Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

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Stingray713
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Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby Stingray713 » Sun Oct 20, 2019 5:35 am

Jumped a deer yesterday in some super thick stuff, he bounded off a ways then blew a couple times. Sounded like a big deer, but I don’t want to go sit in his bed and look around at this point in the season.

Will mature bucks bed on the windward side of a ridge if it gives them other advantages they can use to feel safe?

He was on the edge of a clear cut keeping an eye on it and a big creek bottom.

If he were on the lee side of the hill he would have just been staring into more thick stuff.

Any thoughts?


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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:19 am

Yes they will bed like that, it has to be a big advantage for them to want to, like cover or pure visual spot. By rule of thumb the biggest majority will bed wind to back. I think to make sure on this i would find the bed and check it with milk weed, it could be some sort of terrain feature causing the wind to swirl or flow different though that spot. You will read tons of post on here where guys get to there stands with a wind by the weather channel saying one thing and when you get to your spot its total opposite. Hill country has this happen a lot, boot on the ground and wind checking these type of beds is the only true way to answer you question!

Keep in mind smell is a bucks best defense, but the never anything certain when comes to big bucks! Good luck!
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby Crazinamatese » Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:17 pm

I hunt an area in hill country where the bigger bucks like to hang out on the non-leeward hillsides. I think they like to stay in the shadows where the sun can't expose them.
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby brancher147 » Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:54 am

I see about the same amount of buck bedding leeward and windward. Cover on windward side will trump an open leeward side. We also have a lot of swirling winds on the windward side bucks will take advantage of more so than lee side.
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby bones09 » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:33 pm

I’ve seen this more in hill country with crop fields on top. All wooded ridges, bedding cover being about equal leeward should be your best bet. This time of year hunting pressure may have one pushed into a secondary spot.
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby bigredneck61088 » Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:08 pm

So hypothetically if it is a big nasty clearcut in big woods versus rest mature open timber... I could suspect buck bedding to happen on more than just the right wind for leeward?

I was having this debate with myself for a spot I have for upcoming rut cation and what winds to hunt it on
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby Evanszach7 » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:05 pm

UofLbowhunter wrote:Yes they will bed like that, it has to be a big advantage for them to want to, like cover or pure visual spot. By rule of thumb the biggest majority will bed wind to back. I think to make sure on this i would find the bed and check it with milk weed, it could be some sort of terrain feature causing the wind to swirl or flow different though that spot. You will read tons of post on here where guys get to there stands with a wind by the weather channel saying one thing and when you get to your spot its total opposite. Hill country has this happen a lot, boot on the ground and wind checking these type of beds is the only true way to answer you question!

I was seeing this a lot throughout September in KY hill country. Windward watching creeks and ditches. Seems like a lot more pressure bumped them out of the primary bedding.

Keep in mind smell is a bucks best defense, but the never anything certain when comes to big bucks! Good luck!
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby ouachitamac » Thu Oct 24, 2019 4:39 am

I always wondered this as well, some of the ridges in Ouachita mts where I hunt are east to west ridges, and several miles long. does this mean that there are no bucks gonna bed on the north slopes with a north wind? is it pointless to hunt the northern slopes with a north wind?
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby brancher147 » Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:09 am

To me, leeward is an advantage to bedded bucks due to wind coming over the top of ridge and thermals rising from below. Combine this with cover to the back on a military crest and there will be deer bedded there. But those same conditions can exist on the windward side if you start playing around with milkweed. Deer don’t know any difference between leeward and windward they just know specific advantages to bedding in certain areas.
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby Stingray713 » Thu Oct 24, 2019 1:40 pm

Today was the first day with the same good West breeze as the day I bumped him last week. Went to the same hillside a couple hundred yards from where he was bedded.

Hillside faces West, below is a big creek bottom. Didn’t even need the milkweed, as soon as I got about 1/3 of the way down towards the creek, what was a West wind everywhere else was a due East wind on the hill.
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Re: Mature Buck bed on windward side of hill?

Unread postby Stingray713 » Thu Oct 24, 2019 1:46 pm

Need to go back and mess around with that spot some more when the season is done. Drop some milkweed in different spots and see where the wind actually swirls and doubles back towards a buck bedded there.

Could be a spot I can take advantage of now that I know a little more about how the setup works
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