The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

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hunter10
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The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby hunter10 » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:11 am

Ill start off by explaining how this all came to be. this past fall during a bow hunt i saw a mature buck cruising through a swamp during the pre rut stage. this close encounter made me believe that buck was bedded in the swamp which could be the case but later on in the season i was hunting the area in which this buck had cruised through during our previous encounter and I busted a group of does off a thick tangle beside the swamp... a couple days later i busted them again and realized that this buck was likely checking out these does when i saw him cruising in late october and NOT necessarily bedding where i saw him emerge from.

Today

I was out for what started as a shed but kept thinking of this buck that was leaving sign throughout the season but was a ghost. I decided to change my plans and search the OUT OF THE WAY spots on this farm to see what i could find.

As i was scouting i suddenly stopped and it started to click... I looked towards a corner with old fence rolls, rotten hay bails and parts of old farm machinery and almost continued on when i stopped in my tracks and re played in my head what i just said " just a bunch of junk, never looked over there before, why go there when i have the whole woods to do..... thats when i realized what all you have been explaining on here. I was in my old mindset that is likely much the same as the other hunters in the area. "why be in awkward out of the way spots when deer are in the woods"

I almost ran across the plowed corn field to this corner that was virgin land to me and started to see a couple rubs then a few more.... then i came to the haybail/brush pile and right in between them was a bed with 2 rubs right beside it, a few behind it and around it.

I then did something i hadnt done before. i asked myself WHY and it again started to click. (as the map shows)

Beast hunters let me know if you think i am correct or making false assumptions!!

The Pictures: let me know what you think

1. secluded section of bush to the North

- Didnt find a bed in it but a few old rubs, it is thick brush with crops fields surrounding it which to me seems like a perfect bedding area that im betting noone pays attention to

2. Circled section of cattails in south section of map

- This is a very small section of cattails and the only cattails on the farm. it is about 100yds long x 75yds wide. there were some impressive rubs on the trails leading into the middle where there were a few beds located

3. the found buck bed

- Yellow dots = rubs
- Red X = bed
- black arrow = direction the buck would be facing (this is a field which was standing corn and this year will be beans but between the bed and field is about a 30yd buffer of grass which i assume is always too wet to farm)

Image

Buck bed
Image

Rubs at bed
Image
Image


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hunter_mike
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby hunter_mike » Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:27 am

Sounds like you are on the right track for sure. You are making your assumptions based on sign, rather than just making assumptions.

Is that an old railroad grade? I find a lot of beds near railroad grades that humans use to access the place. Chances are that buck could have been watching/scent checking the railroad grade access and using the cornfield to slip into and disappear as soon as human intrusion was detected
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Stanley
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:13 am

Cool.
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: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:55 am

Good find!

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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby dan » Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:13 am

Your on the right track... I would keep an eye on the cattails too... 8-) Keep in mind that if you can determine the direction he is facing, its down wind. So then you can determine the wind he is bedding there on.
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby hunter10 » Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:27 am

Dan the bed I found seemed as though it would make sense to cover the field with his eyes looking downwind. I have a tree picked out for the alpha and sticks. Now the thing I noticed with the cattail marsh is there are 3 or 4 different trails leading in and about 3 beds which I would assume from the nice rubs would be for different winds but what surprised me was that after kneeling in the beds there is no view outside the bed. So technically I could sneak in fairly close without detection. Is it correct for me to assume he beds there and really only cares if 1. He catches scent near the marsh and 2. Somone enters the cattails?

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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby dan » Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:35 am

Bucks bed in spots for safety reasons... The ones in the cattails he can hear you coming and escape... Some beds are vision and scent based, some are sound based.
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby mauser06 » Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:51 pm

good stuff!


once you find your first one and it all "clicks" it seems like the rest come easier after you know what you are looking for...in a short while you can look at maps and start walking right to them...or be walking and realize you are nearing a bucks bedroom...




Dan, in terms of say a cattail marsh...a buck bedding under a lone tree out in the cattails...i'd assume hes living by his ears...and maybe nose...


how can you tell?


how do you figure out what wind he beds there on? or if he beds there on a specific wind?
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby dan » Wed Apr 01, 2015 4:14 am

Dan, in terms of say a cattail marsh...a buck bedding under a lone tree out in the cattails...i'd assume hes living by his ears...and maybe nose...


how can you tell?


how do you figure out what wind he beds there on? or if he beds there on a specific wind?


Beds out in the cattails are generally not wind specific... Lone beds on the edge often are... If its easy to see that the buck is facing a certain direction the bed is wind specific... But in some cases there are several wind specific beds near each other so he can bed there on any wind.
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby mauser06 » Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:11 am

Thanx Dan!


Makes sense...


Will they exit and enter the bed with the wind in their face?? Or does that now seem to come into play on beds out in the marsh??

I have a bed out in the marsh...the spot looks nearly identical to the one in your marsh video...stupid close to the parking lot..heavy trail going straight into it from a crop field at the parking lot...like you said in the video at first glance you'd say "that's the trail to hunt!" But that's his trail going back to the bed...leaving the bed it appears he generally leaves to the north...found a big scrape and his tracks and trails and rubs...

It seems almost too easy...early season I will have plenty of south-south west winds...parking lot is to the south...he's too old and too pressured to waltz out into the open before its good n dark...better stagine north and west of his bed...though there's a small patch south of the bed...makes more sense for him to go north because there are oaks..unless he stays bedded later and gets up right before dark and heads south into the wind...

Maybe he leaves with the wind in his face and that's why I see the sign like I'm seeing....

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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby dan » Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:51 am

Bucks tend to enter bed nose to wind in the AM... In the evening they head off and stage regardless of wind most of the time... Cattails are a little different in that the buck has to wind check his bed from a traIL IN THE CATTAILS IN A LOT OF CASES WHICH mAkes it easier to determine where he will show up in the am cause there are only so many trails and he can't blaze a new one just to scent check.
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:59 am

Good stuff.
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Re: The light came on today! found my first buck bed w/pics

Unread postby ihookem » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:03 pm

That makes sense that some beds are for seeing. Here is one bed that is no doubt used to see across the marsh. There is a bed on the other end of the brush. The pic is facing north so he is going to use it on a south wind only. I was there a fe wdays ago andit was not used recently but this buck can picked a little point where he can see about 270 degrees very easily in fall, winter and spring. The only direction he cant see is from his south, and hw will use it on a south wind so his nose covers what he cant see. This pic is way back on some Price co. Wis. public land. All the buck beds I find down here are so thick you cant see 20 ft. and no way to sneak up on them. I scouted today and jumped 2 deer as far as I can tell. I was 30-40 yds and never saw them in the dogwood marsh. This was in Fon Du Lac co. Wis today. Also, when you learn how to look for buck beds It starts to get easier. I found several today and am sure most were buck. It get addicting ,, kind of.


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