Doe bedding - hills

[cbigbear]

The rut should be kicking off at the end of this month in the hill country I hunt. So I'm turning my attention to doe bedding & starting to review my doe bedding & plan access/setups. I normally find does bedding slap in the middle of ridges or finger ridges in the classic circle fashion. However, on occasion I find them closer to the points yet still bedding somewhat circular. What everyone's opinion on the does using these points vs wind direction? Do they bed wind to backs like bucks or discard wind direction do to their group bedding? The next question - what have ya'll experience with bucks cruising these doe beds on points? I'm assuming they cruise above the points using thermals & checking the entrance trails.

[dreaming bucks]

I find just the opposite in hill country, I find them bedded down in the pockets or valleys between the points that jet out from ridges, helps if there is some good cover for them....and then the bucks cruise the outskirts of these pockets to scent check.

Occasionally I see a doe with a couple fawns bedded on ridge, but usually they are down in the valleys or pockets for me.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Southern Man]

I find just the opposite in hill country, I find them bedded down in the pockets or valleys between the points that jet out from ridges, helps if there is some good cover for them..

I seen this very thing scouting this past weekend. A half dozen does were bedded in an area between 2 fingers coming off the side of the ridge. The area was a ditch / gully / cut kind of thing maybe 60-70 yards wide. There were several downed trees scattered in it.

..and then the bucks cruise the outskirts of these pockets to scent check.

Based on the buck sign I seen on the ridgetop and fingers, this is what I assumed also.

[cbigbear]

I find just the opposite in hill country, I find them bedded down in the pockets or valleys between the points that jet out from ridges, helps if there is some good cover for them....and then the bucks cruise the outskirts of these pockets to scent check.

Occasionally I see a doe with a couple fawns bedded on ridge, but usually they are down in the valleys or pockets for me.

[ Post made via Android ]

I scouted some different hill country last week. It was much bigger ridges with deeper draws & bottoms. I found this to be exactly where the groups of does where bedded. I'm attach a map the doe beds are red & the buck bed is blue (jumped deer out of all beds marked on an east wind). The large bottom S of the buck bed held good sign - large rubs with decent height. Which ridge would you hunt for cruising the one the buck is bedded on or the one the does were bedded on both sides of?

[checkerfred]

Good post....this has me thinking....I've seen doe bedding low in the valleys and up on ridges in the pockets. I found a power line cut going over the end of a ridge and there was doe bedding on top all in the powerline right of way. The right of way is nothing but an overgrown thicket. Rubs went around the poeint and right of way. On land near my house, I've had does come down off the ridge about 1/2 way down...I've seen them bedded in pines in the valley. But I also observed one during a very windy day bedded on a point 1/3rd down just like a buck.