So, I believe I found my first real buck bed since starting to target them with the intent of hunting BEAST style a time or two. I've located them in the past and set up accordingly, but not so much as a philosophy of killing him so close to his bed.
The rub on the right was the only one in the immediate vicinity - but I did find significant sign within 50-100 yards of this bed with larger rubs en route to a scrape from this bed. The bed had a fair amount of hair in it.
The water levels were like this through half of the woodlot I scouted...but the woods were largely open - I'd say 75% of what that buck could see was open woods at that spot. The only real cover was some interior marshy reeds and brush to the N and corn when it was there to the S. It really seemed "too" out in the open to me for this spot as there were other locations I thought would have been better for the buck. The ground is flat...the minor grade change causes the low level flooding you see. It is about 1 foot deep.
I could not explore W of this spot because of property lines. What I do know is that there is a trail leading to a scrape...a giant scrape...actually the largest I have ever seen. I had my hunting partner lay down, stretch out arms, and it was longer than that. Here's a crappy aerial.
Red is accessible hunting land...can't access outside it.
Yellow is water via a creek or ditch. Ditch in field is deep I can be in the creek and be below the field by a few feet. Creek in woods is about 5 yards wide and suprisingly deep - I would need waders to cross.
Orange is buck bed and known travel path on accesible property. Path is about as well worn as I have ever seen - but it appears to be a straight line from the bed to the scrape. Rubs indicate travel toward the scrape.
Green is scrape.
Blue is the current standing water area....don't know when or how long it is like this during hunting season.
Pinksh dot line is a worn travel lane that appears to be does/fawns based on tracks. Spotted a couple acorn trees on field edge where they stop to eat.
Wind is primarily from S or W or some combination thereof.
I'm questioning if I can get to the scrape and set up without blowing up the woods...it's somewhat open between the scrape and the bed area although fall may give me some leaf cover. I was unable to definitively locate any doe bedding areas on this parcel - I'm thinking come fall the wind from the S lets that buck check does on the trail and in the standing corn. Field to the W of lot was short row crop...I think beans this past year. No sign at the SW corner of the woodlot where the wood, corn, and beans meet.
So...parking is best on the south side due to traffic and farm operations on the E side. I can jump into the ditch and walk it. I assume I take the long route to the northern boundary and then directly walk W into the lot. I may be able to be dropped off so I can just walk in west from the east side to save me some time. Maybe set up NE of the scrape area within shooting distance if I think I can get in that far?
