Big woods hill country bedding

[mauser06]

I've been running into a situation where I can't nail down buck bedding.


Big timber hills. But not much or any "leeward" points or sometimes not even Leeward slopes for majority of winds....and to get "leeward" it's a dang long ways away. Sometimes there is leeward but not much in the way of points...or they are limited and a ways off.


I know there are mature bucks. That's a fact. I know there are plenty of deer. I just don't see the bedding. Bucks or does for that matter.


Kinda banging my head on the wall sometimes. I typically don't move to the hills till scrape week and beyond. But I still like to know where bedding is and stick close to it.

I can find buck bedding in hills pretty easily....when they "play by the roles" and it lays out right. But I keep running into these places and just don't know what I'm missing.


I put on a good 12-15mi in an area in the last 2 weeks and never confirmed a buck bed. One little knob had 2 rubs on it I feel was a buck bed. But no bed to be seen.

Not sure what I'm missing.

[WisBowhunter]

Mauser06,
It might not matter much but what state are you in? I know where I live the predominant wind is west. With southwest most prevalent in the early season and northwest as the rut kicks in, late October. I hunt the hills also, and have found that the 'total' deer shift will occur where the majority of bedding will switch due to the 'prevalent' winds. Even the does will switch from one side of the fields (feeding areas) to the the other based on the wind shift. This is on private land so, limited acreage, but on the public I hunt very similar. I am not saying the mature bucks will move a lot, but a lot of the deer will.
I believe on the land I hunt I have limited mature bucks. But the surrounding area has a decent amount of 'good bucks'. I find some good buck bedding areas on the leeward points on my turf, but am sure the neighbors land also has bedding areas. That being said, I believe the areas I can't scout will hold and possibly produce deer for me to have the opportunity to hunt.
At some point I think that during the season, those of us utilizing private property may have to switch to the 'pinch points and funnel" to look for the bucks we are after rather than hunting them
in a bedding scenario. Not sure this helps with your thoughts, but hope so.

[rfickes87]

If the terrain features you are searching for are not producing bedding then are you looking for habitat diversity like old clear-cuts and edges? Try and pay closer attention to satellite views instead of just a topo. What state are you in? Check our your DNR's map services... here in PA we have a "leafless" layer that I can turn on and see shades of green in the forest in winter time views. That is a very easy tell for me that the area is either green briers or mountain laurel. That often points me to good thick cover and bedding areas.

[headgear]

Most of the time you can skip the older timber no matter how good the topo looks (other hunters will pound it anyway) look for thicker areas or old clearcuts, find the structure and the thick cover. A mess of blow downs are also good area to check along with any place that might have a little water, the more good things you can combine the better. I also look for areas that have more bedding options for several different winds, seems like they gravitate towards area that can and will have multiple bedding options. Double check those close to the road or bucks watching access spots as well. Lay down some boot leather and check everywhere, those bucks are hiding somewhere where most or all of the hunters are not looking, it might take a few years to get a good handle on a big area but once you know it holds good bucks just keep working it until you master that spot. Took a few years but finally getting on some hill country bucks after hunting the swamps for a decade, there is very much a learning curve. Wounded a nice one two years ago and finally got my first hill buck last year, been concentrating on hills for about 4 years now, lots of trial and error but do it enough and things come into focus.

I seem to have better luck finding a big bedding zone, say a larger area with really steep or thick stuff that is hard to hunt that is anywhere from 40 to 300 or more acres. Then you have to find the spots within those spots that the bucks like and then learn how to hunt them. Really just like a big swamp with a dozen islands, most don't hold the big bucks but sometimes there is 1 or 2 spots they like to hold up.

[MichiganMike]

I could be a bit off here- but I usually dont find buck beds on hillsides to be core/primary bedding. The ones I usually find are pretty faint and what I consider very temporary. Maybe they want monitor does for a bit coming from below, or just need a quick rest. Not saying they dont use hills as their primary nesting place, but I never hcame across a bed on a hillside that screams primary buck bed. Just my observations over the years. Im no expert by any means especially on hills, and don't do a ton of scouting along hillsides unless theres good sign along it. Im more of a swamp/marsh edge guy.

[mauser06]

Should have mentioned in in Pennsylvania. Wind is usually westerly.

Some good stuff posted as usual!

I always look at satellite images and I'm a big fan of diversity. I always gravitate towards areas "with a lot goin on"


The few mature buck beds I can think of that I've found in these areas have been seemingly sight based. On the edge of the military crest or a bench overlooking pretty open timber. Usually because there is a lot of open timber. Most have been watching access trails.


A couple years ago I was still hunting in bear season. I peeked over the military crest at a bench. Pretty open woods...I say open but it is sorta trashy...boulders and such. I was walking the top 3rd corridor. It's pretty obvious in this area. A 130-140 class buck was laying on the bench. And below him 100yds in plain sight is an access trail. I was above him and caught him completely off guard. It was the first busy day of the fall and he was intently watching that trail.

Last week, I jumped a lone deer at the base of a steep drop in a tangle of brush. Big lone deer screamed buck. Went over and looked. Tracks screamed mature buck. Poop everywhere. I couldn't see a distinct bed...but I'm certain it's a tiny bedding area. Same thing. He's watching 2 access trails.


Tuesday I actually walked a 10yo cut edge...the cut is on private...there's an outside corner and an inside corner and a lot of edge. There was a bit of sign but not what I expected. I think I saw 1 rub.


I feel like I have a few good starting points. I have 2 scrapes on well worn trails covered in big tracks in 20+yo cuts. I feel like that private cut edge still holds potential.


Just frustrating to me because I'm so used to being able to find distinct bedding. I will also try to hit some of this stuff in the snow next year. I try to avoid scouting till the snow burns off just because it can cover the evidence and what it shows can sometimes be misleading.

[brancher147]

Sounds like you’re hung up on the beds being leeward. They may not be. Or they may be somewhere wind swirls. But I see bucks bed windward a lot in big woods. It will still be wind and cover to back usually upper 1/3 near military crest. They may also move around a lot and not be leaving well worn beds in which case I look for more consistent doe bedding and wait for rut

[mauser06]

I know they can't always bed leeward. Just not practical in some areas.


I agree...I think I'm not seeing them because they aren't used so hard.


I think I just need to put sits in and piece it together.



I think I'm gunna go back and drop a couple cameras on a few of the better looking spots....I might get an idea of when they move through and direction of travel. The trails I have in mind appear to be used by bucks currently and in the fall. Let the cameras soak a couple months and see what I learn. If anything.

[HuntingHamrick]

I am sort of in the same boat. I hunt hilly big woods type terrain and it’s tough finding heavy beds. I don’t have much trouble finding doe bedding, but finding particular buck beds is tough. I’ve only found one in an area I know well, that really fit the textbook top 1-3 on a leeward side. It was extremely faint though, and was hard to even tell it was a bed besides the two rubs that were made from the bed. I do better hunting bedding “areas” that I know hold bigger deer, and downwind of doe bedding areas in late October. Always learning and trying to narrow it down though.

[backstraps]

In the hills I hunt, finding a well worn, heavily used bed isnt common. There are some though. They seem to be those beds that can play with any wind direction and seem to be unapproachable

The hill sides, slopes, and even the adjacent hills play a part in how the wind and thermals react on a giving bedding point

It’s odd but kind of neat how such a small change in temps, sunlight, wind direction, thermals can drastically change bedding in hill country

[Trout]

Bigwoods hillcountry is my favorite. My primary hunting area has some leeward, but it's mostly windward facing for our predominant winds. A few things I've learned

Even on windward facing slopes, there are little knobs and stuff that have small leeward faces. One that immediately comes to mind literally had less than 10' of leeward and has had a primary bed the last two seasons since I found it.

Not sure how big your hills are, mine aren't huge but theyr'e decent. They are approximately 600' tall from bottom to top which is roughly a mile. But mine still have very strong thermal activity. Thermals fall opposite of the predominant wind and almost always overpower the wind.

Don't overlook the lower elevations on windward slopes. I am finding a lot of bedding sign lower than the stereotypical military crest in the area I'm referencing. Don't ignore the military crest either, but don't put all your stock there.

Find clearcuts if you can, scout the windward transitions.

If you're confident deer are there and don't know where to start for bedding, go stillhunt the best bedding cover on a damp, rainy day during season and don't feel bad about bumping bedded deer. Remember every bed you encounter and maybe go back and hunt them on a bump and dump or a few days later, but definitely go back and scout them in the spring to put a better plan of attack for the following fall.

Hope that helps!

[mauser06]

Good stuff! Thanx guys!



Sounds like I'm pretty much on the right track.

I find the same thing...bedding on little knobs and such where the wind will do some funny stuff. I gravitate to anything a little different.


Unfortunately, a lot of these areas don't have any new cuts. Some areas have laurel/rhododendron edges and hemlock or pines. I can tackle those.

My hills aren't huge. 200-400ft. Some steeper than others. I hunt a lot of different habitat and areas.


Last year I hunted a spot during the rut that just caught my eye when I was still hunting in bear season. Big nasty cut in the hill and a bench that makes a land bridge.. I saw good deer tracks in the snow all cutting the top of it. During my all day sit, midday I saw 2 mature bucks. The first was walking right for me...100yds away he veered off and went down and kept going to the edge of that nasty ditch. I had a gut feeling he was cruising late and was going to bed.

Not long after I heard something behind me. There is a 40yd or so portion of the ditch above/behind me. I looked and didn't see anything. An hour or so later I stood up and took a leak. Zippered back up and went to sit down and heard a deer jump up. Another mature buck....that sucker bedded within 50yds of me on the side of the cut. I have NO idea how he didn't wind me that entire time or how he didn't see me or why he waited so long to bust outta there. I still feel like that spot can produce. The rut this year was extremely slow.


My "goal" is to find a handful of these rut spots that are reliable producers. I know they'll be producers year after year provided nothing else changes.

I have a sick attraction to big woods bucks and I wanna figure it out.


I "know" more than I think I do and I have seen several good bucks in these areas...the bedding just seems somewhat inconsistent. Big landscape. Not a million deer...pockets of deer. That's why my mindset is geared on finding rut funnels. I think the hunting is more predictable and consistent....with acorns and browse scattered around...and bedding scattered around...just seems to make sense to me.

[MichiganMike]

In my opinion the biggest thing is finding where does are traveliing to and bedding in that prerut/rut time. The buck sign revolves around that. Good scouting thing to do is walk one of those primary doe travel routes and look for obtructions/thick transitions/pockets etc. just off of their route. Hills, clearcuts, swamps- whatever. Lot of times you ll find those faint buck beds watching that trail. I wouldnt put all my stock in those beds to hang a stand though, I still want to know where he actually lives.

[dan]

Walk the whole 1/3 elevation... Walk all the downwind sides of clear cuts... Look at the low wet areas... And you will have walked thru the buck bedding... I suspect your already walking thru the bedding and dont know it cause of lack of sign... A lot of times bucks use a bedding area over and over but dont use the same bed over and over. They shift around a lot... Especially if they dont have leeward hills or the hills are more rounded... Keep in mind we talk about hill bedding, swamp bedding, farm bedding, etc... But generally all of these can exist on the same property... I would hunt based on terrain and good guesses on where the bedding is if your having a hard time seeing it... Also, often you can se the sign like rubs and trails coming out of bedding areas often much better than the beds themselves.

[mauser06]

Thanx Dan. I'm betting your right...and my prior experiences line up with that.


I did find 2 trails the T off the top 3rd trail. Both lined in rubs. Both kinda peter off to a dead end which I suspect Both areas are probably different buck bedding areas. 1 was lower. 1 was at the top 3rd.

The 130-140 class buck I saw (which is a pretty dang good one for the public) was below the top 3rd. There is a trail in the bottom and I think they like to lay there and watch it is my guess.


I walked the entire perimeter of a beaver bottom....I was disappointed in the lack of sign down there. Looked good. But the sign just wasn't there. I figured the ridges probably get hunted and the bottom may been good. Didn't seem to be the case.


I walked a few miles the other day and was on good buck tracks nearly the entire time. Trails were rubbed so I assume they are using the same routes year round. There's 2 different areas of oaks they seem to head to.


I'm thinking the 2 scrapes are gunna be good. They were both at the trails that branched off the top 3rd trail and in a little denser woods that was cut 20-25ish years ago.


I still believe the private cut edge will produce too...the outside corner just screams for a stand.

Been hunting this particular area since I was 12...inthink this will be my 23rd season. I know a lot of it. I can get on deer pretty easily and consistently. Just hunting as different animal now....which I know is there.