Bedding Priorities

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nextstepbowhunter
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Bedding Priorities

Unread postby nextstepbowhunter » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:43 pm

One thing I find challenging is scouting areas that I would consider "hill country" with swamps/marshes in the bottoms. Often times the marshes are only a couple acres big, not the vast 200-acre cattail marshes that are discussed frequently. In a moderately pressured piece of public land, is a mature buck going to prefer to bed on a marsh island or up towards the tops of the hills?

Another scenario that I have been trying to wrap my head around is a huge piece of public land with hiking/bike trails running through it. I've found awesome bedding areas not far from the trails at all and some points the trails run right through some of these bedding areas. It is easy to see when people have been riding these trails and I would guess they get used fairly well. Could those areas be considered "overlooked" areas or should I dismiss the idea of a mature buck bedding so close to a well-used trail... I do think that the trail system actually deters hunters because that is the area with the least amount of hunter sign I have found after 80 miles of scouting public land this spring.


Bobo
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Re: Bedding Priorities

Unread postby Bobo » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:50 am

Its gunna depend on the pressure in that area. I hunted a new public area this past season with hills on the east and west and a river running North to south down the middle. The bottoms have pockets of swamp and marsh mixed in the river bottom. Lots of water. I found most of the pressure was up high, and along trails down low where the easy access was. The only two bucks I seen were down low. One was a mature buck. I happened to bump into him. A duck hunter jumped him. I spring scouted the bedding area he came out of, just a couple weeks ago. It was a small point going out into one of the pockets of swamp. After the spring scouting this year, iv learned to key in on the transitions and points down low in that area. Everyone says that, but it took me to hunt it and scout it before I understood it. Now I look at where he was bedded and I say, "duh" There is one place I want to still scout up high in there, but from everything I've seen the bedding seems to be low because of the easy access up high.


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