What makes it the best?

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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Lockdown
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What makes it the best?

Unread postby Lockdown » Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:53 am

Referring to your best bedding area, what makes it better than any other you've found?

I've got a fair amount of decent bedding located, but one area trumps all the others. When I scouted it last spring with a buddy we both knew it was going to be good. This year was the first season I hunted that particular bedding, and on my first hunt I had an awesome encounter with a big buck.

I've already been back there scouting a few times since muzzleloader season closed, and the day after it closed I jumped what looked like a 3 year old 10 pointer. It's a top notch big buck locale for my area, and here's what makes it stand out from the rest.

1) It is remote
2) Most bow hunters shy away from it due to their fear of bumping deer. There are few trees that are strait enough for a stand, which eliminates 90% of guys.
3) There is enough cover for deer to escape gun pressure. Even if guys orchestrate drives, the deer have a fighting chance... Especially smart old bucks.
4) The deer density here is higher than most areas I hunt.

I'm confident I will have good hunting here until another beast finds it.

Whitetailassassin, I would love to hear details about the bedding where you killed your big one. Specifically, I know you had multiple hunts there... What special circumstances were there that kept these deer in there and you undetected?

Dan and/or Mario, I believe both of you killed big bucks out of the same bedding area this year, and Dan killed out of that bedding last year as well. I understand it is remote... But what else makes that such a special bedding area?


This question is for everyone... Hill country, swamp, farm guys... Everyone has their "best" spot. So what makes it the best?

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DaveT1963
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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:01 am

My best spot is isolated by a lake on the south side, a deep/wide creek on east and west sides and a two mile hike from the north through really thick stuff. I have seen one other person there in the years..... Its a lot of work to get in there.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby Hawthorne » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:12 am

My best bedding area was a 40 acre piece that was on a corner of two semi busy roads. Why I think it was so good was because nobody bothered it and neighbors couldn't hunt on the line because of the roads. Plus it was the thickest piece for two square miles and it had water on it. This was in agriculture Country with about 70% open ground. Only piece in Michigan I've hunted that held mature bucks every year.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby Redman232 » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:26 am

Pretty simple, best bedding area I have to hunt is about 40 yards into a nature preserve. "Hill Country" still on a bedding point, still at military crest, but absolutely no pressure. You can't get to it due to an oxbow on the river. There are no hiking trails on this section of the preserve and it's surrounded on the other two sides by land I can hunt. I only hunt it 1 or 2 times a year. Previous years experience tells me, I need to kill them the first time I see them because they catch on so quick. I unfortunately have not been able to do so yet. One miss and one pass that was a mistake. Only place I have ever hunted with potential to produce a 150'' buck each year.
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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby johndeere506 » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:33 am

Lockdown my best is similar to your description. Mine has a creek, and small cattail section breaking it up also, making it less desirable to hunt for most. It's private land, but gets avoided and they hunt the adjacent fields instead. My land backs up just past where the thick n nasty starts. It's been productive every year for 9 years now.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby Peeps22 » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:43 am

My best bedding area is located within a small, maybe 20 acres, patch of thick, wet, nasty crap. Its always wet in there no matter how dry and people dont penetrate the middle of it. They all sit on the outer edge because theyre afraid to get wet.

On the back half of this is cattails and a little ridge of high ground with red brush in the middle of it. Thats where the bucks are. I make sure not to hunt it until mid october once all of the other hunters push the older, bigger bucks in there.

Alot of the places i hunt its little pockets of no pressure that make the best bedding.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Wed Jan 06, 2016 4:13 am

The biggest reason the area I found was good was because of security and how hard of a location it is to get to. Which walks hand in hand with low pressure in a high pressure area. 99% of guys will not walk that far or go through as much to get there. I also scouted this area and sat a lot of observation sits around it from what I felt was a safe distance and watched over the beds until I started to see daylight movement and a pattern. Once i started seeing that movement, I knew it was time to go in for the kill. I then waited for conditions that allowed me to hunt where I knew he was going to be without being detected. It wasn't the perfect winds but just off winds and thermals were perfect. I also made sure my entrance into this area was not on the suspected entrance and exits of the buck(s) I was after. That can be tricky, but until I went in for the kill, I stayed out and back a safe distance that wouldn't bump the bedding area. I knew that the food sources(corn/beans/acorns) were getting all the pressure and this area was loaded with native browse(redbrush/dogwood/clovertops)and these deer were feeding on them not just browsing. I would watch from observation stands as they would get up out of patches and only make it 40-50 yds in daylight. With our youth season and early doe, mature bucks are already pushed deep into security and safety beds. I believe a small stream I used to enter/exit also kept my ground scent minimal. When you combine security and food(good browse)water, close by your normally into good deer. Learning it for the last few seasons has really paid off. Another thing I attribute to making it a good bedding area is my willingness to pass good deer so they have a chance at becoming mature. I become more of an age class hunter and wanted to see if some of these 2.5-3.5 yr olds would bloom into a buck I'm after. The reason I say 2.5(which would make a buck 3.5 the following year) is because I know 130" deer in my home state is a great animal, it's almost like hitting the lotto and is to many many hunters. I'm not quit at the level to pass 130" and above deer yet(nor do I ever think I will be in my home state). And mature deer are 4.5 to me.

Water levels also plays a huge role in where they bed. Some years the rain is high and some of these beds in this area aren't high enough to remain dry. When it's dry it's harder to pinpoint. They bed in some of these beds, and they are non wind specific, because they use nose and ears more because thermals pull to these locations and its noisy in the marsh(water/cattails) so they rarely can see until your right on top of them. Now knowing this I use that to my advantage and when winds are higher I can sneak in a push it closer than the typical 70-80 yds away. You mentioned void of big trees or straight trees for stands. I know exactly what you mean because it's like that in this area and I often struggle to get even 12 feet up, but the back cover is scarce. The tree I shot mine out of this year, I literally told myself I was an idiot for being in the place I was because I stuck out like a sore thumb and I felt like an eye sore. This is where discipline to stay still comes in, not one deer even looked up at me, and I shot that buck at 8 steps and at one time he was directly under me.

Another reason I believe this area is so good is because of how the terrain is shaped. Without going into too much detail, all the odds are usually in a deers favor here. The winds almost always tend to be in there favor, which id like to add for those waiting for perfect conditions your window will close, you just need a wind that will work for your set up...off winds are gold mines. They give the illusion of safety to a bucks nose(which he always trusts). The most deadly wind for hunting bedding areas in my opinion.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby Bonecrusher101 » Wed Jan 06, 2016 6:30 am

I've yet to find a spot like this. Everytime I go scouting I'm looking for an area like this to get excited about. I honestly have never killed a buck in the same stand/ spot ever. Every hunting season I go revisit spots I've had previous success in with little results. I've killed 10 bucks over the last 6 seasons on public land and have yet to have any repeat kills.

This is the thing about the beast style hunting that I haven't been able to completely figure out.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby Lockdown » Wed Jan 06, 2016 8:12 am

whitetailassasin wrote:I also scouted this area and sat a lot of observation sits around it from what I felt was a safe distance and watched over the beds until I started to see daylight movement and a pattern.
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How close to bedding did you get when observing?

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:27 am

Most of the time it was 150 yds or more. I get as far away as I can, but still see the bedding area. I also sit in areas I don't expect the target animal to make it to by dark so I can slip out as well. I need to see daylight movement, that's the purpose of sitting an observation stand so far enough back you don't alert him but close enough to visually see him.

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Re: What makes it the best?

Unread postby DaHunter » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:32 am

Great thread! The common theme seems to be unpressured spots (even if very small) where the bucks has all or most of the advantages. Common sense...yet, so many hunters (including myself) end up in stands that have a low(er) chance for success. I need to do a better job of thinking like a mature buck and doing whatever it takes to outsmart him. Easier said than done.

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