Bedding in flat farm country

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jmaas07
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Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby jmaas07 » Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:29 pm

I'd like to hear some experiences and thoughts on buck bedding in flat farm country...specifically beds that aren't wind specific, where they bed there regardless of what the wind is doing. They are going to ultimately end up going where they want to go regardless if they're traveling wind to back, into the wind or a crosswind....but do these different winds dictate what direction they get up and move to stage then exit bedding to head to food? Or does the staging area stay consistent? Say there is a good rub line along a transition leaving a bed that appears to be used on any wind heading to a lone oak that is close to the bed, would they only be heading that way to stage if they can travel into the wind to get there? Would they still head that way and j hook the oak?

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:39 pm

If you haven't read it yet, this is a good thread.


viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17743&hilit=Farmland

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby Beast-Mode » Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:33 pm

This is another one to check out: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4177
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby jmaas07 » Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:55 pm

Those were good threads but i didn't find anything in there that answered my question....if the bed is being used with any wind, the buck just shifts the way he's laying to get the wind to his back...when he gets up to stage is the wind dictating what direction he will go to stage? If there is a draw such as a lone oak within 100 yards from the bed and he's upwind of that oak would he still be inclined to head that way to feed/stage before leaving for the ag? or would he be more inclined to leave the bed in the opposite direction to get the wind in his nose, stage, and then head to ag...

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby Ryan » Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:09 pm

I think the deer is going to leave his bed and go to that food source no matter what the wind is doing,as far as staging i would assume he would stage in the same area but maybe sit back a while longer and see/smell what he can, he might be more Leary but if that oak ridge is what he is eating he is going to head that way regardless of wind IMO, I think you would just have to worry about the wind if he is heading back to the bed he would want to scent check his bed first

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby dan » Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:03 pm

....if the bed is being used with any wind, the buck just shifts the way he's laying to get the wind to his back...when he gets up to stage is the wind dictating what direction he will go to stage?

NO. Most of the time the wind won't have a bearing in bed to food travel.
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby jmaas07 » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:24 am

Thanks for the responses, appreciate it.

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:36 am

In flat ag country, mature bucks use there sight just as much as nose or close to it. They will bed wind to back and looking out over a nice vantage point for approaching danger. Find the desired food source relative to the bed and on a favorable wind hunt between the bed and food source in his core area. He may not always come your way, but more times than not if he's in that bed and up before daylight regardless of wind being in his favor he's coming to food or water. My personal opinion here, but this is why I believe just off winds are great because I believe it gives a mature buck that added comfort level of another sense to his advantage when he does move with one. I see a lot of big deer on just off wind days.

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby briar » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:06 am

I can't be positive by I am pretty certain I found a buck bed on Monday while hanging a camera. It was about 10 yards from the edge of a high grass field between two cornfields where it was too wet to plant. It sure looked like the photos of beds I have seen on here and was just out of sight in the woodline. I big trail led to it and out into the field.

It was a mistake on my part finding it and I probably shouldn't have been there but I wanted to get the cameras out and leave them until I hunt that area. Live and learn
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby Bigburner » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:33 am

In the flat farm country I hunt I find very little bedding that isn't wind specific. Its almost always on the down wind side of some barrier or transition or the downwind side of an entire stand of woods or on a point or hedgerow. But the one thing that is always super previlent is a really good line of sight. All the beds I find usually have the advantage of picking you off from far away on a conventional approach. the buck is set up to pick off a bunch of stuff at once. Like an eye on a nearby house, where you park, the road you drive in on, set tree stands on field edges, the trail that funnels 99% of hunters into the woods. I find alot of beds that I can't hunt b/c without backing way off in the afternoon and I end up not even in the game and you end up with your only shot being an early morning hunt right near the bed and hope he doesn't cross your trail on the way back from his evening rounds.
Here is an example of a bed I found a two years ago on the public and I took a picture from the parking lot. The red arrow is the bed and the blue mark is a permanant state tree stand. the picture doesn't show the farmers house about 300 yards to the right on private. The buck also had a small pond behind him as a barrier and in the evening he get the thermal advantage as well. There is also and ag field to the right of the picture and oaks behind as a food source.
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I have yet to attempt to hunt this spot and he uses it on multiple winds but with a prevalent easterly direction. And as Dan pointed out the travel direction to food is not wind specific.

And here is the subordinate bed just down the way from that point.
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It was in the hedgerow with same line of sight to the trail, treestand and house but I found it the hard way. I walked past on the way in and the buck never moved b/c I walked down the middle of the field. On the way back I hugged the hedgerow and he bounced out of there when I got about 5 feet away. I think that bed was less wind specific but again the line of sight thing was his main concern.
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby Hawthorne » Fri Jul 10, 2015 2:43 am

I hunt moderately flat farm land. I can tell you most of the beddi.g is wind specific. Before I knew about the beast and the ways of buck bedding I was lucky enough to shoot some nice bucks. Just about all of then came from a wind specific bed. I took the dates I shot them and looked up the weather archives for them dates and sure enough they were bedding there with a specific wind. Most of the beds were on an edge of a wood lot were a point formed. Winds was blowing toward their back from the woodlot. I was set up with a cross wind or a just off wind. I shot most of them after they got out of their beds late morning to go cruise for does

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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby JoeRE » Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:22 am

Hawthorne wrote:I hunt moderately flat farm land. I can tell you most of the beddi.g is wind specific. Before I knew about the beast and the ways of buck bedding I was lucky enough to shoot some nice bucks. Just about all of then came from a wind specific bed. [glow=red]I took the dates I shot them and looked up the weather archives for them dates and sure enough they were bedding there with a specific wind.[/glow]Most of the beds were on an edge of a wood lot were a point formed. Winds was blowing toward their back from the woodlot. I was set up with a cross wind or a just off wind. I shot most of them after they got out of their beds late morning to go cruise for does

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Thats a smart thing to do. Everyone can learn a lot by doing research like that into past encounters.
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:23 am

whitetailassasin wrote:In flat ag country, mature bucks use there sight just as much as nose or close to it. They will bed wind to back and looking out over a nice vantage point for approaching danger. Find the desired food source relative to the bed and on a favorable wind hunt between the bed and food source in his core area. He may not always come your way, but more times than not if he's in that bed and up before daylight regardless of wind being in his favor he's coming to food or water. My personal opinion here, but this is why I believe just off winds are great because I believe it gives a mature buck that added comfort level of another sense to his advantage when he does move with one. I see a lot of big deer on just off wind days.

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I agree
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:27 am

In the flat farm country I hunt I find very little bedding that isn't wind specific. Its almost always on the down wind side of some barrier or transition or the downwind side of an entire stand of woods or on a point or hedgerow. But the one thing that is always super previlent is a really good line of sight. All the beds I find usually have the advantage of picking you off from far away on a conventional approach. the buck is set up to pick off a bunch of stuff at once. Like an eye on a nearby house, where you park, the road you drive in on, set tree stands on field edges, the trail that funnels 99% of hunters into the woods.

Correct... But generally if "flat farmland" there are also small interior spots that are "marshlike" or "swamplike" or woods... But, other than that flat farm land is pretty wind specific.
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Re: Bedding in flat farm country

Unread postby jmaas07 » Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:54 am

dan wrote:
In the flat farm country I hunt I find very little bedding that isn't wind specific. Its almost always on the down wind side of some barrier or transition or the downwind side of an entire stand of woods or on a point or hedgerow. But the one thing that is always super previlent is a really good line of sight. All the beds I find usually have the advantage of picking you off from far away on a conventional approach. the buck is set up to pick off a bunch of stuff at once. Like an eye on a nearby house, where you park, the road you drive in on, set tree stands on field edges, the trail that funnels 99% of hunters into the woods.

Correct... But generally if "flat farmland" there are also small interior spots that are "marshlike" or "swamplike" or woods... But, other than that flat farm land is pretty wind specific.


Dan, that's the type of spot that got me thinking and posting this topic...you can tell from looking at the bed that he lays facing different directions and rubs on different sides of the small trees that are in the bed

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