Can someone clarify this for me?

[Xpeditionshooter]

I know someone will tell me to “use the search function” so just to head that off... I have, I’ve scoured the all time best tactical threads, listened to a ton of podcasts with Dan, watched tons of his YouTube videos, but I’m still confused about this. Hoping someone here is willing to try to break this down for my simple brain.

Here’s the situation... you’re hunting flat terrain. You find a point of dry land that runs from the NW to the SE. At the SE tip of that point you find a buck bed. There’s a rub line going out of the bed along the point. The point is surrounded by a thick swamp on all sides. Here’s my question: is that buck going to bed there facing NW looking down the point with a SE wind blowing over his back from the swamp, or will be bed there with a NW wind and I’d have to hunt it with a just off wind? I hope that all makes sense without the help of a visual aid. Thanks I’m advance for trying to help!

[Wolfie417]

I would guess he's bedding with a nw wind.
One way to tell is often times they bed with an obstacle at their back (fallen tree, live tree, rock, bush, ect).

[hunter_mike]

I can't say from a ton of experience but have asked this same question before and the answer was explained to me well by the BEASTS. And my limited observations pretty much match what Dan says. Here is the related thread: https://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.p ... nd#p433657

Generally a buck'll bed on the leeward edge of the transition edge. And in flat wet ground, bedding CAN BE based on security more than wind direction, meaning that a buck will want to bed there even when the wind is not blowing perfectly straight NW to SE. But odds MIGHT be best for a buck to be bedded there when the wind is blowing from NW to SE because that is where the buck is expecting a threat to approach from.

[dan]

On the flatish point the bed that id on the point watching the open forest with swamp to back will be watching the open forest up the point. This is backwards of what you see in hill country where its more about thermal meeting wind. However, if its a good bedding spot, the bucks that bed there likely have more, and harder to see or find (because its more spread out than the bedding right at the point) in the swamp 20 to 80 yards off the point for the winds that blow down the point. Bucks will move into and out of the swamp bedding based on wind changes. The beds in the swamp will sweep around to take advantage of smelling the access down the point.

hoot.jpg

[mauser06]

Dan certainly knows more about swamp bedding than I do.


But I was going to post similar. I've found it just varies. Good bedding in the marsh/swamp is good bedding and often not wind based. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.


I will say, I've noticed that if they feel like the wind is in their advantage, I think I tend to see more/earlier. Example being hunting a just off wind...seems more productive. But I don't have enough experience to be sure.

[Xpeditionshooter]

Dan and all, thank you guys for the responses. What I’m hearing is that it depends. I kind of figured that was the answer, I’ve hunted long enough to know these animals don’t do anything 100% of the time. The buck I killed this year bedded down 43 yards away from me on the edge of timber and a clear cut, wind was out of the north and he was facing north. The day before I bumped a buck out of the same spot with the same wind. Yesterday I bumped a deer (unseen) that was on a transition line on the northern edge of a swamp with a NW wind. But I have multiple trail cam pictures from this year of bucks that I believe were coming out of their beds with the wind at their backs. I think the better answer is I need to try both and see which yields more success. I am convinced that bucks around here will bed with thick cover at their backs and the wind in their face because the cover behind them is just so unbelievably thick that they feel secure doing that, especially when there’s water behind them too. Do they do that all the time? Probably not. Thanks for the help guys.