Help predicting farm country buck movement and bedding

[Brad]

So, I have an area of public land that I will be hunting from September 15th to September 27th. I have had boots on the ground throughout most all of the area pictured, but I have not been able to find any spot that I can say a buck is bedding. I am wondering if some of you that are experts in deer movement and farm country bedding can help me out.

In the pic below there is a parking lot on the north side of a lake. The 7 fields that are pretty much straight north of the parking lot are all beans (about 40 acres total), some getting tall now, and some still quite short (overall the further north the shorter they are). I personally have glassed several bucks (3 at a time one evening, and a really big one and a small one a different evening) coming in to that field just north of the parking lot and browsing in the NE corner. I have been shown some pics of a pair of nice bucks in the little triangular field on the border just north of the field off the parking lot. These bucks have all been coming out at least an hour before dark over the past 3 weeks or so.

My questions are:
1. Can you predict the direction these deer would enter the field? Would they come in with wind at their noses? wind at their backs and looking in front? would they enter from the lowest point? or the highest point? or would they check the field with a cross wind before entering?
I plan to glass some of these fields in the weeks before season, but i don't want to glass from the area they are likely to be. I want to glass without disturbing them.

2. What do you think may influence which field they use to browse? Do you think it'll be dependent on the wind? or how old the beans are? or anything else I can't think of right now?

3. Is there anywhere on here that stands out as a spot they would likely be bedding?
I was not able to find any spots that were obviously bedding areas, but there are a ton of deer in the area. Being the last 2 weeks of september I know my success will likely depend on getting close to bedding, but so far I don't know where that will be.

East side Fields 1.jpg

[Rich M]

Dan has a video on this in the HB Store. Not sure if you've seen it yet.

[Brad]

Dan has a video on this in the HB Store. Not sure if you've seen it yet.

I have seen it. In fact I've watched it twice, an am planning to watch it again.

[Lockdown]

I would suggest starting north of the fields but South of the river. Chances are pressure is going to push them back away from those fields. It’s tough to tell exactly where bedding is, as the pic is a little blurry when I zoom in. But any hill country point or thick bedding near the river is a likely spot.

It wouldn’t take much convincing to get me to spend a bunch of time scouting on the north side of the river, especially if access is tough. That’s actually where I would start if I was showing up to an out of state WMA mid season. Again, that’s considering access is tough.

Keep scouting until you’re on good sign. You shouldn’t have to talk yourself into setting up. Early season there aren’t going to be many rubs. One fresh rub and a big fresh track would be all I need to see. Focus on tracks! And don’t overlook rubs on spindly bushes. Could be a velvet rub.

If you’re not sure if something is bedding or not and you’re not that excited about it, bust it and scout it. Get all the answers and intel... don’t just pass it up.

[Brad]

I would suggest starting north of the fields but South of the river. Chances are pressure is going to push them back away from those fields. It’s tough to tell exactly where bedding is, as the pic is a little blurry when I zoom in. But any hill country point or thick bedding near the river is a likely spot.

It wouldn’t take much convincing to get me to spend a bunch of time scouting on the north side of the river, especially if access is tough. That’s actually where I would start if I was showing up to an out of state WMA mid season. Again, that’s considering access is tough.

Keep scouting until you’re on good sign. You shouldn’t have to talk yourself into setting up. Early season there aren’t going to be many rubs. One fresh rub and a big fresh track would be all I need to see. Focus on tracks! And don’t overlook rubs on spindly bushes. Could be a velvet rub.

If you’re not sure if something is bedding or not and you’re not that excited about it, bust it and scout it. Get all the answers and intel... don’t just pass it up.

I have scouted the points in the hills just north of the fields because i though it would be a good bedding location, but didn't really find much of anything. Right off of the northern most bean field at the top of the wash out I was able to find a few trees that looked like they had really old rubs. On a different point I was able to find one pretty nice rub that looked like it was from last season. Still no obvious bedding in the hills that I could find. My plan has been to try to glass some of the fields farther away from the roads/parking lots (several fields back), and if they are getting hit over the first day or two I would start heading into the hills &/or across the creek. The creek has some spots that are crossable. in fact I was considering hunting near that crossing fairly early because there are some heavy deer tracks going through. I haven't scouted much north of the creek, but did walk the north side creek edge looking for beds up against it. I did find one bed that I am pretty convinced is a buck bed, well worn and well covered, but i don't really know if that is enough to make me hunt over it without having bumped anything out of it. If i go back there and run something off I'll certainly make that a target.