Bedding in relation to natural or man made barriers

[buckeye]

The majority of my hill country hunting is done in reclaimed strip mines. In this topography with strip mine and strip pits, I see the most bedding locations on the very top with both the prevailing winds and thermals blowing / rising towards the deers face with the highwall drop off barriers to their backs.

How much does this relate in your experiences to say river, lakes, drop off cliffs (or any barrier for that matter) in hill country? Do you see the deer bedded backed up to the barriers in those instances as well or does it not translate from strip mine country?

I would like to see if we can get some discussion with bedding in any topography in relation to natural or man made barriers.

[DaveT1963]

I have seen deer bedded right behind a rock fence, golf course shack, concrete spill way, between lanes of a divided highway, etc. I don't think deer really think about it much - if it is a safe place, offers them what they want and need, and they don't get harassed then they might very well bed there - without any regard to whether its natural or man made - IMHO and experience.

[TNstalker]

I started looking at beds the same way. When I find a bed I start looking at how many barriers are present at the Bucks bed an what sense do they incorporate at the bed. To me it seems the more barriers present at the bed the more use it gets. Barries can be all kinds of things to me a body of water a bluff or rock wall thick brush open timber an so on. The more at looked at barriers present at the bed the better the the sign was at or leading to the bed. I feel like multiple barriers at a bed make it harder for a predator to get in on a buck with out alerting one of his sense making it a good spot. Also figuring in no constant human intrusion too. I haven't found many spots where the buck has the wind blowing in there face but I don't have steep cliffs near me either.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[woody-san]

I scouted this weekend and found a bed out on the tip of a finger ridge. This ridge is literally 20 yards wide and runs West to East, with the tip being to the East. At the tip, it steeply drops down to a substantial lake. Off to the sides the drop is more gradual, there's even a nice bench off one side that would likely provide one of the few potential ambush locations. Interestingly, though it's steep off the ridge tip (a barely traversable 40-50 foot drop) the buck has a clear back door trail that goes down to the lake and connects to another part of that parcel that has a ton of doe bedding.

I'm guessing the buck beds with his back to the steep drop off, probably because nothing comes from that direction, and looks back towards the base of the ridge. Also, with our winds usually having some sort of Western component, he likely gets an awful lot of scent info from his more vulnerable direction. In addition, that lake to his back probably provides some sort of thermal action that sucks wind into his face. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure the buck cares much what the prevailing wind is doing, it's a good bed regardless, just better with a prevailing Westerly. The ridge and all adjacent ridges are covered in red oaks, so if they're dropping there's little reason for that buck to stray very far.

The only way I think this guy could be hunted is off to the side of the ridge. Thought the prevailing wind would be best if it had little to no westerly component, I think the thermal action is the big deal to hunting this spot. One may be able to use the topography to let the thermal draw their scent down an adjacent draw, but then one might be dealing with a 30+ yard shot to the major trail heading down the top of the ridge. Another option would be hunting the back door that goes down to the lake, maybe on a hot day he could be caught getting a drink?

[Josh_S]

My parents have a small 8 acre streamside property that I use a handful of times each year for fishing and cookouts...As my interest for hunting grew, I decided to put up a trail camera over a corn pile during summer to see what was there. We had an old barn on the property that was damaged from a fallen tree and needed to be torn down eventually. One day I decided to go and pull my camera and weedeat. As I approached the barn, out the open door runs an 8 point in velvet! Trail camera pictures revealed this buck was a regular at the corn pile. I'm sure the close proximity to the corn had something to do with his choice of bed even if it was temporary. But also there was no human scent in an abandoned barn with a huge pine tree through the roof. From my personal experience, this is the strangest place I have seen a buck bed.