Farmland Bedding

[GRUD]

I walked a new piece of ground the other day that I just got permission on. I know there has been some questions about farmland bedding on here before. I wanted to note my findings and some generalities I have noticed. This parcel is just some creek bottoms and farm fields. Very small wood lots / broken up farm fields.

I tried to jump every deer on the property just to know where the beds were. I jumped a couple bucks and some does. Bucks were bedded alone, one on the downwind side of woodlot where he could see into the field and smell the wind coming through the woods. The other buck was bedded in a small grassy area on a bank of a bend in a creek. He was facing the creek and smelling everything in the small wood patch between him and the crop field. I was able to get within about 20 yards of him before he caught my wind.

Generally I have found that bucks bed where they can see an open area and smell a thicker area behind them. The does seem to just bed in the thicker brushy areas and wind is not as critical because they all face different directions.

This is not much different than the hill country except the thermals are taken out of the equation.

[cornfedkiller]

Thanks for sharing your observations - would you mind posting an aerial photo and marking what you found on there? That would really help us see the big picture..

[Black Squirrel]

Good info! thanks for sharing!

[headgear]

I see similar bedding in bigwoods areas too, either bedding along a river, on a ridge overlooking a valley, or bedding near an open swamp or beaver dam. Thick cover on their back side that they can smell anything coming and a nice open view in front of them. I have found other places where crazy thick cover with no view was the preferred bedding but a lot of them were just as you described. Pretty much Marsh/Hill bedding or a combo of both.

[Black Squirrel]

GRUD, do you think they just lay there till dark and then go feed in the field that they have been watching all day, once it gets dark?

[dan]

Good observations... Sight in front, smell behind is a common bedding practice in all terrains. You will also find buck bedding in very thick spots where you can't get to them without making too much noise.
When doing scouting sessions for other people I often find that they set up about right on a certain buck, but don't know exactly where the bed is, and can't seem to seal the deal. I often find the beds watching the hunters common access trail, or the stand area... So the hunter is busted before he ever starts hunting...

[headgear]

Dan I have found a few of those access beds and I need to keep a better eye on them. A lot of times visibility isn't as much of an issues for me but on more than one occasion I found a bed placed perfectly to wind the access trail. It's like the deer could have bedded further back and been perfectly safe but chose to bed close to access to know when danger is in the area.

[jlh42581]

Here I find a lot that the doe's in the farm land bed in thick cover but like dan has shown they bed facing almost every direction. Even when they have back cover I often catch them facing into the wind. I cant tell you how many times Ive walked up on a deer and it surprised us both.

[GRUD]

Black Squirrle, I don't think the buck will wait until dark to go feed if he has been watching the field all day and not seen a thing. But they all act a bit different and if old enough he probably doesnt get to far from his bed before dark. Some of the beds are about impossible to hunt, that is where bumping them and finding their second bed comes into play. The problem I have is that the wood lots are so small he just goes and beds on the next property which I cannot hunt. So..... it can get tricky.