Finding Beds..

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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cornfedkiller
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Finding Beds..

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:42 am

I have a question or two about how to go about finding beds while scouting. The land I hunt has some swampy stuff, but its not really like the marshes described on the marsh bucks movie. A lot of it is either cattails on the edge of ponds, or swampy stuff that is wet (knee deep water). Anyways, its really not hilly at all either, so Im having trouble trying to figure out where the beds are. I have not got a chance to scout this hard in the spring, and not wanting to disturb everything this time of year, I am more or less just trying to figure out where they'd be by aerial photos and what I know about the land. Anyways, this brings up a few questions I have:

While scouting in the spring, while there is still snow on the ground, Im assuming it will be easier to follow tracks, trails, etc to beds..(into/out of swamps maybe, etc)..The thing Im wondering about is, will a buck thats using that bed in the spring still be using it come sept/oct? The issue is that one of the food sources is on the west side of the property - so it would make sense that a buck would be bedded nearby during the summer/early fall, BUT, come december-april, there is no food there, so wouldnt he move to a different bed (area) and not even necessarily visit that bed he had in the summer? So how would you find where he is bedding then?

Thanks guys! You have been a ton of help so far!


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Swampthing
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby Swampthing » Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:16 am

I would say depending on maturity of buck and pressure on land.And # of safe bedding areas.He would bed closer to food only if he has acceptable bedding,otherwise he will cover the distance in order to have his safe zone.Remember it does,nt take much of an area to hold a big buck sometimes the area is as small as a single tree or a small clump of brush.Sometimes they are obvios with a rubline and faint or even heavy trail leading to the bed but other times,actually most of the time you'll be hard pressed to find much sign at all .
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby mcmidc » Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:22 pm

In my experience in thicker swampier areas it can be a bit harder to find bedding areas. You really have to look a little harder because there may not be obvious signs of exactly where you should look. I think that following tracks after first snow could lead you to some beds. Although you may screw it up for that year, you'll know for next year where they are. And it's possible that they are using those bedding areas earlier in the season too if it's one of the better bedding areas in that particular swamp. Otherwise look for slight changes in terrain within the swamp, and check around these areas for beds. Or where you may find some higher spots because a buck will bed on a bit of higher ground within that swamp.
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby dan » Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:30 pm

I would look along the edge of the wet area where it transitions to dry, and I would look for high spots out in the wet areas.

If you wait till after the snow melts but before green up you will be able to find both early and late beds... Often the best buck beds for mature animals get used all year. But not always. You really need to walk every inch of land after snow melt...
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:01 am

dan wrote: If you wait till after the snow melts but before green up you will be able to find both early and late beds... Often the best buck beds for mature animals get used all year. But not always. You really need to walk every inch of land after snow melt...

How do you determine if the bed is used all year or just seasonaly?
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby RaisedByWolves » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:41 pm

cornfedkiller...i also hunt a large public swamp that has every variety of nasty there is to offer like bogs, willowbrush, thickets with rivers and creeks, deep water holes, cattail marsh, cedar swamp and far off oak ridges...there are so many transitions of swamp/swamp and woods/swamp that a guy doesn't know where to start.

i always wonder which type of swamp terrain might hold the best big buck bedding? and will i be able to walk around when everything is "frozen" and scout effectively without breaking through into water? i know there are some very large bucks that roam this area and it will probably take days of scouting to find a few primary big buck beds. But its all i think about :D
Dan, have you or anyone else scouted an area that varies so much?? if so, what tips do you have to be the most effective? do you ever fall through the ice in any of your spots??
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby dan » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:47 pm

Dan, have you or anyone else scouted an area that varies so much?? if so, what tips do you have to be the most effective? do you ever fall through the ice in any of your spots??

Generally I take a Topo and graph the property and will scout every area of the graph a section at a time...I will get into that more in the next DVD

Even in the coldest weather you break thru the ice in some places. Rotting vegetation heats up under the ice and makes thin spots. Sometimes you just gotta get wet.
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby RaisedByWolves » Fri Oct 15, 2010 1:12 pm

yeah i think i will put my gps to work hard this winter, i am definitly okay with getting wet if a big buck beds lies at the end of the track! Any idea when that DVD might be coming out? :-) Pat
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby dan » Fri Oct 15, 2010 1:38 pm

Next spring hopefully.
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby Dor » Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:31 pm

Whats the theme gonna be Dan?
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:40 am

Thanks for the help..that clears some things up..Now I have a few more questions:

1) So do beds get used by multiple animals, or is the bed only ever used by the buck that "made" it? If there are 5 big bucks on my property, do they all have a few beds, or do they use each others? If so, does this happen on a day-to-day basis (like Buck A beds there monday, but Buck B might be there tuesday), or is this more of a seasonal/timing thing (Buck A for 3 weeks in Sept, Buck B might be there now in October)? Or if I kill a buck, might a new buck be using that bed again the following season?

2) When setting up on beds in the woods (like on hill country dvd) or beds just on the edge of swamps (basically anything but the buck bedding out in a swamp), when these bucks get up out of their bed in the evening, do they just wander around the "staging area" maybe browsing or something until dark or whenever they are heading to the food source, or do they just get up and head out to the field, and you better hope he is gonna head the direction you are set up for?

And lastly, as BlackSquirrel said, how do you determine if the bed is used all year or just seasonally?
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby dan » Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:55 am

1) So do beds get used by multiple animals, or is the bed only ever used by the buck that "made" it? If there are 5 big bucks on my property, do they all have a few beds, or do they use each others? If so, does this happen on a day-to-day basis (like Buck A beds there monday, but Buck B might be there tuesday), or is this more of a seasonal/timing thing (Buck A for 3 weeks in Sept, Buck B might be there now in October)? Or if I kill a buck, might a new buck be using that bed again the following season?

good primary buck beds are usually used by multiple bucks. I have seen some beds that only one animal uses, but not often. There seems to be a "pecking order" of dominant animals. The biggest buck gets to bed where ever he wants... The lesser bucks will rise and leave if a more dominant animal comes along and don't allow him there. buck Bedding areas with multiple beds spread out seem to tolerate multiple bucks more often.
My scouting in a nutshell basically revolves around finding all the big buck beds in the area, or at least as many as I can locate. And then scouting the animals themselves by using trail cameras, bino's, spotlights, track's, and deer sign to tell me where the bucks are moving just after dark and just before light so I can speculate which beds the buck I am after is currently using. Really, there are only so many big buck bedding areas, so if you know a big buck is coming from a certain area just after dark or heading in there just before daylight, and you have located and mapped out the buck bedding in that area, it should be a simple task of hunting each of the buck bedding areas in that area till you get your opportunity.
Thats also another form of stacking... If you have 6 bedding areas the buck could be using by hunting in a way to only taint the ones you hunt till you get to the last one you ensure the buck won't want to bed where you have left your scent and your odds will increase as you count down towards the last bed... You do need to hunt bucks quickly though, as they can change bedding areas and feeding patterns frequently.

2) When setting up on beds in the woods (like on hill country dvd) or beds just on the edge of swamps (basically anything but the buck bedding out in a swamp), when these bucks get up out of their bed in the evening, do they just wander around the "staging area" maybe browsing or something until dark or whenever they are heading to the food source, or do they just get up and head out to the field, and you better hope he is gonna head the direction you are set up for?

My experience is they browse around the safe zone slowly moving towards there destination... It seems to be a fairly straight line most of the time. They generally move pretty slow.

And lastly, as BlackSquirrel said, how do you determine if the bed is used all year or just seasonally?

To me its usually pretty obvious. If the cover will be gone when the leaves drop, or the grass flattens, its probably temporary.
If its got good cover and protection year round and the bed is worn to the dirt, year round is likely.
Sometimes your going to be wrong. Sometimes your going to be right. But you just gotta trust your instincts with some of this stuff, and after a while you will get really good at it.
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cornfedkiller
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:20 am

dan wrote:My experience is they browse around the safe zone slowly moving towards there destination... It seems to be a fairly straight line most of the time. They generally move pretty slow.


So if you know where the buck is bedding, and you know he is feeding in a field to the west right after dark, it probably doesnt even pay to set up on the east side of him?
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby dan » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:24 am

So if you know where the buck is bedding, and you know he is feeding in a field to the west right after dark, it probably doesnt even pay to set up on the east side of him?

Probably not...
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Re: Finding Beds..

Unread postby mcmidc » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:45 am

dan wrote:
So if you know where the buck is bedding, and you know he is feeding in a field to the west right after dark, it probably doesnt even pay to set up on the east side of him?

Probably not...


My 2 cents.... In my very limited amount of scouting and hunting buck beds I have also found that you can get a sense on which way he's moving by the direction of his rubs in his staging areas. If the rubs are facing the bed he's heading that way after rising in the evening. If the rubs are facing away from the bed he may be coming back in that way in the morning. Just some food for thought. ;)


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