farmland bedding

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

HB Store


mauser06
500 Club
Posts: 2074
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:11 pm
Status: Offline

farmland bedding

Unread postby mauser06 » Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:08 pm

Any of you guys have farmland bedding suggestions that might help me get on the right track?

My land here is highly fragmented..roads..farm fields.. Houses..patches of woods here n there..

Its hilly..but if you've hunted anything like here you'll know that the woodlots are scattered..sometimes up high..sometimes its just the hillsides/ditches that can't be farmed or developed..

I just found a buck bed last week...in a place I'd never looked...I saw him crossing a road one night and had a hunch on where he came from. So I took advantage of the snow and walked right to his bed...


His bed is about dead center of the pic..

Image

Just to the right of the center pine tree cluster...

He is 10yds off the brush hawged edge on the brush edge and small cherry stand...

Best I can tell is he beds there using his eyes and ears more than anything..

Fields to the right and the direction I was when I took the pic...


Now I'm determined to find more buck beds...but I'm struggling...

Any tips on where to look? Land features? Terrain features? Habitat etc etc?

I am learning a lot out here in winter wonder land...

I wanna nail down more beds though...

No marshland...and the top 1/3rd rule doesn't always work here..as it can be a farm field..a house..a road etc...

I know they are bedding in places they have advantages...like that one..he can see a country mile in almost 360 degrees..and anything closing in will make noise and yes outta there..

[ Post made via Android ] 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: farmland bedding

Unread postby dan » Fri Feb 14, 2014 10:48 pm

Bucks in that terrain are really going to look for over looked spots where they rarly smell human intrusion. I would check the top 1/3 leeward side of hills especially points on hills, and I would look at field edges for bucks bedding with the wind coming from the woods while there eyes watch the field. Finger points of brush jutting out into openings work like points too... Check out transitions in timber, and especially fingers along those transitions.
User avatar
E72
500 Club
Posts: 1171
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:47 am
Location: SE Ohio
Status: Offline

Re: farmland bedding

Unread postby E72 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:29 am

Mauser, That's exactly how the land is around here. Like Dan said properties with minimal human activity. Any thickets (even less than a half acre) or woodlots that were logged or clearcut are the obvious choices around here. Summer and up to harvest time , big bucks will use low weedy areas in standing corn . I always look for wet spots, a ditch or broken field tile . Easy, protected watering place for the deer inside the corn. I feel the small 200 acre farms and wooded properties like mine that range from a couple acres to 50 can really help a deer gain some age . Theres always the tree/deer hugger that does not allow hunting on his land and thats usually the sanctuary for a big buck here.
mheichelbech
500 Club
Posts: 4188
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:00 am
Facebook: mheichelbech@gmail.com
Location: Charlestown, IN
Status: Offline

Re: farmland bedding

Unread postby mheichelbech » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:23 am

I have something similar to this and I think the buck sometimes beds in a small island of thick brush about an acre in size that is surrounded on 3 sides by horse pasture and the 4th side by an ag field. I would be interested in hearing about any strategies for a situation like this. I also know he beds in another area that is more approachable from a hunting standpoint but I don't yet know why/when he beds in one spot or the other. There is a lot of human activity/pressure but no hunting pressure except by me. I speculate that he is simply unhuntable when bedding in the island but open to any suggestions.

copper/albums/userpics/21306/horse_farm_2.jpg
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
User avatar
Ridgerunner7
500 Club
Posts: 1486
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:34 am
Status: Offline

Re: farmland bedding

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:36 am

mauser06 wrote:Any of you guys have farmland bedding suggestions that might help me get on the right track?

My land here is highly fragmented..roads..farm fields.. Houses..patches of woods here n there..

Its hilly..but if you've hunted anything like here you'll know that the woodlots are scattered..sometimes up high..sometimes its just the hillsides/ditches that can't be farmed or developed..

I just found a buck bed last week...in a place I'd never looked...I saw him crossing a road one night and had a hunch on where he came from. So I took advantage of the snow and walked right to his bed...


His bed is about dead center of the pic..

Image

Just to the right of the center pine tree cluster...

He is 10yds off the brush hawged edge on the brush edge and small cherry stand...

Best I can tell is he beds there using his eyes and ears more than anything..

Fields to the right and the direction I was when I took the pic...


Now I'm determined to find more buck beds...but I'm struggling...

Any tips on where to look? Land features? Terrain features? Habitat etc etc?

I am learning a lot out here in winter wonder land...

I wanna nail down more beds though...

No marshland...and the top 1/3rd rule doesn't always work here..as it can be a farm field..a house..a road etc...

I know they are bedding in places they have advantages...like that one..he can see a country mile in almost 360 degrees..and anything closing in will make noise and yes outta there..

[ Post made via Android ] Image


That's classic farm land bedding that has given me fits for years and years until I figured it out. In addition to Dan's 1/3 hill recommendations check creak/river bends, over grown fencerows, fence rows that end out in crop fields, old abandoned farm steads, small wetlands with thick perimeter cover(pond, marsh, or swale), thick elevated areas areas in an otherwise flat hard woods, standing corn.
JoeRE
500 Club
Posts: 4576
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:26 am
Location: IA
Status: Offline

Re: farmland bedding

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Feb 15, 2014 3:32 am

Something that doesn't get discussed too much is how bedding can change over the course of the fall in farm country due to big changes in cover.

Before the crops come out and leaf drop, you can find buck bedding in skinny fence rows, little swales/ditch lines in corn fields, beds on terraces or by sinkholes in the middle of a field, that sort of thing. After the crops come out and leaves drop, say mid-October around here, many of these spots become too exposed and they retreat to areas that provide better cover - the areas still may be small and out of the way, rarely main woodlots where most hunters head to.

As was pointed out by others too - regardless of time of year, its a safe bet the oldest bucks stay where humans go the least.
User avatar
Stanley
Honorary Moderator
Posts: 18734
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:18 am
Facebook: None
Location: Iowa
Status: Offline

Re: farmland bedding

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:46 am

JoeRE wrote:Something that doesn't get discussed too much is how bedding can change over the course of the fall in farm country due to big changes in cover.

Before the crops come out and leaf drop, you can find buck bedding in skinny fence rows, little swales/ditch lines in corn fields, beds on terraces or by sinkholes in the middle of a field, that sort of thing. After the crops come out and leaves drop, say mid-October around here, many of these spots become too exposed and they retreat to areas that provide better cover - the areas still may be small and out of the way, rarely main woodlots where most hunters head to.

As was pointed out by others too - regardless of time of year, its a safe bet the oldest bucks stay where humans go the least.

Great post, very informative.
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.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Trout and 87 guests