Found his bed, now what?

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jac
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 11:17 pm
Location: NE Ohio
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Found his bed, now what?

Unread postby jac » Wed Mar 25, 2020 1:22 am

Hey guys, I've been lurking for while and finally started trying to find beds this winter. I've gotten some decent bucks in the past, but I was never really hunting a specific buck.

Anyways, I put a bunch of cameras out this January trying to take inventory of what made it. I got a single trail cam picture of a really nice buck at the end of January. I spent two full days scouting in the direction he came from. The first day I found a killer rub line. Big trees with some height. Not sure if they're from the same buck, but i followed it the wrong direction that day. The second day, I checked out the other direction of the rub line and found a super thick area with a ton of really big tracks. Found 6 or so beds in this area, 5 of them were in the same general area probably within 40 yards. The last one I followed a fresh looking set up tracks and found a big deer in his bed in a bamboo thicket. I got within 20 yards and he didn't stand up. I'm sure he's not used to seeing anyone where this is. I backed out as quick as possible as to not disturb him.

I am not sure if he will be using these beds come archery season, although the bamboo bed did have nice rubs at the entrance of the bamboo. So I know he was using this bed during the rut, as well as right now. The other clump of beds had no rubs around, so they may not be rut beds. The rub line is 300 yards from his clump of beds and 700 yards from the bamboo bed. I am not sure how long it normally takes for them to start rubbing once they get out of bed.



So, now what? Should I put a camera out to see how often he is using the bamboo bed? Does it even matter since we are 6 months away from the season? It may be nice to know on what winds hes using the bamboo bed for. Should I just patiently wait until later this year. This may not even be the same buck from the picture, but he has big feet atleast. Can I bump him out of the bamboo to look for his sheds??? Sorry for the rambling novel.


KornfedKiller
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:30 pm
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Re: Found his bed, now what?

Unread postby KornfedKiller » Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:23 am

I'm in a similar spot to you. I don't have the insight of any sort of experienced hunter that lurks round here but I can tell you how I'm approaching it based on spending a ton of time in the archives of this forum. This will be my first bow kill if I'm successful.

So first, is it bamboo? Or horsetail grass.... I interpreted your post as it was horsetail grass, and I say this because I called it bamboo until I learned what it was a couple months ago.

I'm watching a buck bedding in horsetail grass and have him more or less patterned at this point (as much as you can as a rookie, I guess). But it's also the only ground cover in the area since end of November, when snow and cold and rain has everything laid down. I think his bedding will expand from this when there's other ground cover in the area during October/November next year. I don't want to go messing up what I've found beyond this, because I have spent a lot of time in this area scouting and moving cams through the last 4 months. If I don't kill him next year, I'll get him the year after that. I like to play the long game in things.

What I've done is found where the does bed, forage and frolick nearby. Hundreds of daylight pics every couple weeks. I've scouted where they hunker down, and main travel intersection points between the bucks bedding and the doe's bedding. I've also scouted access routes for myself. My intention is to get in between the buck and doe's bedding in last week of October/first week of November based on weather. I'll pick my tree when I'm there based on hot sign and what I see. If that doesn't work, I figure I'll learn enough between now and then to reassess this plan before hunting season actually gets under way.

I wrote everything down, and then on to the next property. I hope to have 5-10 loose-ish plans like this by October, then incorporate observation sits if I feel I need to. I want to learn properties well, but I don't want to blow em out because I'm dealing with some tight property lines in spots. I figure I'll connect on one this way by the end of my vacation in November, but if I'm without a shot at that point I took note of decent destination food sources last december/January and will basically do a scout/scout/hunt at that point.

My boots on the ground are done in the area, but when my scouting is done come fishin season I'll spend my downtime throwing key cam pics into my notes with historical data. I already got a general idea of how they're moving with the weather but everything makes more sense when I look at it on paper (personally). I'm not done thinking about the area, just done having run ins with the buck til I got a weapon (and every time I seen him I told him I was comin for him so it's no secret now).

Hope that helps. Like I said, this is the perspective of someone who's green.

EDIT: spelling


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