where do you find bug buck beds

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wmihunter
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where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby wmihunter » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:06 pm

maybe it would be helpful to all of us if y'all would weigh in on this...so...where do you find big buck beds. maybe you could post some pics.


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Re: where do ou find bug buck beds

Unread postby dan » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:16 pm

Need to write a book to answer that. It depends on the terrain you are hunting. They bed differently in flat farmland than they do in hilly or swamp. In hilly terrain they bed at a certain elevation the majority of the time that is along the steep drop, and mostly on points.
In marshes and swamps they like slight elevation changes, low areas, & transition lines.
On flat farmland they like thick areas and over looked areas.
In big woods they like areas that were logged a few years prior, slight hills, beaver damns, and transitions.
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magicman54494
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Re: where do ou find bug buck beds

Unread postby magicman54494 » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:47 pm

If you haven't yet you should pick up both of Dan's DVDs. There is a wealth of knowledge including tons of buck bedding info.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby TreeRat » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:35 pm

Are these the DVDS you are talking about
-Hunting Marsh Bucks DVD

-Hill Country DVD
Wrinkleneck
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby Wrinkleneck » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:39 pm

TreeRat wrote:Are these the DVDS you are talking about
-Hunting Marsh Bucks DVD

-Hill Country DVD


Yep!! Both GREAT DVDS with a ton of great info!!!
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby 76chevy » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:13 am

Yes

+1 on that

they are the BEST hunting instructional DVD's out there!

:D :D

TreeRat wrote:Are these the DVDS you are talking about
-Hunting Marsh Bucks DVD

-Hill Country DVD
". . . there's more fun in hunting with the handicap of the bow than there is in hunting with the sureness of the gun." --Fred Bear
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby Stuart » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:21 am

They are awesome!!!! :D :D
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headgear
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Re: where do ou find bug buck beds

Unread postby headgear » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:25 am

dan wrote: In big woods they like areas that were logged a few years prior, slight hills, beaver damns, and transitions.


Dan I was wondering if you could expand a little on why bucks bed in areas that were logged a few years prior? Do they bed sort of out in the open and use their vision to spot trouble or would they maybe bed on the edge of these areas?

I shot my rifle buck this year in an area exactly like this, it also happened to be in a major funnel area during the rut so I am trying to get a better idea if this buck was bedding in the area or just passing thru.

I wasn't able to scout this area before the season so I didn't have any evidence of a good buck in the area, one of those better to be lucky than good situations.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:46 pm

A fresh clear cut is one of the thickest areas in the northwoods. I have found a few marshy potholes with decent signs of travel and some bedding in the northwoods but the thickness of clearcuts is ridiculous. Most approachers make some noise and the deer can still see very well. From MY experience, which is less in depth than a lot of guys on here and could change, they bed on slight increases in elevations in these areas. I can think of one spot in particular there is a finger of mature timber that sticks out into the clear cut. 20 yards or so off the tip of the mature timber is a lone oak tree maybe 30ft tall on a small rise probably 5-6ft higher than the surrounding terrain. The young popple shoots are all around this and the deer bed under that tree like crazy. Never killed a mature buck off of it but sign would indicate one does bed there. You could never see a deer bedded there but he can watch most of the cut all around him and he's well hidden. Another spot I find deer bedded, not necessarily mature bucks, are in thick patches of thorny briar bushes. None of the vegetation is very tall but its nearly impossible to penetrate and all of our deer love that stuff.

Mainly they bed there because of the thickness and the safety they provide from approaching predators.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby headgear » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:28 pm

BackWoodsHunter wrote:A fresh clear cut is one of the thickest areas in the northwoods.


The fresh clearcuts I see are still fairly open , sure they have plenty of new growth and do provide some cover but I was kind of thinking the bucks bed there because they can see a long way. For for the most part when I think fresh clearcut I am thinking 1-3 years, after that I agree they can get crazy thick.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:46 pm

I mis-typed! I meant to say young clearcuts. They get good between 5 and 10yrs of age. Those are the ones I'm most familiar with and produce the best hiding spots for bucks. In the winter time they usually feed on the buds too. Where we are the cuts usually get to be a good height and produce good winter forage for the starving deer around the 3-5yr old range.
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Re: where do ou find bug buck beds

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:01 pm

headgear wrote:
dan wrote: In big woods they like areas that were logged a few years prior, slight hills, beaver damns, and transitions.


Dan I was wondering if you could expand a little on why bucks bed in areas that were logged a few years prior? Do they bed sort of out in the open and use their vision to spot trouble or would they maybe bed on the edge of these areas?

I shot my rifle buck this year in an area exactly like this, it also happened to be in a major funnel area during the rut so I am trying to get a better idea if this buck was bedding in the area or just passing thru.

I wasn't able to scout this area before the season so I didn't have any evidence of a good buck in the area, one of those better to be lucky than good situations.


I think Backwoods made some great comments to your question. I would add, it takes a little looking around. Different bucks bed with differing habits and in differing degrees of thickness. Some will bed the slightly higher spots, right under a big tree is a good one like pointed out. also the edge just in far enough to see out into the open woods. or in a spot where they can see or smell where approaching danger usually comes from. I know this sounds kind of general, but really, the best way to get good at figuring out the bedding habits in a clear cut is to spring scout a bunch of differing age clear cuts and look at the buck beds.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby Hodag Hunter » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:37 pm

I would like to add about the beds in clear cuts. Agree with all mentioned about slight elevation changes, under lone sentinel trees, fingers looking into the cuts and so on. But have never really observed personally or caught on camera "big" buck activity in daylight. Maybe it's just me but the more mature deer dont seem to bed in these cuts. My take, and only an assumption, is the easy access roads left by the loggers leaves quite a bit of activity near and in the cut.

Now if a guy can find one way back in the timber where no one can drive down a logging road and access easy I think then maybe the larger deer will bed right in the young cut.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:35 pm

I hear that! I forgot to add about the fingers too. I agree with Hodag on mature buck activity. I can still say the big deer prefer the neighbors marshy potholes that I have only viewed on aerial pictures. They always come from that way and gramps says from back in the day when they used to do drives everywhere those lowland spots exist back there. We had one decent buck, a 2.5yr old 8pt coming out on our back field browsing on grasses every night in the early season and he had to be coming from the bedded area I talked about under the lone tree. I can't honestly tell you we have too many mature bucks to study. I only saw one all hunting season who passed through during the rut. But the majority of the bedding I've observed from bucks were like I stated or on fingers sticking out to the clearcut. I think some of the same techniques mentioned in marsh bucks work for clear cut hunting. The only difference in cattails and popple trees is they browse on the popples.
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Re: where do you find bug buck beds

Unread postby Ack » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:41 pm

I have also found that the more secluded the clearcut, the better buck sign you'll find. I just found these rubs (along with numerous old rubs) on some public land yesterday and am trying to put the pieces together......

Image

Image

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I know that the bucks will hang in the clearcuts during the summer months, probably due to the security and browse of the thick leafy saplings, but I've found that once the leaves drop and the cut opens up they relocate to thicker cover once again. Your first rubs of the season will just about always show up in the clearcuts....then a few weeks later you will start to see more sign in the bigger woods.


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