Finding buck beds

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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burtle
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Finding buck beds

Unread postby burtle » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:17 am

What's the best way to track down buck beds? What to look for ? How do you know it's indeed a buck bed?

I know just single beds indicate buck beds, but what other advice do you guys have to offer ?


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Lockdown
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:42 am

IMHO the best way to get good at finding buck beds is to first buy Dan's DVDs. Then read through every thread in the "best all time tactical threads" in the deer hunting section. Then analyze aerials and topos on the computer, making your best guess on where you think the bucks will be bedding. Spend a lot of time on the computer, have a game plan, and stick to it. Your not going to find much by wandering. When you find something that looks promising, spend a lot of time there. Follow the trails and figure out why that trail goes where it does. That trail is there for a specific reason.

FOCUS ON TRANSITION LINES. Look for whatever is different. Big bucks don't get big by picking a random spot to lay in homogenous terrain.

After cyber scouting, head afield to try and verify your suspicions. Random rubs and scrapes only mean a buck was there at one point in time. Concentrate on thick areas... Remote areas... Overlooked areas... Areas that are hard to access. People don't like crossing water or traversing thick brush but that stuff is home for a deer.

If you're thinking "Man, I don't want to walk that far"... "This sucks"... Or "it would be close to impossible to hunt right here" then you're on the right track.

Some of my best spots are in locations where there is absolutely no reason for a deer to be there aside from bedding. Find those locations and look for beds that are big in size, big poop, large rubs, large tracks, etc

Then when you get home get back on the computer and try to make sense of your findings. If you have questions, go back and scout it again. Do it three times if you need to.

Take pictures and start a thread on the Beast. There are dozens of guys who would be more than happy to help. Just remember that this style of hunting takes time. Like others have said it's a marathon, not a sprint.

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BACKSTRAPALIEN
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby BACKSTRAPALIEN » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:51 am

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Lockdown
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:52 am

burtle wrote: How do you know it's indeed a buck bed?


To me the biggest sign are rubs. Get in that bed and follow every trail and every fork in each trail for 100-200 yards. Sometimes there is a rub in the bed itself. Sometimes there is a cluster of rubs near the bedding (what we would likely call the staging area)

If you have annual rubs, whether they're in a rub line or cluster, that is a VERY good sign.

If there are scrapes within 100 yards or so that is also an indication.

Finding rubs and scrapes early season is a very good indicator. Lots of doe bedding gets marked up with buck sign, but that typically won't happen until mid-October or so.

Big bed size

Big poop

Big tracks in the bedding area

Actually seeing a buck come from or go into that bedding area

The more of these puzzle pieces you can put together, the better the bedding.

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burtle
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby burtle » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:52 am

Thanks for the reply!

At the end of this season it sounds like I need to put boots on the ground. I have several areas I feel like no one would want to go to for the fact they are very very far from parking (public ground) and it's very thick. I am going to set up an observation stand once I get the correct wind this season to check things out from a distance and go from there. I will look into Dan's dvd's too as well as the threads on here
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby burtle » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:53 am

Say a big buck was killed near his bed last year.

Do you guys ever see another big buck taking that bed over ?
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby Beauford » Sun Oct 02, 2016 4:40 am

Yes another buck would take that bed over. If it is one of the best beds in the area the older buck will take it over. So much info on here from Dan & fellow Beast about buck beds. Read all the post about it & 100% get the DVD 100% Worth it & then some

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burtle
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby burtle » Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:02 am

I'm located in central Illinois we don't have marshes where I hunt. So will those DVDs help me much? Or should I get DVD 1-2 tactics?

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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby wmahunter » Sun Oct 02, 2016 1:27 pm

Here in central florida we have both - swamps and dry sandy areas and some where dry sandy area meets river swamp.

The cd's cover it all. Hill country and swamps. After you watch the cd's then you learn how to apply using topo's for hill country and aerials for swamps (fingers and points). Look up Autumn Ninja posts for topo and how to read them. Some others did some great posts on topo's to but there user id's I cannot remember. But look up his posts and the others will show up as well.
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 02, 2016 11:57 pm

I think the DVD's are worth watching no matter what. They help you understand the basics of terrain based whitetail bedding behavior. I bought hill country bucks even though I live in an area that in general is flat as a pancake. I see hill country tendencies even in small elevation changes around here.

If you want to consistently put whitetails down, the more you know about them the better.

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burtle
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Re: Finding buck beds

Unread postby burtle » Mon Oct 03, 2016 4:58 am

Thanks for all the info guys. I am going to buy his dvd's! I'm trying to learn as much as I can


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