when bucks and does are knowingly both bedding in an area at what point to you determine if bucks are bedding and just using thermals to scent check does as they walk by? Or to distinguish if bucks are actually just cruising above the dies along the buck beds?
What leads me to ask this is I have several pictures over a course of 6 months from an untouched camera I hung in September. I've gone through sorted around and seen no correlation to anything other than wind. Bucks showed up mid October and slowly disappeared up Into December
All buck pics I think except 1 was either coming or going on a wind shift to or from a east based wind or the wind was dead east. Also the wind seemed to always be blowing 5-10mph or more. I hunt in the Appalachian mtns and elevation of the area is around 3000'. Wind usually always blows a little and if not there is a very hard thermal pull and fall.
This span of area has known buck and die bedding from my scouting efforts. Are runs north to south making east wind and thermals create the tunnel on the west facing side. Also to add I even have pictures at 130-140pm of does moving Into the bedding from a north wind shifting to a easterly wind. Is it common to see does adjust with wind?
Thanks
Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
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- Ognennyy
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Blinginpse wrote:when bucks and does are knowingly both bedding in an area at what point to you determine if bucks are bedding and just using thermals to scent check does as they walk by? Or to distinguish if bucks are actually just cruising above the dies along the buck beds?
You're describing rut only behavior. So during the rut is the point at which you would make that deterrmination.
Blinginpse wrote:Is it common to see does adjust with wind? Thanks
In my experience I don't see does moving with respect to the wind the same way bucks do. Does often move together and therefore rely on strength in numbers and multiple sets of eyes. So no, it is not common to see does adjust with wind.
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Ognennyy wrote:Blinginpse wrote:when bucks and does are knowingly both bedding in an area at what point to you determine if bucks are bedding and just using thermals to scent check does as they walk by? Or to distinguish if bucks are actually just cruising above the dies along the buck beds?
You're describing rut only behavior. So during the rut is the point at which you would make that deterrmination.Blinginpse wrote:Is it common to see does adjust with wind? Thanks
In my experience I don't see does moving with respect to the wind the same way bucks do. Does often move together and therefore rely on strength in numbers and multiple sets of eyes. So no, it is not common to see does adjust with wind.
Thank you for the clarification. I figured the rut would be my time but I think what threw me off was the fact of if they would bed it often or just cruise it
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Blinginpse wrote:Thank you for the clarification. I figured the rut would be my time but I think what threw me off was the fact of if they would bed it often or just cruise it
Gotcha. Unfortunately I don't think I have a straightforward answer for that one. I live in upstate NY and hunt the Adirondack mountains. I just came back from VA actually and hiked Humpback in the Blue Ridges while I was down there. They're very similar, only you're about 1000 feet higher and the soil is more alkaline than the Adirondacks, giving you far more oak trees than we have here.
I've seen bucks do both. I've scouted buck beds around the 2/3 line up a ridge, and I've also seen them cruising around the same area. I don't think they prefer one or the other, necessarily. Instead I think what dictates this decision is probably which choice will let them scent check the most does while at the same time not sacrificing too much safety and security. So likely it varies a little with circumstances.
Last year I shot a buck on November 10th on a ridge oriented NE to SW. It was 8 degrees that morning, clear sky with a NW wind. I was set up on the leeward side of the ridge at the "cruising altitude" of 2/3 up, expecting to catch cruising bucks. But he didn't look to me like he was cruising. Instead he was casually browsing around for nuts that had fallen that year in a stand of mature beech.
While packing him out after I quartered him up I decided to try to backtrack him to see where he came from. Sure enough about 90 yards to the east of where I shot him I found his bed. It wasn't a "permanent" or "primary" bed, but you could tell he'd been using it regularly for at least the recent past. I think why he was bedded there was probably a combination of factors.
Two seasons in a row now I have sat that same spot on the same ridge, only one sit per season, and shot a deer there both seasons. I'm on the leeward side of a NE-SW running ridge with a NW wind; so I'm sitting on the south-facing side. Both sits were planned for very cold days. Two seasons ago it was 14 degrees in the morning, last season it was 8 degrees. I think the deer go there on very cold, clear and sunny days in order to warm up. Think about it... Nothing feels better than the sun on your face on one of those ridiculously cold, clear days.
1) Some would say the buck was there because he knows the does will be there on freezing cold days. I don't know if it's that, or if the buck himself wants to be on that ridge to pick up some rays after dawn. Either way the point is that the sun dictated the buck bedding there on that given day instead of just cruising.
2) That ridge is a food source. He was picking through the leftover beech nuts from the fall.
3) 90 yards west of his bed (where I was situated) there is a saddle between two higher points of the ridge. At the bottom of the ridge on either side there are marshes. So this is a funnel connecting food sources and does frequent it.
4) And the most obvious; the wind advantage. He has the NW wind coming up over the ridge so he has awareness of what's up top out of sight, and since it's a clear sky sunny day there is a strong thermal coming up to meet his nose from the bottom of the ridge where does (or predators) are likely feeding along the marsh.
Where I'm going with this is that I believe all of these factors amounted to it being an advantageous place to bed down.
Last edited by Ognennyy on Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Anytime you have buck bedding next to doe bedding your going to have bucks use the bedding and your going to have bucks cruise by. Buck bedding near doe bedding always seems better to hunt during rut time, but I have killed many bucks bedding those areas outside of rut... Whan its not rut, you need to determine timing. Hopefully its primary, but if its not they may be there based on a food source or cover thats only there at a certain time and like any other bedding you have to figure that out.
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
dan wrote:Anytime you have buck bedding next to doe bedding your going to have bucks use the bedding and your going to have bucks cruise by. Buck bedding near doe bedding always seems better to hunt during rut time, but I have killed many bucks bedding those areas outside of rut... Whan its not rut, you need to determine timing. Hopefully its primary, but if its not they may be there based on a food source or cover thats only there at a certain time and like any other bedding you have to figure that out.
Dan have you found that multiple bucks will use the same beds within the rut if a more dominant buck isn't in the bed when they reach the bed? There is 11 different bucks on this camera. I've never hunted here just had a hunch when I scouted and it looked to be good when I pulled the camera in March
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Blinginpse wrote:dan wrote:Anytime you have buck bedding next to doe bedding your going to have bucks use the bedding and your going to have bucks cruise by. Buck bedding near doe bedding always seems better to hunt during rut time, but I have killed many bucks bedding those areas outside of rut... Whan its not rut, you need to determine timing. Hopefully its primary, but if its not they may be there based on a food source or cover thats only there at a certain time and like any other bedding you have to figure that out.
Dan have you found that multiple bucks will use the same beds within the rut if a more dominant buck isn't in the bed when they reach the bed? There is 11 different bucks on this camera. I've never hunted here just had a hunch when I scouted and it looked to be good when I pulled the camera in March
Yes... I think back to the Rome legend buck. I shot him out of a bedding area that I have shot more than a half dozen big bucks out of, and several came from that exact bed. After shooting him the rubline stayed active convincing me there was another good buck bedding there and only a few days later I sat the same spot and had a real nice 140 / 150 class 10 get up out of the exact same bed. He just did not come my way.
On many occasions I have seen different bucks use the same bed a different day. You see bucks enter these areas and bed down and a bigger or more dominant bucks comes in and they have to move to satellite bedding, or they find a more dominant buck and they move to satellite bedding.
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
dan wrote:Blinginpse wrote:dan wrote:Anytime you have buck bedding next to doe bedding your going to have bucks use the bedding and your going to have bucks cruise by. Buck bedding near doe bedding always seems better to hunt during rut time, but I have killed many bucks bedding those areas outside of rut... Whan its not rut, you need to determine timing. Hopefully its primary, but if its not they may be there based on a food source or cover thats only there at a certain time and like any other bedding you have to figure that out.
Dan have you found that multiple bucks will use the same beds within the rut if a more dominant buck isn't in the bed when they reach the bed? There is 11 different bucks on this camera. I've never hunted here just had a hunch when I scouted and it looked to be good when I pulled the camera in March
Yes... I think back to the Rome legend buck. I shot him out of a bedding area that I have shot more than a half dozen big bucks out of, and several came from that exact bed. After shooting him the rubline stayed active convincing me there was another good buck bedding there and only a few days later I sat the same spot and had a real nice 140 / 150 class 10 get up out of the exact same bed. He just did not come my way.
On many occasions I have seen different bucks use the same bed a different day. You see bucks enter these areas and bed down and a bigger or more dominant bucks comes in and they have to move to satellite bedding, or they find a more dominant buck and they move to satellite bedding.
10/4 on that. I was thinking I had read the multiple bucks bedding but wanted to make sure.
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Re: Determine wind shift bedding over scent checking
Some good detailed answers on here already. Ill keep it simple. If its primary buck bedding then pre rut he will be checking them. The first rut action you should see is him checking the mature doe that is living there.
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