Primary buck beds

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ERICBROOKS
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby ERICBROOKS » Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:47 am

I found a great primary buck bedding area this week.
I had thought I found the best bedding a few weeks ago on the military crest, but it turns out it was just secondary and doe bedding.
These primary beds are up high on the point/hill just across the fence on public.
Behind the beds is 20’-30’ feet of thick brush, the fence and a several hundred acre CRP field that is private.

The way this lays out I’m confident they are bedding there with multiple wind directions.

Exit trails lead to a big scrape 45 yds downhill from the farthest beds with rubs scattered along the way.
After leaving the first big scrape, there is 2 primary directions a of travel, one leading to several more scrapes within 100yds.

I prepped a tree overlooking the second bunch of scrapes.
The best part I found 5 sheds in the area, the biggest was on a exit trail and measures 65” with the brow tine missing!!


ERICBROOKS
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby ERICBROOKS » Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:57 am

Beds Image
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dan
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:29 pm

Great find Eric... Has to have you pumped for this fall.
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby rfickes87 » Sat Jun 16, 2018 11:34 am

Bump and WOW for Eric. :shock:
"Pressure and Time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure, and time..."
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby Bonehead82 » Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:39 pm

Great info! I do have a couple of things that are still a little unclear to a degree. I am in hill country (SW PA) our predominate wind here is from the SW. I hunt a lot of steep topography here in the mountains. Probably one of the hardest things for me to find is the defined points that I see in some of the DVD's and YouTube videos. A lot of these hills run for miles without these points. In these cases I try to find that sweet elevation line that's holding the best sign. What's odd, is that where I am finding it is not the top 1/3. Its much lower. I rarely ever stumble on to a dozen beds blasted down in one spot. When I do find a point, its usually long and more gradual, if that makes any sense. I usually do find them on the north faces which makes sense on the south wind. Our window here is always swirling and changing directions. If you stand in one spot, its not uncommon to feel 3 wind shifts in 15 minutes. When I do find the best beds, they're usually 1 or 2 spaced out between 70-80 yards around the gradual point, just above the creek at the bottom on the crest of the hill looking down at the creek, wind to back. I find a lot of these on rock ledges that's almost a small highwall. In cases like these what would you consider primary? Would you just look at the most worn in bed on the north face and assume its primary being that its on the leeward side of the prevailing wind?
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Sun Jun 17, 2018 1:28 am

Bonehead82 wrote:Great info! I do have a couple of things that are still a little unclear to a degree. I am in hill country (SW PA) our predominate wind here is from the SW. I hunt a lot of steep topography here in the mountains. Probably one of the hardest things for me to find is the defined points that I see in some of the DVD's and YouTube videos. A lot of these hills run for miles without these points. In these cases I try to find that sweet elevation line that's holding the best sign. What's odd, is that where I am finding it is not the top 1/3. Its much lower. I rarely ever stumble on to a dozen beds blasted down in one spot. When I do find a point, its usually long and more gradual, if that makes any sense. I usually do find them on the north faces which makes sense on the south wind. Our window here is always swirling and changing directions. If you stand in one spot, its not uncommon to feel 3 wind shifts in 15 minutes. When I do find the best beds, they're usually 1 or 2 spaced out between 70-80 yards around the gradual point, just above the creek at the bottom on the crest of the hill looking down at the creek, wind to back. I find a lot of these on rock ledges that's almost a small highwall. In cases like these what would you consider primary? Would you just look at the most worn in bed on the north face and assume its primary being that its on the leeward side of the prevailing wind?

In some areas and/or terrains its much hard to find primary, and much harder to tell if its primary. I know places that have excellent primary bedding but try finding those beds or determining what they are... I can do it cause of how long I have been at this, but in some cases even I struggle. My suggestion would be if your unsure throw a hunt or two at it and see what happens... The spots I have been unsure about that have turned out primary, I figured out by hunting, or at least confirmed thru hunting.
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Sun Jun 17, 2018 1:30 am

Also... In rolling hills that are not as steep and don't have a defined military crest buck bedding is often found much lower.
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby Bonehead82 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 2:11 pm

I will do exactly that. Thanks Dan, Appreciate the feedback!
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby <DK> » Sat Jun 23, 2018 2:58 am

ERICBROOKS wrote:Beds Image
Image


Great find!! Looks like an awesome spot. Congrats! :clap:
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby crossfitcarpenter » Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:42 pm

dan wrote:
I don't find many buck beds in the "obvious" buck bed locations, such as: points, or islands. It seems the beds are always a ways off of them in islotated spots.

I do find some great bedding off points, islands and other obvious spots if they are isolated and do not recieve much pressure. Island bedding is usualy not on the island, but rather on a transition where the island tapers off into the cattails in brush within the cattails. Same with points. Maybe your marsh is getting more pressure?


Super old thread but so on a peninsula jutting out into the swamp the beds are on the entrance? on an island they will be in transition to swamp or marsh?
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:17 am

crossfitcarpenter wrote:
dan wrote:
I don't find many buck beds in the "obvious" buck bed locations, such as: points, or islands. It seems the beds are always a ways off of them in islotated spots.

I do find some great bedding off points, islands and other obvious spots if they are isolated and do not recieve much pressure. Island bedding is usualy not on the island, but rather on a transition where the island tapers off into the cattails in brush within the cattails. Same with points. Maybe your marsh is getting more pressure?


Super old thread but so on a peninsula jutting out into the swamp the beds are on the entrance? on an island they will be in transition to swamp or marsh?

Its dependent on how the cover lays out... The best ones are usually beyond the point in the swamp close to9 the point, but yo9u should probably find satellite beds on the point itself to.
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby Ognennyy » Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:11 am

dan wrote:
crossfitcarpenter wrote:
dan wrote:
I don't find many buck beds in the "obvious" buck bed locations, such as: points, or islands. It seems the beds are always a ways off of them in islotated spots.

I do find some great bedding off points, islands and other obvious spots if they are isolated and do not recieve much pressure. Island bedding is usualy not on the island, but rather on a transition where the island tapers off into the cattails in brush within the cattails. Same with points. Maybe your marsh is getting more pressure?


Super old thread but so on a peninsula jutting out into the swamp the beds are on the entrance? on an island they will be in transition to swamp or marsh?

Its dependent on how the cover lays out... The best ones are usually beyond the point in the swamp close to9 the point, but yo9u should probably find satellite beds on the point itself to.



Dan I remember one of your Q&A sessions where Mario talked about how he got too aggressive on a hunt last fall, and pushed too far up onto a peninsula. The deer were bedded much closer to the "mainland" than Mario had expected because it was still early season, and there was still plenty of cover to be had. As a result they heard his approach and never came his way.

With that in mind what are your thoughts on an island like this one? I'm referring to the large one jutting to the NW out into the marsh, with the measure distance line drawn across it. To the South of this marsh is a 40 acre alfalfa field that I know deer and turkey frequent during the late summer and fall. This is private land.

The first image was taken in early fall before leaf drop. The second one was taken in March and you can see that the whole peninsula is evergreen.

Is it possible that the deer will not even bother moving onto the island during early season? I could see them using it during severe weather or after leaf drop for the cover of evergreens. Might they prefer to bed in closer proximity to the field to the South? It being private land, surely the deer feel more secure and are slightly lazier than public land deer.

Unfortunately I am not going to be able to get boots on the ground for a scout prior to the season. Originally my thoughts were to set up on the southern edge of the peninsula, right at the intersection of where the line of evergreens coming out meets the edge of the mash on the west, and the hardwoods on the south (tip of the red arrow in the picture). But remembering your podcast has me second guessing this strategy.

Image

Image
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Tue Jul 10, 2018 4:06 am

I will have to look at this at home... your Images are blocked at work. With Marios hunt, they were bedding on the point, I think that was his opening day hunt? The point though, was in cattails, and in water. Bedding beyond that point would be bedding in water. The bucks there are bedding on humps bout of the water and around the bases of trees. Hard ground points are different... That actually brings up a topic I really don't think we ever went into depth on, the differences of points.
If you were watching closely, on a hunt a few days after that one, he did not get a big ten that was bedding off the point (dry land) in the swamp at the 1st transition (wet) cause he set up to close and the buck used the wind to come into the point and busted him. On both hunts he needed to be just a little bit further back... He was only 15 / 20 yards off on his set up.... Next time.
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby Ognennyy » Thu Jul 12, 2018 7:34 am

Ognennyy wrote:
dan wrote:
crossfitcarpenter wrote:
dan wrote:
I don't find many buck beds in the "obvious" buck bed locations, such as: points, or islands. It seems the beds are always a ways off of them in islotated spots.

I do find some great bedding off points, islands and other obvious spots if they are isolated and do not recieve much pressure. Island bedding is usualy not on the island, but rather on a transition where the island tapers off into the cattails in brush within the cattails. Same with points. Maybe your marsh is getting more pressure?


Super old thread but so on a peninsula jutting out into the swamp the beds are on the entrance? on an island they will be in transition to swamp or marsh?

Its dependent on how the cover lays out... The best ones are usually beyond the point in the swamp close to9 the point, but yo9u should probably find satellite beds on the point itself to.



Dan I remember one of your Q&A sessions where Mario talked about how he got too aggressive on a hunt last fall, and pushed too far up onto a peninsula. The deer were bedded much closer to the "mainland" than Mario had expected because it was still early season, and there was still plenty of cover to be had. As a result they heard his approach and never came his way.

With that in mind what are your thoughts on an island like this one? I'm referring to the large one jutting to the NW out into the marsh, with the measure distance line drawn across it. To the South of this marsh is a 40 acre alfalfa field that I know deer and turkey frequent during the late summer and fall. This is private land.

The first image was taken in early fall before leaf drop. The second one was taken in March and you can see that the whole peninsula is evergreen.

Is it possible that the deer will not even bother moving onto the island during early season? I could see them using it during severe weather or after leaf drop for the cover of evergreens. Might they prefer to bed in closer proximity to the field to the South? It being private land, surely the deer feel more secure and are slightly lazier than public land deer.

Unfortunately I am not going to be able to get boots on the ground for a scout prior to the season. Originally my thoughts were to set up on the southern edge of the peninsula, right at the intersection of where the line of evergreens coming out meets the edge of the mash on the west, and the hardwoods on the south (tip of the red arrow in the picture). But remembering your podcast has me second guessing this strategy.

Image

Image



Thoughts, anyone?
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Re: Primary buck beds

Unread postby dan » Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:41 pm

Ognennyy wrote:
Ognennyy wrote:
dan wrote:
crossfitcarpenter wrote:
dan wrote:
I don't find many buck beds in the "obvious" buck bed locations, such as: points, or islands. It seems the beds are always a ways off of them in islotated spots.

I do find some great bedding off points, islands and other obvious spots if they are isolated and do not recieve much pressure. Island bedding is usualy not on the island, but rather on a transition where the island tapers off into the cattails in brush within the cattails. Same with points. Maybe your marsh is getting more pressure?


Super old thread but so on a peninsula jutting out into the swamp the beds are on the entrance? on an island they will be in transition to swamp or marsh?

Its dependent on how the cover lays out... The best ones are usually beyond the point in the swamp close to9 the point, but yo9u should probably find satellite beds on the point itself to.



Dan I remember one of your Q&A sessions where Mario talked about how he got too aggressive on a hunt last fall, and pushed too far up onto a peninsula. The deer were bedded much closer to the "mainland" than Mario had expected because it was still early season, and there was still plenty of cover to be had. As a result they heard his approach and never came his way.

With that in mind what are your thoughts on an island like this one? I'm referring to the large one jutting to the NW out into the marsh, with the measure distance line drawn across it. To the South of this marsh is a 40 acre alfalfa field that I know deer and turkey frequent during the late summer and fall. This is private land.

The first image was taken in early fall before leaf drop. The second one was taken in March and you can see that the whole peninsula is evergreen.

Is it possible that the deer will not even bother moving onto the island during early season? I could see them using it during severe weather or after leaf drop for the cover of evergreens. Might they prefer to bed in closer proximity to the field to the South? It being private land, surely the deer feel more secure and are slightly lazier than public land deer.

Unfortunately I am not going to be able to get boots on the ground for a scout prior to the season. Originally my thoughts were to set up on the southern edge of the peninsula, right at the intersection of where the line of evergreens coming out meets the edge of the mash on the west, and the hardwoods on the south (tip of the red arrow in the picture). But remembering your podcast has me second guessing this strategy.

Image

Image



Thoughts, anyone?

Your pics are real small and hard to see.... But, 1st place I would look based on what I can see is that little finger strait south from your yellow measure line across the cattails. I would bet the mouth of that where it enters the woods is a great spot if it has not been molested. Im sure there is spots around that peninsala too, but I would start on the 1st marsh woods transition before walking past it.


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