bedding in the South

[buckybeaton]

new member on the forum & really enjoy it. my question to Dan an others is I'm from the deep south in Alabama and we experience a much more random bedding of the bucks for the most part. So much of the terrain is woods only being thick and open but mostly thick. We normally don't have timber strips or ag. of any kind and the deer tend to bed anywhere and everywhere. Would like to know what you guys strategy might be for that scenario

[headgear]

Can you post an aerials? A lot of the buck bedding tendencies are very similar, once you get an idea what to look for they are easier to find. Some randomness might be built in but overall there are preferred bedding areas everywhere, you just have to find them in your area. Just a shot in the dark here but if you are in the woods or on high ground you might have to look for the wet stuff to find where the bucks are spending most of their time.

[Redman232]

I have not deer hunted in Alabama, but I have spent 12 days over the last three years hog hunting and I've always got my eyes peeled for deer sign, just in case I ever get the urge to hog hunt in the fall and tack on a deer tag. From what I've observed the information in the hill country dvd applies directly to the hilly wooded ground I hog hunt on. There have been several cases when I've been down there and found beds right where they should be. So if you haven't seen the Hill Country DVD I would definitely get my hands on it if I were you. Even if the land you hunt is relatively flat, it doesn't take much elevation change for thermals to rise and fall and I know the Marsh Bucks DVD helped me begin to understand bedding in flatter terrain also. I would bet if your finding buck beds, they are not at all random, everyone one I've every found had a pretty obvious advantage, whether it was security, sight or wind.

[headgear]

Here are a few simple things to look for, general the bucks will keep the wind to their back when bedded and have their own scent blowing over some kind of barrier where they have an advantage either by sight, sound or water or sometimes all three. Think points of a ridge in hill country, cattails or a beaver pond in swamp land. Look for thermal advantages in both, lots of possibilities, have to find what works in your area.

[dan]

Welcome to the BEAST. Your comment about random bedding is one I hear a lot... But not just from Alabama, from everywhere. Its not true though, for the most part. If you have a large population of deer you may see deer bedding in lots of places all over the area, but Im not hunting deer, im hunting bug bucks. There is nothing random about big buck bed locations... I have hunted 9 different states including Alabama, and the rules apply everywhere... Some ground is certainly harder to read than others, but, the best bedding areas will contain the best bucks unless over harassed.

[hunter_mike]

Welcome to the site.

Some things I have learned so far:

There's way way more ground that a good buck won't bed on than ground where a buck will bed on. Any kind of edges inside the woods where it goes thick to open, anywhere there is a barrier such as edge of a impenetrable swamp or tag alders where human approach to that spot is predictable. Also would check spots downwind or overlooking the places where people are accessing the ground. Or the wettest spots on the property that still have bedding available, they don't bed in the water but they will bed on a solid patch of ground surrounded by water, even more so if nobody goes back there.

If i was looking at a map i would focus on the ends of points, points of a ridge tip, point of brush sticking into marsh, or bowls which are points only backwards.

Also scout with a plan, if you have gps coordinates or a good idea of where you are going to check, the "hard to get to spots" won't be as hard to get to.

And yeah if you havent watched dans dvds, you would be doing yourself a huge favor by getting them. I lost a lot of sleep after watching them because they answered so many of my questions and kept me obsessing through the nights.

[KLEMZ]

Any kind of edges inside the woods where it goes thick to open

X2

When you are hunting homogenius wooded terrain, (not much elevation or vegetation change), look for pockets within the woods (or brush). What I mean is.... if all the woods is open hardwoods, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of thick vegetation. If all the area is nasty thick buck brush, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of more open vegetation. The biggest bucks will be bedded very near where the thick meets the more open terrain.. the transition between the two. Usually, it is better to have the area be all thick with just a pocket of more open. Of course this must also be an area with no human intrusion.

In homogenius terrain, topo maps will not be of much help. Aerial photos can be helpful, but you will need to search for as many different years of photos that you can find. Usually, what you will find is that one particular photo will reveal a transition area between thick and thin vegetation . This is either because of time of year the photo was taken, time of day the photo was taken (angle of the sunlight), or the year it was taken.

Plug in all possible transition bedding areas on your gps and walk to each preplanned waypoint. Don't waste time following sign you find along the way. Walk directly to each waypoint. You made them waypoints for a reason. When you near a big bucks bedding area, you will find that all the tracks you see are big. It will be obvious that a big buck spends a lot of time near this area. I found a 4 finger track buck bedding area, in a vast sea of brush, yesterday, using this same technique.

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Any kind of edges inside the woods where it goes thick to open

X2

When you are hunting homogenius wooded terrain, (not much elevation or vegetation change), look for pockets within the woods (or brush). What I mean is.... if all the woods is open hardwoods, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of thick vegetation. If all the area is nasty thick buck brush, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of more open vegetation. The biggest bucks will be bedded very near where the thick meets the more open terrain.. the transition between the two. Usually, it is better to have the area be all thick with just a pocket of more open. Of course this must also be an area with no human intrusion.

In homogenius terrain, topo maps will not be of much help. Aerial photos can be helpful, but you will need to search for as many different years of photos that you can find. Usually, what you will find is that one particular photo will reveal a transition area between thick and thin vegetation . This is either because of time of year the photo was taken, time of day the photo was taken (angle of the sunlight), or the year it was taken.

Plug in all possible transition bedding areas on your gps and walk to each preplanned waypoint. Don't waste time following sign you find along the way. Walk directly to each waypoint. You made them waypoints for a reason. When you near a big bucks bedding area, you will find that all the tracks you see are big. It will be obvious that a big buck spends a lot of time near this area. I found a 4 finger track buck bedding area, in a vast sea of brush, yesterday, using this same technique.

That's a great tactic. This is how I scout featureless river bottoms. If you are down on the ground without a plan you can wander around forever looking for edges and waste a lot of time.

[cbigbear]

When you are hunting homogenius wooded terrain, (not much elevation or vegetation change), look for pockets within the woods (or brush). What I mean is.... if all the woods is open hardwoods, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of thick vegetation. If all the area is nasty thick buck brush, look for small pockets (1 acre or more) of more open vegetation. The biggest bucks will be bedded very near where the thick meets the more open terrain.. the transition between the two. Usually, it is better to have the area be all thick with just a pocket of more open. Of course this must also be an area with no human intrusion.

In homogenius terrain, topo maps will not be of much help. Aerial photos can be helpful, but you will need to search for as many different years of photos that you can find. Usually, what you will find is that one particular photo will reveal a transition area between thick and thin vegetation . This is either because of time of year the photo was taken, time of day the photo was taken (angle of the sunlight), or the year it was taken.

Plug in all possible transition bedding areas on your gps and walk to each preplanned waypoint. Don't waste time following sign you find along the way. Walk directly to each waypoint. You made them waypoints for a reason. When you near a big bucks bedding area, you will find that all the tracks you see are big. It will be obvious that a big buck spends a lot of time near this area. I found a 4 finger track buck bedding area, in a vast sea of brush, yesterday, using this same technique.

Great info. As a newbie been at it almost a year now. I find hills & marshes much easier to find bedding in than river bottoms or large tracks of homogenius terrain. I would be really interested in what you saw on an aerial that helped you find the buck bedding area yesterday. Is there anyway you could explain in more detail possibly with a map mark up that would be safe to post on here?

[KLEMZ]

I would be really interested in what you saw on an aerial that helped you find the buck bedding area yesterday. Is there anyway you could explain in more detail possibly with a map mark up that would be safe to post on here?

cbigbear,
I will put together a couple examples of where I've found big buck bedding in homogenius terrain, and the clues that led me to them. It will take me a few days. Possibly I will PM you with the information. Depends on what I come up.

[dan]

When I look back at the homogenous terrain I have scouted, if there is a good number of deer, there is usually bedding in a lot of places that make it seem random... But the big bucks at least the mature bucks are still where they belong in the best beds... Edge points on transition lines. Isolated cover. Hill beds. etc.. I recently started hunting a very large swamp that has a square mile of tamarack, very large blocks of red dogwood, large sections of cattails, hilly hardwoods, etc... There are beds everywhere that has the right ingredients...
But, when I looked at the area 1st by studying maps and human access one small area of the several miles of wilderness stuck out to me as an area where people don't go and a good looking remote area with good bedding structure... I scouted pretty much the whole area. All the big bucks that I was driven to hunt there by rumors about them, let there sign exactly in the area I predicted...

Its hard to explain in words, but really the more time you spend scouting and studying buck beds, the better your instincts are going to get at predicting them... It is very hard for some people to walk past small buck beds to hunt and scout big buck beds, but if your after big bucks thats what you must do.


Good bedding structure where people rarely go... Surrounded by water can be good to, cause it stops coyote/wolf harassment as well.

[Bigburner]

Klemz if you can post them up here. Being relatively new to beast hunting I hunt tons of homogeneous cover with little to no topography as well. Tons of transition but its tough. I know this has been touched on a few times before but for us guys hunting these coastal plain areas it doesn't exactly pop out for us a far as bedding for bucks. I'll find you doe bedding all day long and will find beds in hills and marshes no problem but ill admit its tough otherwise any examples are great. The stuff I picked up from Dans videos has been exponentially helpful but sometimes I feel like I'm in the ball park but I'm more in the mode of having a good hunch and looking for future sits to be more along the lines of observation. I know experience trumps all but any tips....I'm all ears

[KLEMZ]

cbigbear and Bigburner, I sent PM's to both of you

[cbigbear]

I pm'ed you back & again thanks a ton.

[headgear]

I recently started hunting a very large swamp that has a square mile of tamarack, very large blocks of red dogwood, large sections of cattails, hilly hardwoods, etc... There are beds everywhere that has the right ingredients...
But, when I looked at the area 1st by studying maps and human access one small area of the several miles of wilderness stuck out to me as an area where people don't go and a good looking remote area with good bedding structure... I scouted pretty much the whole area. All the big bucks that I was driven to hunt there by rumors about them, let there sign exactly in the area I predicted...

Its hard to explain in words, but really the more time you spend scouting and studying buck beds, the better your instincts are going to get at predicting them... It is very hard for some people to walk past small buck beds to hunt and scout big buck beds, but if your after big bucks thats what you must do.

Great info as usual Dan, I hunt a lot of big swamps and you describe them perfectly. You have to find the spot within the spot! There might be a little randomness built into smaller areas based on wind and a few other things but just narrowing it down to that preferred area is key.