Hemlock Swamps

[Josh03]

The east side of my property is dominated by a hemlock swamp. Before I found the beast, I really stayed out of the area because I considered it a "sanctuary". I took a walk through there today and found a ton of beds. Being new, I believe one was a legitimate buck bed due to the amount of fresh rubs surrounding it. What I'm having a hard time with it the randomness of the beds. The entire swamp is littered with beds. I know there must be a reason they are bedding in there however I'm not sure what that reason is. I'm trying to focus my efforts on certain pieces of the swamp but the beds seem random.

Josh

[bigwoodshuntn]

Not sure if you have done this already or not but one thing to possibly try is marking all the beds on our GPS and then putting them on google earth or something similar. If your in a dense swamp is can often seem random or all the same but if you look on a map you will often find reasons as to why you found things in the places you did. I'm no expert but just my two cents.

Also depending on the size of the area it could be that it is all a bedding area and there will be several beds scattered about in an area but there is usually a reason.

[ODH]

I hunt around some hemlock swamps in central NY. In mine I have found doe groups bed there regularly from spring through year end. As Dan and others have generally described, look for that tell-tale sign of several beds in a circle pattern. I find they bed all over the swamp (as opposed to same spot) contributing that random feeling. In mine I have not found (yet) mature buck beds like you did but I have found them on the edges where there is a change in vegetation and elevation combined. For example one particularly difficult target beds on the edge of a plateau where the hemlock swamp ends and the terrain drops off sharply downhill into an old overgrown clear cut. I'm also very curious what everyone else is seeing and recommending. Heading in there next week for scouting.

[Josh03]

It is counter intuitive but my hemlock swamp it the low area. There is open woods consisting of maple, cherry and beech that form the transition. The hardwoods are slightly higher elevation but I cant locate any beds in the hardwoods. There deer seem to prefer the concealment and thermal cover the hemlocks provide. Again the property is relatively flat. Only slight elevation change between the hemlocks and hardwood.

[UofLbowhunter]

There is the possibility that there is more than one buck there. If that the case, dan says that the mature deer will have the best spots. or the buck could be bedding does as well, but he still picks the best spots, if he's mature, his bed should be noticeably bigger and in the right spots. The other deer would be satellite deer. I do believe that the bucks prefer the outer edges and areas like points, but this all depends on pressure, then its to the interior small dry humps islands or trees humps. The right buck beds could be wind specific but may be not depending on the location, like how much water or visibility can all factor beds.
If you havent seen the swamp dvd yet, get it!!

[Outdoor814]

The east side of my property is dominated by a hemlock swamp. Before I found the beast, I really stayed out of the area because I considered it a "sanctuary". I took a walk through there today and found a ton of beds. Being new, I believe one was a legitimate buck bed due to the amount of fresh rubs surrounding it. What I'm having a hard time with it the randomness of the beds. The entire swamp is littered with beds. I know there must be a reason they are bedding in there however I'm not sure what that reason is. I'm trying to focus my efforts on certain pieces of the swamp but the beds seem random.

Josh

I hunt similar areas to the one your describing here. Beds everywhere but no rhyme or reason for it being in that particular location.
What I've been trying to do is locate likely food sources by following trails out of the bedding area into the hardwoods. More than likely you'll find feeding and staging areas. Based off of which beds you think will hold mature bucks focus on where you think there headed once they leave bedding. Just my 2¢.

[freezeAR]

The beds are there because of lack of human scent. I find many beds in this terrain. The trick is determining if it a primary bedding area or if it is mainly doe bedding getting visited by bucks during the rut. At first glance some look like the latter but after examining it closely I find that the beds are oriented to take advantage of the current wind. When in doubt you can set up an observation stand or throw a camera on a good exit or entrance and see what happens.

[RDubs44]

If you are able from a safe distance, do some observation sits to see how the deer are leaving the swamp.

Correlate that with a few trail cams located in fields where deer are accustomed to human scent.

[Josh03]

All great tactics that I intend to try. Thanks fellas. The amount of sign in the swamp confirms my observations once the leaves fall and cover diminishes. At that time my buck sightings drop dramatically and it appears they make their way into the hemlocks.

[Rich M]

It is counter intuitive but my hemlock swamp it the low area. There is open woods consisting of maple, cherry and beech that form the transition. The hardwoods are slightly higher elevation but I cant locate any beds in the hardwoods. There deer seem to prefer the concealment and thermal cover the hemlocks provide. Again the property is relatively flat. Only slight elevation change between the hemlocks and hardwood.

The deer scent check their way into the swamp in the am as the thermals rise, and then don;t leave until PM thermals start to fall.

I used to hunt an area like this - the deer would work their way in as soon as the thermals switched to "up" in the am...it was hard to hunt them in the afternoon. It is also easy for bucks to scent check the does by traveling the fringes or lower elevations of the ridge/bowl/etc.

Look for trails that angle in to the swamp as they'll give you a little better chance if you set up a little ways off from the main bedding areas.

[mike perry]

Josh I think you said before your in Erie County PA. I also hunt Erie and Crawford County PA and I've noticed that some of these hemlock swamps around here are winter yarding areas. The deer have probably been going to these areas for hundreds of years in some cases. As you know we get 100-200 inches of lake affect snow in this area every year and although this winter was less sever than most I still observed the deer in the traditional yarding areas around here like every winter, they just seemed to vacate sooner than normal. In normal Years of heavy snowfall I find lots of sheds in those deer yards in years with less snowfall I hardly find any because they seem to disperse out of the yards before the antlers fall off. Through trail camera pictures over the last 12 years I'm finding that a lot of bucks are still carrying their antlers till around march 20th around here.

So maybe what your seeing is a small winter deer yard and that's why the bedding seems random. You said the hemlocks are in a low area below the hardwoods that sounds exactly like the senecio of a few hemlock deer yards I've been in around here. The hemlock swamps that are in the area I'm hunting are mostly used for bedding after the season is over for thermal cover, I am not seeing deer bed there during the summer months and sparingly during the hunting season.

[Outdoor814]

Josh I think you said before your in Erie County PA. I also hunt Erie and Crawford County PA and I've noticed that some of these hemlock swamps around here are winter yarding areas. The deer have probably been going to these areas for hundreds of years in some cases. As you know we get 100-200 inches of lake affect snow in this area every year and although this winter was less sever than most I still observed the deer in the traditional yarding areas around here like every winter, they just seemed to vacate sooner than normal. In normal Years of heavy snowfall I find lots of sheds in those deer yards in years with less snowfall I hardly find any because they seem to disperse out of the yards before the antlers fall off. Through trail camera pictures over the last 12 years I'm finding that a lot of bucks are still carrying their antlers till around march 20th around here.

So maybe what your seeing is a small winter deer yard and that's why the bedding seems random. You said the hemlocks are in a low area below the hardwoods that sounds exactly like the senecio of a few hemlock deer yards I've been in around here. The hemlock swamps that are in the area I'm hunting are mostly used for bedding after the season is over for thermal cover, I am not seeing deer bed there during the summer months and sparingly during the hunting season.

That's a very good point...

Maybe I should reevaluate the areas I've been looking at that have the same features.

[ODH]

very good observation from mike perry - adding to it another sign should be the hemlock itself. In my area in NY the deer eat the green hemlock in the early winter as other food sources dry up. But in the hemlock I hunt they don't yard there. I assume in a yard there won't be any low branches - it will all be eaten. In a summer/fall bedding area like mine the branches are more plentiful lower to the ground.