Finding beds wth boot leather..

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cornfedkiller
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Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:58 pm

Whats your strategy here?

Big woods, farmland, etc..areas where you dont really know based on topos or aerials where they are going to bedding...so in the spring, you lace up your boots and hit the woods..where are you going? Where are you looking? Whats the strategy?


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BackWoodsHunter
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:22 pm

I found a half dozen or so today...back tracking deer is pretty simple if you have enough room to roam. Today I was walking changes in terrain I was on a series of berms that made the transition between hardwoods and some marshy pockets. I found a lot of deer trails and followed them into the swamp and just about every little island seemed to have a bed on it. Nothing too recent but very apparent a deer or multiple deer have bedded there in the past. I'm no expert but I look for the stuff that stands out. If you look out in front of you and everything looks exactly the same and then there is some change, something different I try to start around that. I prefer the change to be in thickness of cover. I was in the middle of open hardwoods a few weeks ago and there was a tiny section of young trees growing real thick in an opening in the forest. So I slowly headed for it and jumped a bedded deer right from the edge of it. I set up my stand and counted at least a half dozen more deer that came in and out of this patch throughout the hunt. I don't know why they do it, but they do. If you are looking out over a section of flooded marsh or cattails or something it all looks the same but I like to check out the tiny islands of brush. I'm no big buck slayer so maybe I'm off base but the biggest islands or islands with big mature trees tend to have little cover because of the shade of the big trees. I have found some bedding on those too but lately I've found more bedding on little clumps of brush/tag alders. I don't know anything about hill country. Finding beds in marshy terrain is pretty easy but hunting them is the hard part IMO. In farm country I find spring scouting to not be very effective because the deer change based on crops the next year. I have found one good bedding area in farm country I guess if it's good enough it may be good each year. I don't have enough experience hunting farm country over beds, everything is so broken up with ownership and I never seem to have access to any places with good bedding. In bigwoods they really seem to bed around changes in scenery from what I have seen. In some spots I have seen beds where they are probably bedding according to thermals like in Dans second video. Other spots they are bedding based on a rise in elevation where they can see a little better. The one thing that tends to be consistent is the nastier and thicker the cover the more likely a guy is to find a bedded deer. Unfortunately there can be miles and miles of that and they can bed where ever. Food sources are far from consistent or nourishing so they are moving a lot. It is my belief that in true bigwoods territory it is not uncommon for a buck to have a home range that consists of 3-4 or even more miles. Finding beds can be tough there and hunting them is even harder if you aren't providing food and running a successful circuit of trail cameras monitoring the general beds.


The biggest thing, and best tactic I ever learned from associating with Dan's websites and buying his videos, was working transition edges. That has really helped me. I'm sure there are less obvious beds that my eye is not skilled enough to find but by working transitions I have found a lot of beds and sign from all sorts of bucks.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby Zap » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:35 pm

Wear em out....look it all over. :mrgreen:
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:21 am

Backwoods pretty much nailed it... Follow transitions and follow sign to the beds. Also islands of differing cover or elevation.
Farms can sometimes need like Zap says, a grid search of the cover to see where the bedding is.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:25 am

One other thing I should add though... The oldest bucks often have a knack for finding spots where you would never think to look... You gotta think outside the box.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby KLEMZ » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:12 am

dan wrote:Farms can sometimes need like Zap says, a grid search of the cover to see where the bedding is.

I would welcome any information on how to grid search an area efficiently.

My experience is Northern Wisconsin big woods. In order to identify the vegetation densities to scout around, I think the old black and white arieals (terraserver) show the changes in densities better than most of the more current pictures available. Also, the high contrast of these pictures shows up great on a tiny gps screen to aid in navigating while you're wearing out those boots.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby kenn1320 » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:56 am

I find single beds in farm land, but they dont always have rubs by them. Ive jumped 1.5yr old bucks out of those bush/brush clumps that you can get low and crawl into. They are usually on the field edges and will be about 8-10ft tall and about as big as your bedroom or larger to hold a deer. I dont find rubs in those, but young bucks bed in em. You need to have somebody show you a bed. Once you see one in person, its easy to find them. I can spot em from a good ways off, they pull me to them like a magnet. I walk over and look closely at the ground, deer hair. In the swampy area's I plan to use the same strategy as backwoods mentioned. Our gun season recently ended and Im still seeing cars parked like crazy for the muzzle loading season. My thought is to try to cut a decent track and back track it to a bed. This might blow the bed for this season, but if a buck feels safe right now, thats the bed I want to know about when the pressure is on next year. The reason this back tracking doesnt work in farm country in my area, is the deer move. They tend to herd up and bed close to the food source. If you do find some beds in the snow, mark them with your gps. Go back to them in the spring when the snow is gone and just study the bed. Look around and see why the deer are drawn to that spot. Look out from that area to the most open portion of woods you see and walk 50yds in that direction. Turn around and look back at that bed and you will see it, without actually being able to "see it". That sounds crazy, but once you get the feel for it, they pop out at you. Granted some dont. If you search my user name and beds, I have posted pics of some I have found. Again some are easy to see, others are not. The pics dont do them justice, you need to find one and back up like I said. Also I scouted some farm land and had my gps on tracking. I posted a pic and look how badly I covered that ground that day. Talk about missing a lot of ground. :roll:
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Mon Dec 12, 2011 3:54 am

KLEMZ wrote:
dan wrote:Farms can sometimes need like Zap says, a grid search of the cover to see where the bedding is.

I would welcome any information on how to grid search an area efficiently.

My experience is Northern Wisconsin big woods. In order to identify the vegetation densities to scout around, I think the old black and white arieals (terraserver) show the changes in densities better than most of the more current pictures available. Also, the high contrast of these pictures shows up great on a tiny gps screen to aid in navigating while you're wearing out those boots.



That is on the terraserver site? I'll have to check that out man thanks for the tip! For the northern parts of Wisconsin anyways I have been able to find "grouse maps" on the county websites. These show all the clear cuts within the last 12 years which are generally food sources. They also show any tag alder patches (which usually means swamp) and the deer hide in those as well. I like kenn's response a lot you just gotta see a couple various beds and then the obvious ones jump out at you. Like I said in my first post I know I miss a lot of them but the obvious ones grab me and that is a start.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby KLEMZ » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:22 am

BackWoodsHunter wrote:That is on the terraserver site?

http://terraserverusa.com/default.aspx

This same photo set is seen on Acme mapper, select the DOQ button.
They are also available on Google Earth, select the historcal photo's button (clock face) and slide the time line back to earlier years.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby KLEMZ » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:31 am

kenn1320 wrote:If you do find some beds in the snow, mark them with your gps. Go back to them in the spring when the snow is gone and just study the bed. Look around and see why the deer are drawn to that spot. Look out from that area to the most open portion of woods you see and walk 50yds in that direction. Turn around and look back at that bed and you will see it, without actually being able to "see it". That sounds crazy, but once you get the feel for it, they pop out at you

This is a good idea.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:10 am

I would welcome any information on how to grid search an area efficiently

I mark a map into sections small enough that I can completly scout every inch of a section within a few hours. I make several trips and cover a section or two each trip till the farm is done. Don't pass over anything. Not even a treeline or clump... Mature bucks have a knack for bedding in the spots you would never suspect them.
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby kenn1320 » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:17 am

I mark a map into sections small enough that I can completly scout every inch of a section within a few hours.


Dan, give a rough example of the size of a section you would cover in 2hrs. Id bet most of us run thru an area compared to you, would be nice to have something to compare to. Maybe an example of how many acres per hour in each type of terrain?
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby BigHunt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:57 am

dan wrote:One other thing I should add though... The oldest bucks often have a knack for finding spots where you would never think to look... You gotta think outside the box.


this is what i was going to say...

i just look at topos and say ok i expected the bedding to be here there and cut everything else out .....but if it looks good then i walk it anyways ..... lots of boot rubber burned
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:29 am

kenn1320 wrote:
I mark a map into sections small enough that I can completly scout every inch of a section within a few hours.


Dan, give a rough example of the size of a section you would cover in 2hrs. Id bet most of us run thru an area compared to you, would be nice to have something to compare to. Maybe an example of how many acres per hour in each type of terrain?


This was exactly my next question...
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Re: Finding beds wth boot leather..

Unread postby GRFox » Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:46 pm

Great thread......

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