How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasional)

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Stanley
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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:26 am

I agree, great learning thread.


You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby dan » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:27 am

I wanted to show a bedding feature that I look for in large swamps for the upcoming DVD so I traveled to a big swamp saturday and navigated an hour thru water and muck to get to a remote patch of dogwood... It was obviously primary bedding and I was blown away by the sign... The bedding area was probably close to 4 acres of dogwood with hundreds of beds that were located under tamerack trees. The rubs going in and out of the bedding area were huge, one was bigger around than me. Primary scrapes where bed exits intersected were still being used and had 4 finger tracks in them. I looked up and right out in the open was a pretty decent buck skull, I walked over to look at it and it had been there so long half the skull was under ground along with the rest of the skeleton, telling me nobody has been back there...

I walked into the bedding area and it sounded like a stampede sloshing out the other side....
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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby hunter10 » Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:06 pm

I wanted to show a bedding feature that I look for in large swamps for the upcoming DVD so I traveled to a big swamp saturday and navigated an hour thru water and muck to get to a remote patch of dogwood... It was obviously primary bedding and I was blown away by the sign... The bedding area was probably close to 4 acres of dogwood with hundreds of beds that were located under tamerack trees. The rubs going in and out of the bedding area were huge, one was bigger around than me. Primary scrapes where bed exits intersected were still being used and had 4 finger tracks in them. I looked up and right out in the open was a pretty decent buck skull, I walked over to look at it and it had been there so long half the skull was under ground along with the rest of the skeleton, telling me nobody has been back there...

I walked into the bedding area and it sounded like a stampede sloshing out the other side....


Is this a location you have known about but never hunted? sounds like a great spot and learning segment, whether it makes it to the DVD or not its nice knowing you will put that much effort into the simple fact of helping others
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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby Justin85 » Tue Apr 07, 2015 2:18 pm

I can't say from experience hunting them yet, but I've located a few places that had several rubs,beds, and even found a shed, and the places smelled like a barnyard from urine and droppings.

Anxious to see how they play out this fall.

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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby dan » Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:14 pm

Is this a location you have known about but never hunted? sounds like a great spot and learning segment, whether it makes it to the DVD or not its nice knowing you will put that much effort into the simple fact of helping others

I new about the area, but have not hunted in much or scouted it much... That needs to change.
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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby Jphunter » Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:45 pm

Zona wrote:What I am finding on Pennsylvania public ground is that most of the beds will not be worn to the dirt. In our hill country here the bucks have many choices for prime bedding. I am finding 4 or 5 used beds rather than one worn to the dirt bed.


This is what I find in the areas I hunt where they have a lot of options to bed and the deer densities are a little lower.

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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby Jphunter » Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:54 pm

Hunter pressure can also limit the number of options for bedding. I have found some of my best bedding areas so far in areas that get more pressure.

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Re: How do you determine a buck beds use (primary vs occasio

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:15 pm

I think the best way to determine the difference between primary and occasional bedding is find quite a few different spots and you will begin to notice differences in quantity of sign and other indicators for the best bedding versus everything else.

Often its not just one thing you can put your finger on, but if I had to pick something most of the time has to do with how secure the bedding is. If I have to say to myself "how the heck can I set up on this??" that by itself might be an indicator its a really good spot.

Sometimes its quantity of sign at a primary bedding location but not always. Often the biggest oldest bucks are very solitary critters and don't tear up the woods like 2, 3, or 4 year old bucks. Where I shot a really old buck (6+ y.o.) with my bow last year there was one big primary scrape right off the bedding but very little other sign - rubs or heavy trails or worn beds or anything...just a bed here and a bed there spread out over a larger area. I had walked past that spot for two seasons precisely because there wasn't a lot of sign until I started to think about it and decided that spot simply was the most secure bedding location for a long ways around.

Lastly like Stan said you will not always get it right the first time in...observations over a season or two can really hone your knowledge.


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