River Bottom Meets the Hills

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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jwzimmer
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River Bottom Meets the Hills

Unread postby jwzimmer » Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:28 am

Hey y'all I'm looking at a piece of public land where a river meets the hill country and was looking for a cyber scouting help. Our predominate winds are West in the winter time with shifts out of the north and south depending on cold fronts. After watching Dan's videos on both hill country and swamp buck bedding I have come to the conclusion that I need to be looking a points that run east towards the river and river bottom. If you look at my map shown below if have traced out the elevations a 50', 100', and 150'. My plan was to walk the 100' elevation line looking for bedding. Focusing primarily on points. I was hoping some more experienced beast members might chime in.

Also being that bow season has already started what strategy would you take in scouting this piece? I have other areas that I can hunt as well but don't really want to burn up a hunting area if I can avoid it. I wish I would have stumbled across this information on this site earlier so I could have scouted last spring.

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Re: River Bottom Meets the Hills

Unread postby jwzimmer » Thu Nov 03, 2016 2:47 am

So I put some boots on the ground yesterday and walk the north side of this property. I decided to walk the 100' elevation line being that is pretty close to the top 3rd section of the hills. I did find some beds on points where they are supposed to be but also found some beds on on the side of hills where I really wouldn't expect. Being that I'm new to "bed hunting" I decided that I would only consider something a bed if I found hair in it. I never found what I would consider to be a "primary bedding" area. All the beds I found where spaced several hundred yards apart with the exception of a area where I jumped some doe up.

So a couple of questions that I left the woods with yesterday...

The hill sides that I found the beds on are all big open hardwoods with minimal cover. I didn't have enough daylight to walk to far into the swamp area, but did notice that it was significantly denser with under brush and grasses. Do you think that bucks ever will forgo bedding in the hills in favor of the thicker denser vegetation of the swamp? Also the area of swamp that I did walk through was absolutely tilled up by the hogs. Has anyone noticed hogs in and area affecting the deer bedding areas. I saw no hog sign at all in the hills.

I'm having a hard time determining the difference between a buck bed and doe bed. I did find one bed along a ridge that had a scrape line going down it that I assume would be a buck bed. Other than that should I assume doe bedding?

Thanks
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Re: River Bottom Meets the Hills

Unread postby jwilkstn » Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:00 am

I've always read that deer avoid hogs and the areas they frequent.

Keep in mind when looking at beds this time of year that leaves are falling and masking some of the signs of use.

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Re: River Bottom Meets the Hills

Unread postby willsk85 » Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:56 am

jwzimmer wrote:So I put some boots on the ground yesterday and walk the north side of this property. I decided to walk the 100' elevation line being that is pretty close to the top 3rd section of the hills. I did find some beds on points where they are supposed to be but also found some beds on on the side of hills where I really wouldn't expect. Being that I'm new to "bed hunting" I decided that I would only consider something a bed if I found hair in it. I never found what I would consider to be a "primary bedding" area. All the beds I found where spaced several hundred yards apart with the exception of a area where I jumped some doe up.

So a couple of questions that I left the woods with yesterday...

The hill sides that I found the beds on are all big open hardwoods with minimal cover. I didn't have enough daylight to walk to far into the swamp area, but did notice that it was significantly denser with under brush and grasses. Do you think that bucks ever will forgo bedding in the hills in favor of the thicker denser vegetation of the swamp? Also the area of swamp that I did walk through was absolutely tilled up by the hogs. Has anyone noticed hogs in and area affecting the deer bedding areas. I saw no hog sign at all in the hills.

I'm having a hard time determining the difference between a buck bed and doe bed. I did find one bed along a ridge that had a scrape line going down it that I assume would be a buck bed. Other than that should I assume doe bedding?

Thanks


Hey jwzimmer, I've been on the forum for a year and always learning. From what I have seen with Dan's hill country DVD and others on the forum, the mature bucks are going to bed in what gives them the best advantage to smell and see. Generally the leeward side of the point of a given wind direction. With hill country you have more than just a mainstream wind to think about, but thermals as well. As for buck beds and doe beds, the main difference is that mature bucks bed alone, so if you only see one bed in a smaller area, then it's likely a buck bed. Also, not on all instances, but in quite a few, the mature buck will rub in and around his bed. If there are no rubs in and around the bed, he may rub along his routes where he leaves and enters the bedding area. As for doe beds, these can be identified when you see multiple beds in a smaller area. It's not a bad idea to take a tape measure and measure the size of the bed(s). There are plenty of articles and research out there that can help identify the sex/size and possible age of a deer by the size of their bed. But for the most part, the location and either lack of buck sign or extensive buck sign in and around the bed can give a good idea of what is bedded there.


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