Big woods bedding?

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Eastcoasthunter91
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Big woods bedding?

Unread postby Eastcoasthunter91 » Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:30 am

Hey yall new guy here. I'm from eastern Maryland where there's no elevation change so I find limited info on finding beds in big flat pine woods with some hardwoods and creeks throughout. Just wondering where to begin and what to look for I'm pretty new to public always hunted private land with ag fields and very little woods to get into


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JustinP
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby JustinP » Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:51 am

I've hunted almost exclusively big woods for my whole life, with a little farm country mixed in when I was young.
Somebody more knowledgeable, successful, and a more hardcore hunter than me may disagree and may very well be right too, but I still think that big woods bucks have more bedding opportunities available to them and therefore use a particular bed less frequently than smaller parcel bucks so it's harder to nail down those areas. I still have trouble with beds, I seem to find a lot of disposable one time use beds. There are not such defined food sources here, no apples, no mast crops and no agriculture, deer tend to meander along and browse on this and that. So my theory is bedding areas are less defined because almost every area is a feeding area, there is less point A to point B movement.
Around here I do find them in clumps of small cedars or balsam trees, and little islands of high ground in peat marshes, mini transition areas of good cover and protection.
I'm not sure where to look in your pine woods. Maybe transition areas of small patches of thick young pines that offer more cover than the mature pines, if such area exist....
Tiny little rises, even 10"-12" makes a difference when it's platter flat country.
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby Jazzy66171 » Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:01 am

I hunt mostly big woods. I find a ton of bedding in clearcuts. Not all clearcuts are created equal however. I am still trying to learn about why they do them so differently. I have had good luck in oak trees surrounded by clearcut. Even marsh islands I haven’t had good luck with.
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Matt Gill
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby Matt Gill » Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:24 am

Transition lines!
hard, obvious transitions like clear cut to open oaks or pine to hardwoods
But also soft, subtle transitions that will never show up on a map. You’ve gotta find them by way of boots on the ground.
My advice would be to do more scouting then hunting, find the best fresh sign and hunt between that and suspected bedding.
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1STRANGEWILDERNESS
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby 1STRANGEWILDERNESS » Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:24 pm

In areas that obvious things don’t lay out on the map, but for some reason you still want to hunt. I have found a lot of bedding in areas where something killed trees off such as ash borer, spruce budworm, maybe some type of oak or beech wilt. Stuff like that doesn’t really show till you’re standing in it. It will cause an opening and eventually grow in thick. Briars, berry bushes, etc Ash is the biggest for me locally. small clumps where it died off and if it’s regenerating is usually one of the hottest spots in the area.

Even a big area of blow downs or something.

Also like Justin said, any slight rise in elevation.

I will say hunting this type of terrain is not exactly efficient. It takes a lot more time to figure out. If you can look at a map and find areas with hard edges, clearcuts, or some topography you will be able to be much more efficient this season. IMO

Good luck
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby dan » Mon Oct 11, 2021 1:54 am

Eastcoasthunter91 wrote:Hey yall new guy here. I'm from eastern Maryland where there's no elevation change so I find limited info on finding beds in big flat pine woods with some hardwoods and creeks throughout. Just wondering where to begin and what to look for I'm pretty new to public always hunted private land with ag fields and very little woods to get into

Watch the video series we put together. Click the link: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58582&hilit=big+woods
ihookem
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby ihookem » Mon Oct 11, 2021 12:55 pm

The only place I find bedding is in high grass. This may explain the other posters when they find bedding in blowdowns and die off areas cause the next year there will be thick grass. Even a small area the size of a house will likely hold a bed.
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1STRANGEWILDERNESS
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby 1STRANGEWILDERNESS » Mon Oct 11, 2021 2:11 pm

ihookem wrote:The only place I find bedding is in high grass. This may explain the other posters when they find bedding in blowdowns and die off areas cause the next year there will be thick grass. Even a small area the size of a house will likely hold a bed.


These areas I mentioned may be higher ground (usually are) but not grassy whatsoever. Woody browse type stuff. Not to say I’m arguing they wouldn’t use tall grass. I don’t doubt you. If that’s what you see that’s what you see. Things sure do very from place to place.

I have noted more beds on the edge of the tall grass here locally than I do within it and I think it has something to do with wolves and wanting a line of sight downwind but I could be wrong. Always fun to try and think what they’re thinking.
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ihookem
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby ihookem » Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:29 pm

In Price and Sawyer county Wis. there is a LOT of logging the last few years. It makes for grass and rasberries. I have seen where they do sit on a high spot in the grass. They also have plenty of new popple browse and just have to stand up to eat . You cant see them unless you are 20' from them and then you can hardly see them. They know that !. As the trees grow taller , the grass gets shorter and they adjust. As for hunting the big woods, I have been there for 32 yrs. now. and even as early as 1980 a few times. There was a time when they were easier to figure out. They used trails along small ridges. Now those trails are hardly used , mostly cause deer numbers are down about 75%, and any deer that forms a pattern of using a trail, gets figured out real fast by the wolves and they dont live long. This is why they wonder aimlessly like one
poster mentioned. There is a lot of browse and little competition. I have seen so many times I will get on a track that had snow a few days before. I will follow the track and they wonder like they are lost. The sit down a bit , and then get up and wonder and browse. A deer like htis is extremely hard to hunt especially and old buck that moves very little in the day time.
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Re: Big woods bedding?

Unread postby Nick grider » Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:15 pm

90% of my hunting is big woods in northern Michigan. Theirs multiple ways to skin the cat but this is where I typically find success. I do quite a bit of e scouting and put boots on the ground in the areas I find. I’m typically looking for transitions. Little openings in the woods, in and on the edge of clear cuts. Along old overgrown logging trails. Oil wells. Next to a pot hole of water. And next to roads/ power lines. It all requires boots on the ground though. Most of my time is spent walking slow and looking. I typically carry my m300 tree seat with me and sit the last hour of the night. Once I find good beds, ripping hot sign, or actually bump deer (which I think is the best case scenario in big woods), I typically assess the situation, then plan a real hang and hunt in that area once the weather fits what I expect the deer are doing. I’m no monster buck killer but I get a good one every now and then. Regardless I can usually keep the freezer full with does throughout the year. Big woods in my opinion is by far the toughest country to hunt but I believe it to be the most rewarding.


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