Importance of Finding Actual Beds vs Bedding Areas?

[AvidHunter88]

How important is it to you guys to find the actual buck beds vs bedding areas? Reason I'm asking is because there's an area I hunt where I think I've narrowed down where the buck is bedding to about a half acre spot. I've scouted it two years in a row now and it has a lot of sign making me think there is where the buck is bedding but for the life of me I can't find the actual beds. I literally grid searched it this year trying to find it. The area seems to flood every year which washes away a lot of the finer sign like hair or maybe even actual beds.

Reason I think this is where he's bedding is because it's a small, overlooked point that goes out into cattails so there's good escape, it is super thick and gnarly, I set up on it last year and had an encounter with a good buck, when you get towards the tip of the point there's more rubs in this half acre spot then I've ever seen in once concentrated area before, and there's a few real heavy beat down trails. So the sign seems to be there, the deer seems to have a bunch of advantages, and so my gut is telling me this is the spot.

So how important is it to find that last piece of the puzzle? And if it's important how would you go about finding it in this situation?

[elk yinzer]

Yes/no/maybe kinda answer to me.

Where there are bedding areas, there are certainly beds, so not finding any could be a sign you don't really have a bedding area. If you are new to scouting beds usually are more subtle than some photos you see. I rarely find picture perfect beds worn to bare dirt.

I do think for most hunters, at least in my type of terrain it is way more important, at least at the beginner/intermediate level, to have a general understanding of bedding areas before even beginning to think about specific buck beds.

I'm not a marsh/swamp guy at all so I can't answer from that perspective.

In the hills/mountains I am generally hunting bedding areas more so than specific beds. For one our bucks are just really nomadic.

Winter beds are most obvious but mean little to me. Beds are really obvious to find this time of year with the condition of the leaves and fact that deer are shedding a lot of hair in the bed. But that doesn't necessarily tell me deer are bedding there in hunting season. I find a lot of worn down beds spring scouting a deer is never going to be using in hunting season. In October/November I rarely find obvious beds due to the freshly fallen leaves.

Most mountain bucks are nomadic as all get out and have dozens of bedding areas they use. Particularly when they start going on their mid October forays for does. That's what leads me more to areas that are what I call bedding areas because both rutting bucks and does are bedding in proximity, rather than the isolated buck beds they are only using the first week or two of our bow season before they start settling into more rut based patterns.

[dan]

You should be good if you narrow it to an area, I do that a lot more than people think. Seeing the actual beds is nice cause you get the view from the bucks perspective, but its certainly not a requirement.

[greenhorndave]

You should be good if you narrow it to an area, I do that a lot more than people think. Seeing the actual beds is nice cause you get the view from the bucks perspective, but its certainly not a requirement.

First, thanks to Avid for asking the question. I had a similar discovery last weekend that had me wondering the same thing.

Second, thanks to Dan for answering that. Between this and another thread I bumped into recently (can't remember the exact one), the rough bedding area seems to be more predominant than I originally thought. I was not bummed, but at the same time not thrilled, that I haven't nailed a prototypical primary bed yet, but I have seen plenty of decent general bedding areas.

I'll keep looking, but between this and Bowhunter4life's recent Q&A, I won't get too hung up on it.

[DaveT1963]

The more intel you can get the better.... however, I seldom focus on a solitary beds - rather I look for bedding areas, staging areas within or immediately adjacent to those bedding areas. Then I also try to narrow down their entry and exit routes. If i can figure those things out, I usually feel pretty confident on getting a crack at that buck.

[AvidHunter88]

Yes/no/maybe kinda answer to me.

Where there are bedding areas, there are certainly beds, so not finding any could be a sign you don't really have a bedding area. If you are new to scouting beds usually are more subtle than some photos you see. I rarely find picture perfect beds worn to bare dirt.
I do think for most hunters, at least in my type of terrain it is way more important, at least at the beginner/intermediate level, to have a general understanding of bedding areas before even beginning to think about specific buck beds.

I'm not a marsh/swamp guy at all so I can't answer from that perspective.

In the hills/mountains I am generally hunting bedding areas more so than specific beds. For one our bucks are just really nomadic.

Winter beds are most obvious but mean little to me. Beds are really obvious to find this time of year with the condition of the leaves and fact that deer are shedding a lot of hair in the bed. But that doesn't necessarily tell me deer are bedding there in hunting season. I find a lot of worn down beds spring scouting a deer is never going to be using in hunting season. In October/November I rarely find obvious beds due to the freshly fallen leaves.

Most mountain bucks are nomadic as all get out and have dozens of bedding areas they use. Particularly when they start going on their mid October forays for does. That's what leads me more to areas that are what I call bedding areas because both rutting bucks and does are bedding in proximity, rather than the isolated buck beds they are only using the first week or two of our bow season before they start settling into more rut based patterns.

Thanks for the response! I'm not necessarily new to scouting beds, but also no expert by any stretch of the imagination, so I wonder if this is a big part of it. Most of the beds I've found so far are the super obvious ones. I'm going to see if I can find some examples on the forum of some less obvious marsh beds to see if it looks like anything I saw.

[AvidHunter88]

You should be good if you narrow it to an area, I do that a lot more than people think. Seeing the actual beds is nice cause you get the view from the bucks perspective, but its certainly not a requirement.

Thanks Dan. I was trying to figure out what intel I might be missing by not finding the exact bed and the buck's perspective is the big one that came to mind also. Good to know it's not the end all be all if I don't find the exact bed.

[<DK>]

Bedding area.

Having actual beds pinpointed allows you to be more intimate w the spot. Though they dont always use that exact bed as often as we think. It sure helps though...

[DhD]

I have been doing some pretty hardcore scouting the last ten days,(30+ miles according to the OnX tracker), and I am finding lots of beds with tons of other sign, but I haven't really been seeing hair in the beds. I am assuming that has something to do with the record snowmelt and flooding we had here recently? I am certain with the rest of the sign that I am seeing that I am in the right area, but everyone talks about seeing hair in the beds, and I have not really seen much.

[DhD]

Finally found some hair in a bed! It's getting much easier to see the beds now that everything isn't completely flattened out from record snow.

[Singing Bridge]

I see a lot of hunters that are new to the bedding game get caught up to an extreme level in locating "exact" buck beds... that will come a lot easier with time and experience. Most of the bedding areas I hunt are small enough that I set up as close as I can to the bedding area itself.

If I locate an actual, well used buck bed I incorporate the orange hat trick I created to pick a specific location for stand placement.

We definitely need to continue to enhance our ability to locate big buck beds and most of us get better at it every year. Eventually you will be able to enter a new area, recognize the potential of a spot, kick out a couple of feet of snow with your boot, scratch the ground with you glove, sift the debris and find deer hair within the bed.

Until we reach that point we make our best play, whether an exact bed(s) or bedding area.

Bridge

[greenhorndave]

I see a lot of hunters that are new to the bedding game get caught up to an extreme level in locating "exact" buck beds... that will come a lot easier with time and experience. Most of the bedding areas I hunt are small enough that I set up as close as I can to the bedding area itself.

If I locate an actual, well used buck bed I incorporate the orange hat trick I created to pick a specific location for stand placement.

We definitely need to continue to enhance our ability to locate big buck beds and most of us get better at it every year. Eventually you will be able to enter a new area, recognize the potential of a spot, kick out a couple of feet of snow with your boot, scratch the ground with you glove, sift the debris and find deer hair within the bed.

Until we reach that point we make our best play, whether an exact bed(s) or bedding area.

Bridge

Excellent— and helpful— post. Really well said and very much appreciated.

[headgear]

I have a good mix of both, some spots a single bed or just a handful of beds in a very small area and other spots where the bedding areas are large to even too big. It certainly complicates things but that is why we scout.

[wolverinebuckman]

If I locate an actual, well used buck bed I incorporate the orange hat trick I created to pick a specific location for stand placement.

Bridge

I found a couple of beds this spring while scouting, and it has been very helpful to place my orange hat in that bed and then walk the perimeter to see... It's mind-blowing how well those bucks set themselves up to see things moving around them!
I also used the orange hat to pick a ground blind location, and see that I couldn't see it approaching as a deer would...

[Lockdown]

I have a good mix of both, some spots a single bed or just a handful of beds in a very small area and other spots where the bedding areas are large to even too big. It certainly complicates things but that is why we scout.

The spot I scouted yesterday is a perfect example of this. There are beds for close to 500 yards along the transition. They could potentially be anywhere along it, but there are 4 spots where the beds are more concentrated.

Hunting specific beds in this scenario would be detrimental IMO. There’s nothing that jumps out and says “this is the highest odds spot.”. So I’m going to back off a bit and go back to the basics a little more.