Buck Bedding Time

[Quest1001]

I have a buck on cam only on certain winds and he is always traveling the same direction. I have an idea of where he might be bedding but it's not a spot I thought he would bed based on the wind direction. So now I'm going back and looking at the am wind direction to figure out if he is bedding on the same am wind direction.

What time frame are buck choosing their am beds? 5-7am? Does my thought process make sense, any thoughts on figuring this guy out more with out being in the area?

[Ragingun]

Typically speaking, you can't take a time frame like that and apply it to buck bedding. You need to look at it as X amount of time before daylight since at 7am it could already be light in different areas of the country and not light in other areas. Having said that, in the huge majority of cases bucks are on their beds before daylight. How long before daylight varies with things like pressure, the maturity/age of a given buck, the area, the amount of travel time from feeding to bedding, etc. I would be looking at the wind from 3 hours before light up until light to get an idea of where that buck is bedding based soley on the wind direction if that's all the info you have to go on. Secondly, if the wind changes and the buck feels comfortable he may move to a different bedding area if he feels comfortable to do so. I've seen this will happen specifically if either there is really thick and heavy cover connecting one bedding area to the next OR the beds are so close together he can see his other bed. I scouted a buck bed out in the cattails on the point of some dog wood last year. This buck had beds on both sides of that point and the beds were literally 5 feet from each other. One bed was on the north side for a south wind and the other bed faced south for a north wind.

[DaveT1963]

Most bucks don't have just one Am bed - certainly not during the rut. I often see bucks bed down just before daylight near doe bedding. They will wait for the does to come home and then cut across their trail looking for fresh estrous. After words they will then head into a more permanent daytime bed. But they seldom stay in same bed all day. they will get up, browse around and bed several times a day. During pre-rut and rut I also see them sometimes completely move during mid day to another entirely different bedding area.

[Ragingun]

Most bucks don't have just one Am bed - certainly not during the rut. I often see bucks bed down just before daylight near doe bedding. They will wait for the does to come home and then cut across their trail looking for fresh estrous. After words they will then head into a more permanent daytime bed. But they seldom stay in same bed all day. they will get up, browse around and bed several times a day. During pre-rut and rut I also see them sometimes completely move during mid day to another entirely different bedding area.

I would agree with this. My experience is outside of the rut that bucks will get up and browse mid day however they will not go far from that bed, not much farther than they can see and almost always bed back down in that bed unless the wind has changed or some other factor that gives him a disadvantage to staying in that bed.

[Quest1001]

I just listened to dans podcast from wired to hunt 67 I think and that was also helpful.

There is a small swamp I think he is in. I’m setting up an observation stand tonight. Hopefully I can get eyes on him and go from there. Thanks guys for the info