter and a foot of snow covered the ground but you could tell a buck was using it during season. This is the first time since I started scouting the property 3 years ago that there was a rub in that spot. Usually there are just a bunch of doe beds all over. Do you think the buck took that prime bedding spot over? It will be interesting to see if the bed looked like it was getting used a lot after the snow melts.


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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby mauser06 » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:25 pm

Could it also be a buck went in during the rut and did some rubbing?? To me rubs don't say beds....but rubs next to beds tell me its a buck bed I'm looking at...and I don't always find rubs right within feet of buck beds either...


Here when the deer herd up the bucks...especially the mature bucks are still loners...might see a young buck with the herd once in a while...but for the most part they stick to themselves...

Will be intesting to see what you find out....

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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby headgear » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:57 pm

I see this a lot of some of my "good but not great" bedding areas. They don't get used annually but every now and then they get hot. I think it can come down to the number of bucks in a given area and the number of good bedding locations in that area or just personal preference.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby dan » Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:46 pm

MIGHT BE A BUCK BEDDING THERE, BUT IT MIGHT ALSO BE A BUCK THERE DURING THE RUT WITH A RECEPTIVE DOE.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby dan » Wed Jan 22, 2014 10:06 pm

I was out scouting the other day and found a doe bedding area... The doe beds were in circle formation, the tracks were all doe tracks. And the biggest factor to me was the location... It was typical of does, but not bucks... However, there was a huge scrape, and a few rubs all around the beds... Pretty obvious to me it was a visiting suitor during the rut.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:51 am

dan wrote:MIGHT BE A BUCK BEDDING THERE, BUT IT MIGHT ALSO BE A BUCK THERE DURING THE RUT WITH A RECEPTIVE DOE.


Thats what I think too. Doe bedding areas can get thick with rubs and scrapes in just a couple days when a doe comes around there, particularly if there is more than one buck after her. File that spot away for the time when you think that doe came around, next year. Should be good.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:57 am

It could be done at night too, just passing through.

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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby headgear » Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:18 am

Yep have to factor in visiting bucks as Dan mentioned, when I have seen a buck take over a doe bedding area it was pretty obvious. Dozens of rubs and rub lines in a few directions.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:33 am

The rubs that define buck beds are actually right in the bed. The tree that is rubbed is right up against the bed.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby headgear » Thu Jan 23, 2014 2:36 am

Yep meant rubs in the bed and staging areas, plus some rub lines in the area, should have added more detail. Not to mention tracks and sign showing up outside the rut.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby Stanley » Thu Jan 23, 2014 5:54 am

dreaming bucks wrote:It could be done at night too, just passing through.

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I think this holds a lot of value. Area is smelled up with deer scent and roaming bucks get excited.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby SamPotter » Fri Jan 24, 2014 10:43 am

I'm sure it happens. Each buck has to pick out his favorite bedding area. Just the same as some of those spots that are always hot with buck sign and suddenly one year it dries up. Then there are those bedding sites that get used by generations of bucks...
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby KIoutdoors » Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:23 am

headgear wrote:Yep meant rubs in the bed and staging areas, plus some rub lines in the area, should have added more detail. Not to mention tracks and sign showing up outside the rut.

The rub was right by the primary bed on the ridge then there were a couple the west were it looked as though that was were he was staging. Kinda over exaggerated when said filled with rubs lol

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headgear
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby headgear » Sat Jan 25, 2014 2:46 am

I think a lot of time the rut beds can fool us, my first few years beast hunting I was hunting beds that weren't getting used all too often. I would find the beds and rubs in an area and think I scored a great bedding area but in reality it was probably a buck working the area during the rut and leaving a little sign to show his presence. In those kind of situations your timing needs to be perfect and you have to have lots of luck on your site. Now I try and avoid hunting those areas.

Still good bedding areas can go hot and cold in any given year, if a buck isn't there one year the does will take over so its very possible to have this happen. A lot of my bedding areas are large thick areas used by bucks and does, they aren't bedding together but I've bumps does and still gotten on bucks later that evening.
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Re: Taking over doe bedding areas

Unread postby Arrowbender » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:28 am

I have read that does, because of their duty to propagate, are entitled to the best food sources. So I think historically their bedding areas coincide. If, the food source dries up or a better one is found, the does move, and the bucks, or a buck, may take that over. And of course; vice versa. This may have more to do with the buck's; being more of a solitary curmudgeon; just leaving their normal haunts if the does decide he (they) are bedding in the area of choice because of a certain menu change.

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