Found and marked all beds. What now?

[maukings]

I need to pick out my trees. I wish I had done this before Spring but I think I can now think about hunter pressure and eliminate the bedding areas that get the most traffic. I also found what appears to be a primary scrape area as described by Eberhart. I want to give it a shot during the rut. How do you go about picking out trees?

[Ghost Hunter]

I set on Public land. Have not been down south yet to camp. Got a little trimming to do. Not much.

[seazofcheeze]

I like to pick my tree or trees while spring scouting or I end spending twice as time in the woods, and with the heat and green up in full swing it's not nearly as fun to be in the woods right now.

I like to think about access before heading out to scout, but things don't always pan out in the woods, so I will tweak access routes after boots on the ground.

I like to go back and look at all the new spots I scouted and group them by what winds I can hunt them, and also by what time of the season I think they will be best. There are always a few spots that stick out every spring as being better than average looking bedding areas. I will try and make sure to get at least 1-2 hunts in those areas.

I also look back at maps of where I found bedding and look for camera setups that might help me see what caliber of buck is using the surrounding bedding areas. Along the same lines, of there is at in the area, I will look for fields to glass or shine (legal in MI). Last year 2 of the best bucks I knew of I located glassing. One was in an area I had 2 cams in and never saw him on either cam.

Obviously plenty of options to stay busy once the beds are located.

[<DK>]

The most effective way to choose trees is while scouting. Hanging an orange vest head high above the bed and walking the access trails out until you can see orange anymore works for me. In the hills that's generally 100-200 yds in open timber setting. You can still go now to pick or prep, use Google Earths measuring tool to measure distance from the edge of the bedding area to get an idea of distance. Also seek out terrain features to key in on travel routes for the time of season you plan to hunt. If you found doe bedding while scouting - setting up between x2 doe bedding areas can be a fun day of hunting.