Bust the bedding? Or go in blind? (Poll)

[Nelson87]

Good discussion, I hope you get him LD! I was wondering what happened to your journel, now I know Kind of a bummer because I was looking forward to following you again this fall, but I don't blame you for moving it.

[Lockdown]

The first night I saw him I got there way late and he was already out in the field. I don’t know which bedding area he came from. All the deer fed North.

The 2nd sighting I’m 90% sure he came out of the South bedding. The reason there’s a little doubt is because of a small hill. I couldnt see the NW side from a distance. As I headed North, he could have headed South with the hill between us... if that makes sense. When positioned at first, I can easily watch both sides of the hill but not directly behind it. When I crept closer there he was on the back side.

Yes he could have been bedded in the beans all day. So it’s not impossible, by a slim chance, that it appeared he came out of the South bedding but didn’t. Night two they all fed North then tucked back into cover in the north bedding.

Last night, I’m positive he came out of the North bedding, then fed South to the same general area where they like to feed. Right at dark all the bucks grouped up and picked up the pace heading even further South.

I watched him for at least 45 minutes. 40x at 250-300 yards is pretty fun

I moved quite a bit closer last night. I could see back into the cover a bit and had a pretty strong feeling I’d catch a glimpse of him back there. Oddly I didn’t see ANY deer back there. I think they’re actually bedding right on the fence line and in the standing beans.

So here are my thoughts. Beast tactics are all about predictability. We “know” where they’re at due to terrain based bedding. Well if he’s switching bedding areas and bedding fairly randomly, how am I suppose to set up? IMO it wouldn’t make sense for me to go in there, screw it all up, and prep sets for beds that I’m not certain he’s using.

If he’s not bedding way in the back like I thought he was, then I don’t have a problem going in blind with more of a hope and pray set up covering a nice intersection of trails. Or possibly hiding in the beans. I’ve seen him work his way through the same exact area 3 times, so guessing his movement is not a total shot in the dark.

My window for scouting ahead of time and prepping is getting smaller every day. But right now I don’t feel he’s bedding consistently enough to make that tactic work anyway, so I feel observations are the biggest benefit at the moment. I’m way more confident going in blind near the field edge vs back in the super thick stuff.

I’m loving the cat and mouse game... just trying to let the buck tell me what to do.

[MN_DeerHunter]

I am having so much fun following this thread What a deer man, great find!