Southeast bedding question?

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Southern Buck
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Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby Southern Buck » Wed Oct 03, 2018 1:34 am

This is my second year beast hunting and I’m starting to become pretty efficient at finding buck beds, but I’ve noticed that a lot of the best beds I find seem to be more sound than wind based. Is this consistent with what you guys see a lot of here in the south/southeast. I hunt a lot of swamps and crp.


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J Gilbert
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby J Gilbert » Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:41 am

Another beast and I have discussed this very topic and believe it to be true here in Georgia. They'll take every advantage they can get so wind can also be a factor, but I think this is part of the reason we see them bedding in the thickest, nastiest stuff around with wind being more of a secondary factor.

I think this also makes them bed more in overlooked places- if it's thick and next to the road (think logging rd, etc) they're hidden, have a sound advantage from anything trying to come in where they are, and can also hear anyone traveling up/down the road to other areas and base their next movements off of that. I bumped a buck in this exact situation last season- I stepped 10 yards off a road that runs right through the middle of the property with several people using it for access, only to jump a buck bedding in an overgrown clump of privet 30-40 yards away on the edge of a bottomland area.
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby Buckshot20 » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:42 am

The thing about the southeast, particularly the low country, is that there are too many great bedding options and lots of competition for the best beds. Pigs and bears seek the similar bedding habitat. Now in my experience deer tolerate pigs a lot better than bears but they are not buddies either. The deer seem to give the area to the pigs but won't go too far. Bears are a predator so they seem to give them more space. So in some of those instances the deer may have just been relocated to those bedding areas.
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby jacadden » Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:52 am

This is the topic I was looking for. I am struggling with how I put my hands on the actual bed of a buck in the timberland of Alabama, because I can't narrow down a bedding area based on wind. I would venture to say that 50% of the land I can hunt is 10 year old pine thickets, which I would describe as impenetrable. So, where do you start? I guess you scout the areas that are accessible looking for bedding, and hunt the fringe of the pine thickets hoping to get lucky. I'd love to hear how yall address identifying buck beds when dealing with pine thickets.
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby crossfitcarpenter » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:44 am

jacadden wrote:This is the topic I was looking for. I am struggling with how I put my hands on the actual bed of a buck in the timberland of Alabama, because I can't narrow down a bedding area based on wind. I would venture to say that 50% of the land I can hunt is 10 year old pine thickets, which I would describe as impenetrable. So, where do you start? I guess you scout the areas that are accessible looking for bedding, and hunt the fringe of the pine thickets hoping to get lucky. I'd love to hear how yall address identifying buck beds when dealing with pine thickets.

On Saturday I still hunted through an impenetrable thicket in Sam Houston National Forest in the rain right off a farm to market road and although the deer weren't in there at the time I counted 13 rubs from last year and some had been rubbed for years. I didn't see individual beds I assume because the whole 50 acre area was a bed. I'm not sure about my conclusions but those were my observations.
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby Buckshot20 » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:02 am

jacadden wrote:This is the topic I was looking for. I am struggling with how I put my hands on the actual bed of a buck in the timberland of Alabama, because I can't narrow down a bedding area based on wind. I would venture to say that 50% of the land I can hunt is 10 year old pine thickets, which I would describe as impenetrable. So, where do you start? I guess you scout the areas that are accessible looking for bedding, and hunt the fringe of the pine thickets hoping to get lucky. I'd love to hear how yall address identifying buck beds when dealing with pine thickets.



I've learned its tough to hunt specific beds but more bedding areas in places like that. The best you can do is find the wrinkle in the terrain. Might be a pond, creek, where a tornado went through, ECT. And maybe save that spot for the rut and focus on more predictable bedding early season
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby jacadden » Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:41 am

Thanks for the advice. This season I'll continue to chip away at the buck bedding learning curve, only 12 more days.
Eventually, those 10 year old pines will be thinned, and then it'll be game on. Until then I'll hunt the vegetation change where the immature pines meet older timber.
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby checkerfred » Thu Oct 04, 2018 9:08 am

I see the complete opposite and I'm in Alabama. I have found some sound only beds but I still think they try to use wind from the most likely place of danger....Most of what I see is them bedding with thick behind them, wind at back, looking out over open terrain. Most of the time if there's a sound advantage that's on their open side that they can't smell...so they use sight and sound for it
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby Twenty Up » Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:27 pm

The Topography is really going to play a role here, if you’ve got any sizeable hills then they’ll opt to bed wind to back overlooking below them. From what I’ve experienced they Bed in these areas where it’s flat and very little elevation change. Say 50-100’ max across several thousand acres.

These beds really seem to shine on those days we have 0-5mph winds.. The thermals will pull to the highest point and that’s where I’ve been finding these sound based beds. So it seems they do have some ability to smell what’s near them, and the ability to hide and hear anything around them.

My advice, scout the highest points and the transitions. This is easier said than done because more often than not these subtle elevation changes aren’t on maps.. These beds are very difficult to find and more often than not I have to stumble into them to actually find them. I’ve also had poor luck finding them in January-March because they moved on. Best time to find these beds is May-July in my experience, when the foliage is there.

Hope this helps, this has been my experience in GA.
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Southern Buck
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Re: Southeast bedding question?

Unread postby Southern Buck » Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:07 pm

Appreciate the replies, like others have said most of the time when I find these beds it’s purely by accident. Once I kick them out I examine the beds which are often in extremely thick areas that you can’t get within 75-100 yards of without making a ton of racket.

I kicked a buck out on opening day that was no doubt bedded facing into the wind between two small sweetgum trees in a 5 acre crp patch. The bed was worn to the dirt, but there were a few other beds within 5-10 yards that I assume he used for wind shifts. I’m just not sure why he wasn’t using the wind to his advantage that day. There was also satellite bedding to the north of this area about 40 yards or so.
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:31


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