Scouting the bed after the hunt

[Lockdown]

To me in season intel is the best intel there is. I've got quite a few sets I know I'll only hunt once if I'm unsuccessful. My plan is to take a flashlight and scout the bedding afterwards. Looks for rubs, scrapes, tracks, hair in the bed, etc.

IMO I'm not going to be hurting a thing by storming the bedding since I know I'm not going back. Also it will be a great advantage to check out sign that is there the next spring that wasn't there during my in season post hunt scout. Anyone else ever do this?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Buckshot20]

I plan on doing a lot of this as well

[ Post made via Android ]

[mainebowhunter]

To me in season intel is the best intel there is. I've got quite a few sets I know I'll only hunt once if I'm unsuccessful. My plan is to take a flashlight and scout the bedding afterwards. Looks for rubs, scrapes, tracks, hair in the bed, etc.

IMO I'm not going to be hurting a thing by storming the bedding since I know I'm not going back. Also it will be a great advantage to check out sign that is there the next spring that wasn't there during my in season post hunt scout. Anyone else ever do this?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I did it on Saturday Scouted this area thoroughly in the spring. It was a new urban property I got permission on. Its the one where you could follow a rubline for .5 back to a bedding area. I can hunt this Sept 10th. So I put 3 cameras out and left for a month. 1 doe and 1 lamb, same 2 deer showed on all 3 cams. Walked a woods road that cuts through the property, scouring the ground for big tracks. Found none. So back to the beds I went. The water has dried up and no good tracks. Bucks are not using it A. Because the "swampy" part of is not so swampy, been really dry OR B. Bucks don't use this until later on in the season. No sign of the deer in the beds at all.

So this saves me from wasting any time in this spot until sign or cams tell me..."its time" If trail cams or tracks had told me otherwise...would not have made the trek.

At the same, I went last night to hang a cam, looking for a 4.5yr old buck that I was hoping made it. Well, as I started in, there he was at 100yds feeding on choke cherries. So basically did a quick sweep of some food sources I knew he was using last year and left without hanging a camera. No need. Not going back to check the beds. I know the buck is alive and well. I may hang one later on in the season. But I know where he bedded last year. Know where he liked to feed. The only curve ball is going to be the acorns. And there are a lot of oak trees. So it really can change habits and bedding real fast.

But if I hunt in a couple different spots, and don't seem him. And I have exhausted my observation efforts with cams and sight, you can bet I am going to bust into the beds to see if they have been bedded this year. Then I will know, on an acorn year, deer is not using these beds the same way. I do hope though he has some friends with him.

[PK_]

I scout it the following morning or midday. I find it hard not to miss things in daylight, at night would be really tough for me.

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[Lockdown]

I scout it the following morning or midday. I find it hard not to miss things in daylight, at night would be really tough for me.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I 100% agree daytime would be best. I'm just thinking about the time saving aspect of already being there. Rather than drive back to that spot and have to hike in again.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[whitetailassasin]

It depends on if I'm hunting a single loan bed, or if I'm hunting an area that has multiple beds. It depends also on if I'm seeing fresh tracks in the area and sign. Instead of burn the whole area, I'm more so looking at if he wasn't there where would he be, and what time would I find him in that bedding location. This is where I like using observation stands the most because it allows me to see the bigger picture. He may not have been in that bed but very well could be and should be relatively close. So pushing in only educates him. I would instead mark the bed, hunt it again on a different day, see what you see. Then post season scout it some more and see if you can't piece it together. I personally don't like going to the beds unless I'm dragging one or tracking one, or rainy days where my scent could be washed away.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Lockdown]

It depends on if I'm hunting a single loan bed, or if I'm hunting an area that has multiple beds. It depends also on if I'm seeing fresh tracks in the area and sign. Instead of burn the whole area, I'm more so looking at if he wasn't there where would he be, and what time would I find him in that bedding location. This is where I like using observation stands the most because it allows me to see the bigger picture. He may not have been in that bed but very well could be and should be relatively close. So pushing in only educates him. I would instead mark the bed, hunt it again on a different day, see what you see. Then post season scout it some more and see if you can't piece it together. I personally don't like going to the beds unless I'm dragging one or tracking one, or rainy days where my scent could be washed away.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

My mindset for scouting after the hunt like this is directed toward spots where you KNOW they're going to smell you were there. Poor access spots you feel are burned after one hunt even if you don't go IN the bedding.

Most of my spots I'm not afforded the opportunity to observe... In this case I'm going to throw a stand at it when the time is right for that bedding area. If I don't see anything promising, THEN I feel like I can benefit by scouting the bedding that night. Then when I go back in the spring I will be able to compare my findings.

Since I can't run camera, I feel like this will help figure out when a certain bed(ding area) is being used. Let's say I hunt it Oct 20 and there's already several good rubs in there. Next spring nothing much has changed. I'd say I missed the boat and need to hit it up a couple weeks earlier next year. An oct 20 observation sit will show me "nobody home" (same as a kill sit) but I lack the 1st hand intel by only observing or leaving after the kill sit.

I plan on observing my best primary bedding areas. I will not scout them after hunting, hoping that nothing catches on to the fact that I was there, leaving the door open for the possibility of a future hunt.

WTA you've obviously got your recipe for success figured out, I'm just throwing my angle out there to generate some tactical discussion. Maybe my viewpoint will be changed by the end of the thread???

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[mainebowhunter]

It depends on if I'm hunting a single loan bed, or if I'm hunting an area that has multiple beds. It depends also on if I'm seeing fresh tracks in the area and sign. Instead of burn the whole area, I'm more so looking at if he wasn't there where would he be, and what time would I find him in that bedding location. This is where I like using observation stands the most because it allows me to see the bigger picture. He may not have been in that bed but very well could be and should be relatively close. So pushing in only educates him. I would instead mark the bed, hunt it again on a different day, see what you see. Then post season scout it some more and see if you can't piece it together. I personally don't like going to the beds unless I'm dragging one or tracking one, or rainy days where my scent could be washed away.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

My mindset for scouting after the hunt like this is directed toward spots where you KNOW they're going to smell you were there. Poor access spots you feel are burned after one hunt even if you don't go IN the bedding.

Most of my spots I'm not afforded the opportunity to observe... In this case I'm going to throw a stand at it when the time is right for that bedding area. If I don't see anything promising, THEN I feel like I can benefit by scouting the bedding that night. Then when I go back in the spring I will be able to compare my findings.

Since I can't run camera, I feel like this will help figure out when a certain bed(ding area) is being used. Let's say I hunt it Oct 20 and there's already several good rubs in there. Next spring nothing much has changed. I'd say I missed the boat and need to hit it up a couple weeks earlier next year. An oct 20 observation sit will show me "nobody home" (same as a kill sit) but I lack the 1st hand intel by only observing or leaving after the kill sit.

I plan on observing my best primary bedding areas. I will not scout them after hunting, hoping that nothing catches on to the fact that I was there, leaving the door open for the possibility of a future hunt.

WTA you've obviously got your recipe for success figured out, I'm just throwing my angle out there to generate some tactical discussion. Maybe my viewpoint will be changed by the end of the thread???

[ Post made via iPhone ]

LD - I have been following your thread all along and I kind of see it as best use of your time. Your hunting a lot of brand new scouted spots. Not 5yrs into them. So sitting on the outside of something, hoping its good, counting on sign your found 6mos ago, after you traveled 1.5hr to get there...sitting, not seeing a deer, not identifying any sign that would indicate what your looking for, why would you not investigate and use it as a learning tool? Maybe you start to work your way in and come across sign that tells you where you need to be.

It all comes down to confidence you have in an area. If its brand new, maybe you do burn it for this year. But if you learn something along the way, its a bonus.

Personally, I am a lot more aggressive with properties I don't know than properties I do know well.

[PK_]

I scout it the following morning or midday. I find it hard not to miss things in daylight, at night would be really tough for me.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I 100% agree daytime would be best. I'm just thinking about the time saving aspect of already being there. Rather than drive back to that spot and have to hike in again.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

You know your situation and what would be best. I say next day because most of my hunts are several hours from my house and areweekend trips. So I am generally hunting a bedding area pm and following am. But yea, get in the and see what is what.

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[Stanley]

I scout it the following morning or midday. I find it hard not to miss things in daylight, at night would be really tough for me.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Yeah, looking in the dark is a tough one.

[Lockdown]

WTA after re-reading your post it sank in a little more. I totally agree with your single/multiple beds comment. Keep in mind I hunt a lot of very small properties by some people's standards. My smallest public tract is 30 acres. Around here a square mile (640 acres) is considered HUGE. So with a lot of these properties, they are small and lack bedding structure.... Meaning he is either home or he's on neighboring private land. Some of my properties have one 30-100 yard long point or one tiny island that is buck bedding and the rest of the property lacks structure and doesn't really interest me.

I'm expecting to not see a single deer on roughly half of my sits. So often enough these bedding areas will be vacant. I'm thinking, for me, it is advantageous to go check things out. If I think there is ANY chance of hunting that bedding again that season, I'm not going in.

As far as your comment Maine, I am also an aggressive hunter and you are right a lot of these sets are brand new for 2016. I'm not going to invest a lot of time into them unless something catches my eye on the way in or during the hunt.

I'm still a beginner here, and heading into bedding should accelerate my learning curve.

I don't want it to take me 4 years to find a bedding area isn't panning out if it's possible to figure that out in 2 or 3.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Lockdown]

PK - makes perfect sense to go back the next day if you are making a weekend out of it.


Stan - I'd way rather scout in the daylight. But even though scouting in the dark tough, we all blood trail and find tiny specks of blood at night, and if we can do that we shouldn't have any issues seeing rubs, scrapes, and beds.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[seazofcheeze]

It depends on if I'm hunting a single loan bed, or if I'm hunting an area that has multiple beds. It depends also on if I'm seeing fresh tracks in the area and sign. Instead of burn the whole area, I'm more so looking at if he wasn't there where would he be, and what time would I find him in that bedding location. This is where I like using observation stands the most because it allows me to see the bigger picture. He may not have been in that bed but very well could be and should be relatively close. So pushing in only educates him. I would instead mark the bed, hunt it again on a different day, see what you see. Then post season scout it some more and see if you can't piece it together. I personally don't like going to the beds unless I'm dragging one or tracking one, or rainy days where my scent could be washed away.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

My mindset for scouting after the hunt like this is directed toward spots where you KNOW they're going to smell you were there. Poor access spots you feel are burned after one hunt even if you don't go IN the bedding.

Most of my spots I'm not afforded the opportunity to observe... In this case I'm going to throw a stand at it when the time is right for that bedding area. If I don't see anything promising, THEN I feel like I can benefit by scouting the bedding that night. Then when I go back in the spring I will be able to compare my findings.

Since I can't run camera, I feel like this will help figure out when a certain bed(ding area) is being used. Let's say I hunt it Oct 20 and there's already several good rubs in there. Next spring nothing much has changed. I'd say I missed the boat and need to hit it up a couple weeks earlier next year. An oct 20 observation sit will show me "nobody home" (same as a kill sit) but I lack the 1st hand intel by only observing or leaving after the kill sit.

I plan on observing my best primary bedding areas. I will not scout them after hunting, hoping that nothing catches on to the fact that I was there, leaving the door open for the possibility of a future hunt.

WTA you've obviously got your recipe for success figured out, I'm just throwing my angle out there to generate some tactical discussion. Maybe my viewpoint will be changed by the end of the thread???

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I like this line of thought. As I'm evloving as a hunter, I'm definitely looking to optimize and capitalize on hitting certain areas when they are hot.

For me, level 1 was just finding beds and now that I have a library of spots built up, like you, I'm trying to find the ideal time(s) of the season to dive in.

This post definitely got me thinking.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Wlog]

I do go in sometimes after morning hunts. It's usually on places I don't know as well, where I'm still trying to figure the place out. If I blow one out I just chalk it up to future knowledge. You would be surprised how much sign is easily identifiable in October and November that's hard to pick up in March and April.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[whitetailassasin]

Remember LD just because you sit a bed and a buck doesn't rise out of it doesn't mean he's not there or you didn't hunt it at the correct time. He just may not have risen with enough light to see, and since you said you can't see that far anyways, how do you truly know he didn't get up but not made it close enough? Or he may have verred off his path? The main benefit I get off observations, and I know you don't have anyway to do so, is by seeing DAYLIGHT movement and when the buck starts to move a little earlier or more frequent. Pressure can keep them bedded a little longer, but not for ever. If the sign on the outside is telling you he's in the area, burning it on the first hunt, could or could not push that deer somewhere else. You know for sure if you go into that bed its burned for a bit, maybe all season. When you could potentially hunt it a few times to see if it pays off. I understand the need and want to piece it all together, but unless you know this area so well that you know the other beds you may drive him too, which you've said your surrounded by private parcels that he WILL, go to. Why not get as many hunts as you can in case those hunters put him in that bed, or your low pressure hunting keeps him feeling safe? You know if you go in early season and there no tracks leading into bed, no rubs, or fresh sign, and you sit it and he doesn't come out, but then come back 10 days later and it's opened up and fresh sign, the timing of when that bed maybe active. I personally would take a lighter approach on small private your hunting, especially with a buck the caliber your hunting, a see if you can connect the dots.

[ Post made via iPhone ]