Doe Bedding

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funderburk
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Doe Bedding

Unread postby funderburk » Sat Oct 19, 2019 6:50 am

With the rut just around the corner, I figured a good thread on doe bedding would be good to have.

So, what are key characteristics of doe bedding? How do you spot them via cyber scouting?


“I’ve always believed that the mind is the best weapon.” John Rambo
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83mulligan
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby 83mulligan » Sun Oct 20, 2019 8:53 am

Interested in this topic as well. I hunt an area where several types of terrain come together in a small space (20 acres). River bottom with thick canary grass/red brush/dead ash trees on both sides, a big hill with buck brush and autumn olive and grass, a wooded edge (low and sometimes wet or flooded). Nearest crops are 1/4 to 1/2 mile away in all directions. Gets tough to pattern even the does because it seems to all be a giant bedding area.
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby Deltaninja » Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:04 pm

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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:23 pm

I’m very confident with my cyber scouting, and to be honest I can’t differentiate buck bedding from doe on an aerial alone. Boots on the ground is required for me. I will say that doe bedding areas are usually a lot bigger than buck bedding. I often see does very near good buck bedding too. Last week the big ten my Dad saw came out of a tiny dogwood thicket thats probably 40 yard diameter. A doe came out first, then 10 minutes later the big buck showed. :think:

Often times I can’t even differentiate mediocre doe bedding from strait up buck bedding in the spring. Good doe bedding almost always has rubs and scrapes in it from cruising bucks. (Although I will say the #1 thing that tips me off to exceptional doe bedding is if there are LOTS of well used beds.)

The first few years as a Beast I set up on multiple doe bedding areas thinking it was buck bedding. Then nothing but does and little bucks would come out. Here’s your sign!
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:27 pm

83mulligan wrote:Interested in this topic as well. I hunt an area where several types of terrain come together in a small space (20 acres). River bottom with thick canary grass/red brush/dead ash trees on both sides, a big hill with buck brush and autumn olive and grass, a wooded edge (low and sometimes wet or flooded). Nearest crops are 1/4 to 1/2 mile away in all directions. Gets tough to pattern even the does because it seems to all be a giant bedding area.


I’ve got a few large bedding areas like that. They’re mostly dogwood and willow with patches of cattails. Super thick. They’re hard to hunt because the big bucks usually bed with satellite deer around them. There’s spider webs of trails and the chances of a non target animal getting down wind are very high.
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby funderburk » Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:20 am

Lockdown wrote:I’m very confident with my cyber scouting, and to be honest I can’t differentiate buck bedding from doe on an aerial alone. Boots on the ground is required for me. I will say that doe bedding areas are usually a lot bigger than buck bedding. I often see does very near good buck bedding too. Last week the big ten my Dad saw came out of a tiny dogwood thicket thats probably 40 yard diameter. A doe came out first, then 10 minutes later the big buck showed. :think:

Often times I can’t even differentiate mediocre doe bedding from strait up buck bedding in the spring. Good doe bedding almost always has rubs and scrapes in it from cruising bucks. (Although I will say the #1 thing that tips me off to exceptional doe bedding is if there are LOTS of well used beds.)

The first few years as a Beast I set up on multiple doe bedding areas thinking it was buck bedding. Then nothing but does and little bucks would come out. Here’s your sign!


That’s good stuff. I can think of several areas that are like that. They offer decent cover, but they aren’t near as secluded and private as that of a loner mature buck bed.

That helped a lot. Thanks!
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby 83mulligan » Wed Oct 30, 2019 5:48 am

Lockdown wrote:
83mulligan wrote:Interested in this topic as well. I hunt an area where several types of terrain come together in a small space (20 acres). River bottom with thick canary grass/red brush/dead ash trees on both sides, a big hill with buck brush and autumn olive and grass, a wooded edge (low and sometimes wet or flooded). Nearest crops are 1/4 to 1/2 mile away in all directions. Gets tough to pattern even the does because it seems to all be a giant bedding area.


I’ve got a few large bedding areas like that. They’re mostly dogwood and willow with patches of cattails. Super thick. They’re hard to hunt because the big bucks usually bed with satellite deer around them. There’s spider webs of trails and the chances of a non target animal getting down wind are very high.


It can get frustrating because the does seem to bed in all the locations. The big hill seems to offer the most predictable doe bedding travel patterns with them coming off the hill in the evening and going west in the direction of a crop field a half mile away. Even then, i've seen does going the opposite way, into the grassy hillside/thicket during the evening, and coming out of it in the morning. Puzzling, lol. and makes it hard from a wind perspective to hunt when they move so unpredictably. Usually I get a crack at a good buck through attrition and moving around and hunting different stands in different small areas of it throughout the pre rut, rut. One advantage is that its got so much good cover that it gets better and better with more pressure as the boomstick season wears on.
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Re: Doe Bedding

Unread postby headgear » Wed Oct 30, 2019 7:45 am

Do bedding is everywhere, they seem a little less picky about where they go, all the spots I look for bucks usually have bedding in them but it is just the does and younger bucks using it. If an area is big enough, say a big thick brushy mess, good sized swamp or old clear-cut then the bucks and does will both use it during the rut. When I am setting up on does in search of bucks I focus on the larger bedding areas that can hold a lot of deer and have more space where a buck can still feel secure. I also see the bucks setup to smell does and doe crossings or areas near doe bedding. Seems like other spots the bucks will bed are in areas with a bunch of do bedding around so they have a lot of options when they get up and move around seek love at night.


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