Swamp bedding in summer

[Boneheadjaz]

In large fairly undisturbed swamp habitat will bucks continue to use summer beds throughout the year if food and cover is present?

[UofLbowhunter]

Yes

[218er]

If not disturbed, yeh probably, they would have little reason to alter their patterns. However vegetation changes through out the year and bedding spots are probably picked out more due to natural predators than humans since they hunt all year long. I scouted a swamp last summer with tons of beds around the transitions. Deer were around for about two weeks of the season and then they vacated. My initial guess was that duck hunters in the wetlands annoyed the deer enough to alter their bedding area. An additional thought I had was that most of the bedding areas set up well for the deer with a south wind which is predominate in the summer. Into the fall and winter this changes which could be an additional reason they changed their bedding area.

[fr0sty]

I've hunted a tamarack swamp for the past 10 years or so, and my cameras never get pics of bucks older than yearlings until mid/late September. I get does and fawns, but no bucks. My cams are setup on islands in the swamp and various runways.

[UofLbowhunter]

I've hunted a tamarack swamp for the past 10 years or so, and my cameras never get pics of bucks older than yearlings until mid/late September. I get does and fawns, but no bucks. My cams are setup on islands in the swamp and various runways.

To me, the deer i see, bed in the swamp year round due to the fact that thats there only place to bed! The swamps are surrounded by wide open big crops. Now where some of the swamps i hunt that are a little deeper, 3/4 to a mile from crops hold bucks through out the summer but they do bed out of the swamps periodically i have witness this with summer time scouting. I was under the same impression you had till i jumped a bachelor group out of a island i was scouting. I do not know if duck potato grows where you are, but in ky its abundant and the eat the crap out of it, Hunting public turned me on to it. I think thats why they were bedded there at that time.

[Autiger]

Walked into a swamp today to hang a camera up at some trail intersections along a transition line. Only came across a lone bed 50-60 yards off the mainland, but it was beat down in the elephant ears and vegetation. I’m guessing come season he will move back further, if not I’ll be bumping him on my way in. I won’t pull that camera until early August or until opening day in mid September but I’m thinking it isn’t the dominant buck in the area since the best bedding is 150-200 yards away.

I blew too many opportunities last year on good deer and one or two over 140. I don’t plan on screwing that up this year.

[ThePreBanMan]

Not in my area. I thought they did. So I went in and put up a bunch of trail cams, hung a stand, cut a trail to it, and checked the memory cards every other day. But no deers on my cams... I'm hoping they come back in season. I'll keep checking the cards to know for sure...

Okay - in all seriousness - I find I kick up more deer on the outskirts of a swamp than in it during the summer. Maybe the bugs in the wet areas chase them out, or maybe because of green up with the woods thicker they have better cover in the timber... But I find them in the deep swamps after leaf fall and in the timber when the woods are still green. We have a pretty thick understory here in MA. YMMV.

[Boneheadjaz]

I asked this question because I watched a bedded buck last Wednesday as I was going in to hang a cam and do some scouting. I believed I had figured out where a hoss I've had pics of the past 2 years had his core area(only section I had yet to checkout). The buckhad pretty exceptional growth already which leads me to believe that it may be him. I was able to get about 60 yds from him due to wet/windy conditions. He was sneezing his hea off which probably helped me locate him before I blew him out. He got up and rebedded then got up and worked down into the swamp. He was bedded on a ridge that juts from and over grown feild into the wetlands. The ridge point is to the West overlooking a low lying brushy swamp. The north side of the ridge has a steep drop about 25' into a creek bottom valley and fairly open timber on the opposing side of the creek (direction he was facing. Was a westward wind coming up from the swamp. I w
Climbed up to where he was bedded when he meandered off. There were 3 well worn beds on the ridge point within 10 yards of each other.....maybe for differing winds and thermals? Got a cam up so hopefully come August I'll know if it's the buck I'm hoping it is. Lucky for me we had flash flooding that evening....... actually started while I was there so I don't think there would be any scent left for him to get clued in that I was there! Here's to hopingh