Random beds and huntable beds.

[Stanley]

What is the determining factor for you, when you find a bed and if it's worth hunting or not?

[dreaming bucks]

Hopefully some big tracks ( 4 finger ). as others have said before, look for rubs around the bed close, that look like they come from a mature buck....

[Stanley]

ttt

[Autumn Ninja]

I look for a bed I can enter, exit and hunt with out the buck knowing his being hunted. Primary beds that I know are being used during day light. I employ your "no entrance" strategy in a lot of my set ups...we always call it "a low impact aproch"...pretty much the same thing just different wording.

I like to use roads, bluffs, rivers, fields, dead zones, hills and hollows, lakes....pretty much any type of structure, man made or natural to my advantage.

[Indianahunter]

Beds near or close to feeding areas are not typically or actually beds. This of course has some variables, but you will see many flat spots where deer have been laying, or perhaps you have even kicked them up. However these are typically spots they will simply lay down and chew their cud for a bit. One of the variables would be like if you hunted central Illinois where it is absolutely flat as a pancake and the fields are gigantic. Then you may find that deer are bedding in waterways, a ditch, or a narrown strip of cover between two fields. But for most MidWestern states this is not going to be the case. If you don't have a tremendous amount of cover then you can just about bet any bed you find in it or near it is legitimate. I know a lot of guys who have set up on fields thinking they were hunting close to bedding because they kicked up some bedded deer at a field edge. Don't let this fool you.

[Stanley]

Beds near or close to feeding areas are not typically or actually beds. This of course has some variables, but you will see many flat spots where deer have been laying, or perhaps you have even kicked them up. However these are typically spots they will simply lay down and chew their cud for a bit. One of the variables would be like if you hunted central Illinois where it is absolutely flat as a pancake and the fields are gigantic. Then you may find that deer are bedding in waterways, a ditch, or a narrown strip of cover between two fields. But for most MidWestern states this is not going to be the case. If you don't have a tremendous amount of cover then you can just about bet any bed you find in it or near it is legitimate. I know a lot of guys who have set up on fields thinking they were hunting close to bedding because they kicked up some bedded deer at a field edge. Don't let this fool you.

Great information.

[BigHunt]

one or two beat bed with lots of hair, and rubds right in the bed about belly butten high ....thats what i look for in bedding

[Stanley]

ttt

[Indianahunter]

If you haven't already located beds....this is not the time to do so. If you happen to soft bump a buck that you are after this season you can try to set up on that deer when you expect that he will return. However you need to know what the forecast is going to be like for the following morning. Is the wind going to be right for him to use that same bed? You need to ascertain what conditions caused that deer to be there when you bumped him.
If you haven't scouted a known bedding area prior to season I would not even attempt to go in there....cause and consequence. You are better off trying to kill him somewhere else...unless it is like the last week of season and you are pulling a hail Mary.
If I am in Hill country I look for elevation feature on topo as Dan lays out well in the "Hill Country Bucks" video. I scout those elevations and look for the best buck sign. That would be a large bed, with large tracks and a considerable amount of hair indicating it is frequently used. Once in that bed I take another card from Dan's play book and get down deer height....See what he can see....check the thermals...Why does he bed here? When does he bed here? How does he access this bed? What is his escape route?
That nice 10 has two of the three beds literally bare earth...and covered in hair. One bed has rubs near it....the one in the small lot does not. Why? I am not sure. I can only guess that one bed is used more frequently during the hard horn period of the year and the other bed has less to do with hormones and more to do with his belly.
I really like having rubs in or very near the bed. First because it absolutely identifies it as a buck bed and Second because you can usually get a pretty good idea if the bed you identified is a mature or larger racked animal. Although it is true that big bucks will rub little trees you can still identify if it is a larger animal. Is the sappling chewed up? This usually means he has ( can't think of the name right now) the bumps at the base of his antlers. Smaller deer do not have these in any significant fashion. You should also be able to see individual grooves cut in to the tree by them upon closer examination and will discover that these growths are actually the cause of the shredding. If it is a cluster of sapplings I look at the rubbed side and see how deep they go in to the cluster usually signifying longer tine length. I don't get worked up over that fact that a large tree has been rubbed either as far as determining a larger buck. What I look for on a larger tree is the height of the rub and grooves cut by brows.
I will let others speak on the matter but will chime in with more if you wish. Hope it was helpful. God Bless.

[BackWoodsHunter]

Sign that its a buck bed and on the public land I hunt everything within a few hundred yards of the parking spots is worked so I am hunting the beds furthest from the public access or beds that require some sort of access to get too that others haven't thought of. As far as the bed itself I am looking for buck sign in the spring and sign that it is still being used. That buck made it through a gun season living there and is still comfortably using the bed so thats a plus. Not to mention next yr he will be a yr older and the bed worked for him last yr why would he leave if not pushed out?

[Stanley]

If you haven't already located beds....this is not the time to do so. If you happen to soft bump a buck that you are after this season you can try to set up on that deer when you expect that he will return. However you need to know what the forecast is going to be like for the following morning. Is the wind going to be right for him to use that same bed? You need to ascertain what conditions caused that deer to be there when you bumped him.
If you haven't scouted a known bedding area prior to season I would not even attempt to go in there....cause and consequence. You are better off trying to kill him somewhere else...unless it is like the last week of season and you are pulling a hail Mary.
If I am in Hill country I look for elevation feature on topo as Dan lays out well in the "Hill Country Bucks" video. I scout those elevations and look for the best buck sign. That would be a large bed, with large tracks and a considerable amount of hair indicating it is frequently used. Once in that bed I take another card from Dan's play book and get down deer height....See what he can see....check the thermals...Why does he bed here? When does he bed here? How does he access this bed? What is his escape route?
That nice 10 has two of the three beds literally bare earth...and covered in hair. One bed has rubs near it....the one in the small lot does not. Why? I am not sure. I can only guess that one bed is used more frequently during the hard horn period of the year and the other bed has less to do with hormones and more to do with his belly.
I really like having rubs in or very near the bed. First because it absolutely identifies it as a buck bed and Second because you can usually get a pretty good idea if the bed you identified is a mature or larger racked animal. Although it is true that big bucks will rub little trees you can still identify if it is a larger animal. Is the sappling chewed up? This usually means he has ( can't think of the name right now) the bumps at the base of his antlers. Smaller deer do not have these in any significant fashion. You should also be able to see individual grooves cut in to the tree by them upon closer examination and will discover that these growths are actually the cause of the shredding. If it is a cluster of sapplings I look at the rubbed side and see how deep they go in to the cluster usually signifying longer tine length. I don't get worked up over that fact that a large tree has been rubbed either as far as determining a larger buck. What I look for on a larger tree is the height of the rub and grooves cut by brows.
I will let others speak on the matter but will chime in with more if you wish. Hope it was helpful. God Bless.

Great read. Thanks

[Stanley]

Sign that its a buck bed and on the public land I hunt everything within a few hundred yards of the parking spots is worked so I am hunting the beds furthest from the public access or beds that require some sort of access to get too that others haven't thought of. As far as the bed itself I am looking for buck sign in the spring and sign that it is still being used. That buck made it through a gun season living there and is still comfortably using the bed so thats a plus. Not to mention next yr he will be a yr older and the bed worked for him last yr why would he leave if not pushed out?

When the deer yard up in the winter. Wouldn't the buck have a different bed during that cycle? Just trying to get an idea of why and where beds are found.

[gjs4]

I live for this stuff and need to give a few simple statements that took me tons of effort and heartache to achieve

Bucks bed in an area (even more true in high pressure locales) for reasons.

In w NY random does not occur during a hunting season.

The easier it seems to kill him inidicates the more factors you are forgetting.

Sometimes you have to go for their throats and sometimes you are just beat and the game needs to be played differently

Just my $0.02

[Stanley]

I live for this stuff and need to give a few simple statements that took me tons of effort and heartache to achieve

Bucks bed in an area (even more true in high pressure locales) for reasons.

In w NY random does not occur during a hunting season.

The easier it seems to kill him inidicates the more factors you are forgetting.

Sometimes you have to go for their throats and sometimes you are just beat and the game needs to be played differently

Just my $0.02

Could you expand on some of the statements. Looks like a lot could be learned but need more input to valuate.

[cornfedkiller]

Sign that its a buck bed and on the public land I hunt everything within a few hundred yards of the parking spots is worked so I am hunting the beds furthest from the public access or beds that require some sort of access to get too that others haven't thought of. As far as the bed itself I am looking for buck sign in the spring and sign that it is still being used. That buck made it through a gun season living there and is still comfortably using the bed so thats a plus. Not to mention next yr he will be a yr older and the bed worked for him last yr why would he leave if not pushed out?

When the deer yard up in the winter. Wouldn't the buck have a different bed during that cycle? Just trying to get an idea of why and where beds are found.

Yep you are correct, but what you are looking for during spring scouting is the beds they were using last fall. As soon as the snow is gone and before green-up, the woods basically looks the same as it did the previous fall (I would imagine I didn't need to tell you this). Anyways, beds from last season are preserved, and you can then find the beds they were using.

Not only yarding up in the winter changes their bedding patterns, but changing food sources, foliage and cover, etc, but your trail cams and glassing during the season will help you dictate whichi beds are most likely being used..

If you have not ordered Dan's videos yet, I would highly suggest ordering them, as they will answer hours worth of searching and reading on here..they do a VERY good job of summing up this stuff..

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