Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

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Motivated
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Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

Unread postby Motivated » Fri Jun 05, 2015 4:05 pm

I'm not sure what terms to enter in a search, so please help if there is a topic on this already.

Lets say you have a buck with some beds which are difficult to hunt or in areas off limits to hunting. Fencing, cutting trees not an option on public land. Would it be good to try to limit his bedding options by placing brush, human hair, dog feces, bobcat urine in the beds off limits earlier in the summer to push his home range in a certain direction? Is this even possible? Would this be a bad idea because he will establish new unknown beds in order to maintain a certain number of bedding options?

I'm wondering if it is possible or advantageous to do this versus stacking. If so, do folks have other methods they use to keep bucks from using a certain bedding area?

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Re: Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:37 pm

Motivated wrote:I'm not sure what terms to enter in a search, so please help if there is a topic on this already.

Lets say you have a buck with some beds which are difficult to hunt or in areas off limits to hunting. Fencing, cutting trees not an option on public land. Would it be good to try to limit his bedding options by placing brush, human hair, dog feces, bobcat urine in the beds off limits earlier in the summer to push his home range in a certain direction? Is this even possible? Would this be a bad idea because he will establish new unknown beds in order to maintain a certain number of bedding options?

I'm wondering if it is possible or advantageous to do this versus stacking. If so, do folks have other methods they use to keep bucks from using a certain bedding area?

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I've definitely destroyed beds before, but in each case I had created a bed nearby. My rationale was never to move a home range but to improve access in the immediate vicinity. You don't necessarily need to cut trees down to create bedding. Oftentimes it is as easy as clearing out a high spot in good cover. Try not to think about the bed hunter hunting the destroyed bed this fall. :lol:

It sounds like you know what you are doing for the most part. It is more important that you consider where you will displace him rather than if you can displace him. Good luck!



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Re: Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

Unread postby headgear » Sat Jun 06, 2015 2:04 am

Go for it, basically stacking without hunting. In an earlier thread Dan had talked about pressuring a big transition area and hopefully forcing a buck to move his bed out to an island, this would basically be the same thing, try and influence where he beds because of pressure. However I wouldn't do this in late summer I would do it when you plan to hunt or a week before you plan to hunt. Get in there and mess it up and see what you can learn from the area, study the tracks and see if you can't push a buck out of one area and follow him to the next, I don't mean tracking him but just figure out where he might move to by learning his track.

There is a lot of pressure on public land anyway, I have guys walking through bedding areas I hunt all the time and they are doing this without knowing it. You just have to adapt and figure out where those bucks are going to go next.
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Re: Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Jun 06, 2015 3:38 am

Yea I have done that a few times too. You can start to do it this summer but need to keep going into that area every week or two through hunting season otherwise deer will probably just come back. I would wait to start doing it a little before the season. I go in and stomp through every thing, squirt some cologne/perfume on several trees, maybe take a leak on a log (better yet maybe load up on chili and beer the night before and drink a couple cups of coffee on the drive to the spot) and just in general try to leave a lot of scent. Do that every week or two and bucks will find different bedding. Hair clippings would probably work but I have found a little perfume or cologne works great. You will quickly see less activity on trails going to that location. The trick is figuring out where the bucks relocate to.

Keep in mind it is the sort of thing that if you stop doing it, within the next year and maybe in as little as a few weeks bucks will consider it secure again and move back in.

I try not to do it too often or to areas I know others probably hunt...its one of those tactics that I have some reservations about on public land. I have been on the receiving end of some of that when I used to hunt private land growing up. Keep the golden rule in mind.
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Re: Can we influence home range / prevent bedding in an area

Unread postby Motivated » Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:34 am

Thanks guys. I'm not looking to ruin anyone else's hunt. This is a safety zone.

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