Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

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PredatorTC
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Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby PredatorTC » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:32 am

This morning I decided to crawl into the same buck bed where I shot one last year laying in its bed. I got up bring and early and snuck down the cornrows to the little bedding point. It was windy so nothing could hear me coming. When I got to the end of the corn, I popped my head out at 4:20 in the darkness and there in the exact beds from last year were two 1.5 year old bucks already bedded up. Crazy how early the get bedded sometimes. I managed to snap a pic of one.

I was talking to Justin Wright about it and he mentioned he firmly believe the moon phase has a lot to do with it. The weather was also some real windy crap that perhaps made the deer a bit more careful.

Just something interesting and worth a share in regards to early season morning hunting and how early the big boys get to bed!

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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby dan » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:38 am

great post joe... it reflects exactly what i see withbuck bedding at this time of year.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Moose » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:48 am

Thats awesome Joe! Sounds extremely difficult to beat them back to bedding. Thanks for sharing! Good luck this season.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:01 am

dan wrote:great post joe... it reflects exactly what i see withbuck bedding at this time of year.


I thought I have read and watched everything you have written on this topic. Can you expand? Are you saying that young bucks bed in great bedding very early (pre sun up) on certain moon phases? I know you didn't mean that, but that is what I got.

Or is your point, that its tough to catch them in the morning heading back to bedding, hunt evenings for better odds?
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Chuck B » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:13 am

Good post Joe. Thanks for sharing.

Joe, and anyone else can correct me if I disagree, but I think the moral of the story when it comes to hunting close to bedding; if you have enough different hunting spots and time to hunt both the mornings and the evenings, then do it. If you have to pick and choose due to time and land constraints, evenings would be ideal. As Joe mentioned, oftentimes they are back to their beds well before shooting light.

Certainly not always the case tho as we all know. My biggest buck on cam was just in front of my camera a two days ago a half hour after shooting light in the morning. But, I still chose not to hunt it this morning as I feel like I know where he is bedding and I have much higher odds of getting on him in the evening and didn’t want to booger him out of his routine.

Joes spot and strategy is just perfect. He can get in and out through the corn and barely intrude at all. I’ve got a couple of river spots like that. Hop on canoe, get off River about 30 yards and into some good bedding and back on river afterwards. More work than just walking in, but so nice to not stink all the land up walking through.
Last edited by Chuck B on Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:16 am

I think I get it now. Nevermind. I guess I was trying to hard to get into a serious deer hunting discussion :lol:
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Trout » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:30 am

You think they were already bedded up for the day that early, or were they night bedding?
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Quest1001 » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:59 am

Very cool, thanks for sharing!!
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby dan » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:50 pm

I used to hunt mornings and evenings pretty hard all year when I was younger and only a few kills came from the mornings, and a lot of the time going in I would bust target bucks already bedded. I adapted my strategy to hunt more in the evenings when hunting is consistent until about Oct. 15th when I start seeing better morning hunting, and even then, in the AM I like to be a little farther back from the beds at the point before the start trying to get down wind and scent check the bedding. With that said, if you have the time, and a lot of territory you wont burn up, hunting AM can kill bucks, its just lower odds outside of rut phases.

Now, keep in mind that going in and pounding your best spots that are set up well for evening hunts will probably do you more harm than good. So, now a days, after years of trial and error I find it best to hunt AM spots early or late season that I either would not hunt in an evening anyway ( not saying "bad" spots, but rather excess spots) or spots I cannot get close enough to while the buck is there in the evening... With that said, every year I hear of a few big bucks taken in the AM around the opener, and certain set ups, like the one in Joes video can be great for mornings if the stars alien.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby dan » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:51 pm

Here is the video for those who have not seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V5GYILUCBM
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Thesouthpaw » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:48 pm

Interesting.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Kraftd » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:59 pm

Just out of curiosity, did you stay and hunt? Any chance at all deer like you were on last year may have come in an hour later and bumped the little guys out? Do you think it was primarily weather related?
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:21 pm

Joe I personally believe that bucks will be in their bed 75% of the time day or night when they can bed right next to food. I see this all the time in ag and with acorns. They get up for 30-60 mins and bed right back down. Day and night. I dont think it has anything to do with moon and more to do with normal browsing/feeding patterns. Kind of like us old men, we get up, pee, grab something from fridge, plop back down on couch. Down this way, when we have a great acorn crop, it's almost impossible to kill some bucks because they just dont have to move far. spots like these get better when bucks start cruising.
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby Huntress13 » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:32 pm

DaveT1963 wrote: Kind of like us old men, we get up, pee, grab something from fridge, plop back down on couch. Down this way, when we have a great acorn crop, it's almost impossible to kill some bucks because they just dont have to move far. spots like these get better when bucks start cruising.


:lol: wearing a path in the linoleum from the couch to the toilet to the fridge.

Question for anyone, maybe I missed in the videos. About how far out do the bucks loop for scent check going to bed? 50 yards? Or does it depend on conditions, windy they can smell it from farther, calmer they need closer?
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Re: Interesting Early Season Buck Bed

Unread postby dan » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:06 am

Huntress13 wrote:
DaveT1963 wrote: Kind of like us old men, we get up, pee, grab something from fridge, plop back down on couch. Down this way, when we have a great acorn crop, it's almost impossible to kill some bucks because they just dont have to move far. spots like these get better when bucks start cruising.


:lol: wearing a path in the linoleum from the couch to the toilet to the fridge.

Question for anyone, maybe I missed in the videos. About how far out do the bucks loop for scent check going to bed? 50 yards? Or does it depend on conditions, windy they can smell it from farther, calmer they need closer?

really dependent on a lot of factors... could be 100 yards could be 50... I think terrain has a lot to do with it.


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