does bed hunting work with smaller bucks and does??

[briar]

Ok. Ive become facinated with this method of hunting but if i simply go after big bucks it may be years before i even find one to learn from. Scouting this year has revealed some doe bedding areas i think i can set up on and learn a little. Is this effective??

[ Post made via Android ]

[PK_]

Yes, I still-hunted upon several small bucks and does in their beds this year.

Very few beds will hold big bucks, simply due to the math.

[yungbuck]

I am learning this to...my observation this season proved to me that does and small bucks bedded in random places as well as "bedding" areas...good thread

[ Post made via Android ]

[Dewey]

More than a few times I have had a mature lone doe without fawns come from a known buck bed. Different deer rotate into these beds on any given day.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

I would hunt the buck bedding areas and if you want to shoot a small buck or a doe, do so when one shows up... Does and small bucks sometimes use buck beds too...

[goldtip5575]

Ok. Ive become facinated with this method of hunting but if i simply go after big bucks it may be years before i even find one to learn from. Scouting this year has revealed some doe bedding areas i think i can set up on and learn a little. Is this effective??

[ Post made via Android ]

If all you have is doe bedding what do you personally feel you can learn?

[cdeam]

I've wondered the same thing. Especially when I find a bed that screams big buck except for the lack of rubs. An old doe maybe? And could a tag filler get the job done with these techniques?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[briar]

Ok. Ive become facinated with this method of hunting but if i simply go after big bucks it may be years before i even find one to learn from. Scouting this year has revealed some doe bedding areas i think i can set up on and learn a little. Is this effective??

[ Post made via Android ]

If all you have is doe bedding what do you personally feel you can learn?

Well if I spend all spring scouting and have found some beds and then I go in during the fall, like you would with a buck bed, set up like you would with a buck bed, see the deer and it follows the route you though it would, like a buck would, what is the difference really?

Sometimes what folks from the midwest really fail to realize what it is like to hunt where you may see a buck of size once ever 5 years at night, with your spotlight. You have to either lower your standards, move, or just quit because you can't seem to find what people on the "internet" find, 1000 miles away. Like my buddy in MN tells me (who grew up here) when i tell him I have found one shed in 26 years of hunting "dude, bucks have to live to shed"...so I would like to learn how to hunt the beds I have, not the ones I don't.

[JoeRE]

I think you are on the right track - find bedding spots and hunt them, kill what will make you happy. Getting does and small bucks under your belt will do a lot for your confidence as a hunter and THAT is one of the most important parts of the equation.

Lets be honest here, very very few of hunters have the skill to consistently set up and kill a big buck in his bedroom outside of the rut. Most guys on this site don't do it consistently. I think I am like a lot of other pretty experienced hunters here, I think I can do it occasionally but not what I would call consistently and that's after living and breathing whitetails for 15 years or so. Does and small bucks will teach you a lot and there are a lot more of them so you WILL have more success, only experience will give you a better idea of what bedding bucks - and eventually the biggest bucks - are likely to use versus what bedding all other deer use. If you don't have confidence in my opinion you are wasting your time trying something.

[briar]

Thanks JoeRE I appreciate your response.

[dan]

I've wondered the same thing. Especially when I find a bed that screams big buck except for the lack of rubs. An old doe maybe? And could a tag filler get the job done with these techniques?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

If a bed "screams" big buck... It is a buck bed, regardless of rubs. Ask anyone who was on the scouting workshop. The primary bedding area on the private farm I hunt don't have hardly any rubs it it despite every big buck that visits the farm bedding there.

[dan]

Ok. Ive become facinated with this method of hunting but if i simply go after big bucks it may be years before i even find one to learn from. Scouting this year has revealed some doe bedding areas i think i can set up on and learn a little. Is this effective??

[ Post made via Android ]

If all you have is doe bedding what do you personally feel you can learn?

Well if I spend all spring scouting and have found some beds and then I go in during the fall, like you would with a buck bed, set up like you would with a buck bed, see the deer and it follows the route you though it would, like a buck would, what is the difference really?

Sometimes what folks from the midwest really fail to realize what it is like to hunt where you may see a buck of size once ever 5 years at night, with your spotlight. You have to either lower your standards, move, or just quit because you can't seem to find what people on the "internet" find, 1000 miles away. Like my buddy in MN tells me (who grew up here) when i tell him I have found one shed in 26 years of hunting "dude, bucks have to live to shed"...so I would like to learn how to hunt the beds I have, not the ones I don't.

Yea, you need to hunt what is there... You can't kill a 4 year old buck if none exist.

[briar]

Ok. Ive become facinated with this method of hunting but if i simply go after big bucks it may be years before i even find one to learn from. Scouting this year has revealed some doe bedding areas i think i can set up on and learn a little. Is this effective??

[ Post made via Android ]

If all you have is doe bedding what do you personally feel you can learn?

Well if I spend all spring scouting and have found some beds and then I go in during the fall, like you would with a buck bed, set up like you would with a buck bed, see the deer and it follows the route you though it would, like a buck would, what is the difference really?

Sometimes what folks from the midwest really fail to realize what it is like to hunt where you may see a buck of size once ever 5 years at night, with your spotlight. You have to either lower your standards, move, or just quit because you can't seem to find what people on the "internet" find, 1000 miles away. Like my buddy in MN tells me (who grew up here) when i tell him I have found one shed in 26 years of hunting "dude, bucks have to live to shed"...so I would like to learn how to hunt the beds I have, not the ones I don't.

Yea, you need to hunt what is there... You can't kill a 4 year old buck if none exist.

Thanks Dan, and don't get me wrong I am trying every weekend to find new areas where big bucks are, but a man only has so many hours to walk so many miles and access to so much ground (although this isn't the issue)...who knows, my next trip might be the one!! but I have to at least feel like I am learning out there or the whole process becomes depressing.

[dan]

Thanks Dan, and don't get me wrong I am trying every weekend to find new areas where big bucks are, but a man only has so many hours to walk so many miles and access to so much ground (although this isn't the issue)...who knows, my next trip might be the one!! but I have to at least feel like I am learning out there or the whole process becomes depressing.

My honest opinion is your comparing apples to pancakes... Your going to fail if you try and kill comparable bucks to guys hunting in premium states in a state that don't have bucks that big... What you should really shoot for is killing the biggest bucks in your area, even if that means they are only 2 years old, or the racks only score 100... If you really want to compete with the out of state hunters save up your vacation money or lease a property and manage it.

[fishlips]

Two takeaways from this...

1. Until I went to the scouting workshop, I don't think I had a good grasp for what a buck bed is. I was blowing by a lot of places where there was good sign, but didn't have the telltale rub or scrape nearby and I wrote it off as doe bedding. Sometimes the only way to know what is using the bed is to hunt it, or blow whatever is living in it out of there so you can see what is living in there.
2. I have used what I have learned on the videos and the forum to gain a foothold into what it takes to shoot a big buck. I still haven't shot a 3.5+ year old deer, but I have shot the two biggest bucks of my life the past two years and I attribute that mostly to the additional time I have invested in scouting. For me, I see that I need to climb the ladder. Shoot what is in my class and always try to move the ball forward. Some day I know I will shoot a 3.5+ year old because I am going to keep after it until I do.

Good luck. You can't go wrong spending time in the woods and thinking about what you are observing when you are out there. That may be the most important thing that I have learned from this site.