What are key things to look for when identifying buck beds?

[Jon308]

[Rob loper]

The absolute best beds available and probably safest beds are the buck beds. All the other deer fill the empty void beds. Does bed in circles and watch out for one another bucks are solitary animals and will be mostly alone. Back ,stop overhanging branches ,wind and terrain advantages high ground surrounded by water hill overlooking access areas.
When you find a mature buck bed its gonna be like wow! Nothing can get to him. Alot will look like little caves within a blowdown or in brush most of them are at bottoms of tall trees at end of points with soft transitions

[brancher147]

Pretty much what Psych said. Rubs in the beds are a good thing to look for also, but I find way more buck beds without rubs than with rubs. Rub lines leading to and from a bed, signpost rubs within sight of the bed or very close by, or scrapes leading away from the bed.

The biggest things I see in hill country/mountains is back cover, a single bed away from other beds, wind/thermal advantage, and terrain based bedding. Once you figure out how bucks bed on a point, or the leeward or windward side of a ridge, and at what elevation, you can pretty much look at a topo and pick out the bedding areas then confirm with scouting. I would say more than half the time I do this I find what I am looking for. That being said, I very rarely find the buck bed worn down to dirt, so don't necessarily look for that.

[brancher147]

Buck turds, bed size, big tracks also.

[matt1336]

Buy the dvds and go to fans workshops if you can. The dvds alone will give you a great starting point. The search function on the site will give you more information as well. There are literally dozens of these type of “best beds” threads.

[elk yinzer]

Location and gut feel as much as anything for me. I don't think size of the bed is all that reliable. I've seen massive doe beds worn to the ground and buck beds in hill country are often practically imperceptible. Tracks are definitely nice, if I had those I would throw those high on the list, but again in the mountains I hardly ever see tracks unless there is snow, our soil is so bad. Big rubs can confirm a big buck but their absence certainly doesn't rule one out either. I'm unconvinced on the turd size thing but going to start studying/paying attention to it more.

[Jon308]

I guess I assumed they’d be worn to ground, but may have been looking at buck beds and not even realized it.

[<DK>]

Back cover is one of the key components

[<DK>]

Everything listed so far is great. Large scat and tracks are very, very important. Rubs are a bonus. Yes a big Doe can make a big bed... but shooter bucks make 30-40"+ beds. They can be huge when he feels safe enough to just shift his body for a wind change or if he uses it more often. Check around for Doe bedding areas bc they are needed for the fall too. Once you feel confident reading those a bucks bed will surely give ya that old fashioned feeling.

Something Dan says a lot but doesnt get said enough is - you're gonna know when you find it! Yes at first it can be tough and not all the best beds have sign to spell it out. One thing is that if you cant stop thinking about the spot after you leave then its probably a safe guess. Another thing is look at it on a map, compare it to access/pressure and then try to figure out how to encroach on the spot. The best spots always seem to be near bulletproof.

[<DK>]

I hunt a lot of hill country so its not always easy! The best buck beds I find, walking into them it feels like a bedroom. Hope that makes sense

[Jonny]

Buy the dvds and go to fans workshops if you can. The dvds alone will give you a great starting point. The search function on the site will give you more information as well. There are literally dozens of these type of “best beds” threads.

x2

Here are some starters. Took them from this thread viewtopic.php?t=24471

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14878
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14448
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18435
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19659
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12472
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11088
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6673
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=80
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20978
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39561