Bed Question

[ttsbuck]

Last week I was scouting a tamarack swamp and came across a bed. It was on a small piece of elevated ground. One direction is covered with standing water as beavers built a dam causing the area to flood. The opposite direction leads to acorns and other browse. I did find some pretty good rubs along the trail from the bed to the food source. There was very little hair in the bed and the bed appeared to have not been used in several months. My question, if a buck used this bed last fall will he return to it again this coming fall ? If the buck that used it is dead can I expect a different buck to use it ?

[Brad]

That might be a bed that gets used based on the acorn crop in the area, and when there are no acorns, it might be cold. Depending on the pressure and location it very well may get used each year regardless of the food sources. Big bucks like to bed in an area that offers security above everything else. Often times a buck will use the same bed year after year, and if he dies, other bucks will most likely take it over. When your in a bed stop and think why they want to use that particular place, and most bucks will use that same logic.

Now with that said, I would not have been able to give you that answer 6 months ago, I picked every single tidbit of info in that from this site!

[Swampthing]

I was gonna answer and then I read Brads post and decided it was already answered intelligently, good post Brad.

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[Singing Bridge]

Last week I was scouting a tamarack swamp and came across a bed. It was on a small piece of elevated ground. One direction is covered with standing water as beavers built a dam causing the area to flood. The opposite direction leads to acorns and other browse. I did find some pretty good rubs along the trail from the bed to the food source. There was very little hair in the bed and the bed appeared to have not been used in several months. My question, if a buck used this bed last fall will he return to it again this coming fall ? If the buck that used it is dead can I expect a different buck to use it ?

A good question and a great reply from Brad.

I want to caution against getting too "singular" here with regard to the bed in question. Even when you narrow a time frame down to a specific week, there is an excellent chance that a buck is using multiple beds in any given area... it is very important to attempt to find the location of all the nearby bedding locations for the buck. Some beds are very wind specific (the buck uses the bed with a certain wind direction(s). Keep up the scouting and learning of the area, while being careful to not overhunt any particular bed next fall.

Even "primary" buck beds that older bucks use quite a bit throughout the year are not "exclusive" beds, in that they never bed anywhere else. The trick is figuring out when the buck is using the bed in question followed by making your move... do you need to hunt when the nearby acorns are dropping? Even if they are, are there specific weather conditions that need to be present for the buck to bed there in that particular location? Can you get set up without tipping the buck off? Are you close enough to the bed with your set up to see daytime movement? Food for thought...

There is a good chance that even if the buck is gone, another one will begin using the bed... but like everything else in deer hunting, stay away from thinking "always" and "every time". I have had some excellent beds go dry despite a lack of hunting pressure.

[headgear]

Very good advice above. What you soon learn when hunting beast style is the bucks actual bed is just one piece of the puzzle. It is very often one of the larger peices of the puzzle but you need to fit everything together to get a shot opportunity.

I can think of a perfect example last year, the wind was a little too much in my favor but it was prime time I wanted to get into one of my honey holes in a bad way. The buck was very much in the area as I found fresh tracks, scrapes, and rubs all over the place and I just needed to slip in and hunt his staging area. Well the wind and buck outsmarted me, he bedded about 100 yards away from his usual spot and I jumped him up on the way in. We scared the crap out of each I am pretty sure of that. I never got a good luck at him but he had the track of a nice buck. Live and learn and apply what you know to the next hunt.

[dan]

Excellent answers guys!

[ttsbuck]

Thanks guys. The standing water is to the west and the food source is northeast. My approach would be from the north and I have a tree ready about 60 yds from the bed. The terrain is wet enough and there is plenty of thick cover so my approach will be silent and unseen. I figure with the right wind that this could work out september can't get here soon enough.

[straitnarrow]

Every reply is outstanding...very helpful. Don't want to jack the thread but....dose water always help seems to me it can almost be more of a cause of noise than ground I know it helps with sent but it also causes an echo and sometimes a suction sound.

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[Brad]

Water can be tricky to access through if it is all over, but if you have water behind the bed or in front of it, makes it real easy to pin point where they will exit from and likely one of the reasons they are bedding there because they can count out anything coming in from the water side, and if something does, they will know about it.

[straitnarrow]

Right on thanks for your post brad.

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[dan]

Water itself does not have to be noisy. If you move your feet in and out slow you can keep noise down. You have more issues with muck and suction noise. Sometimes you can lift your feet in certain ways to reduce some of the noise, but in deep sticky muck, it can be fighting a loosing battle.