How a swamp buck may enter his bed

[PredatorTC]

I have a buck that is coming into his bed from from the north and going to the south. He does this the most consistently when there is a southwest wind. Now if i sit off to the one side of this bucks bed, the wind should work good, giving the buck a false sense of security. But what i was wondering is that although the buck is coming from the north, will he probably make a small loop so that he can walk straight into the wind while walking the last short distance to his bed. So, is there such thing as sitting too close to his bed in the morning? Should i be 40 yards towards the north to get to him before he tries anything tricky. There are plenty of trees that will work. I would like to be closer to the bed tho because of your spokes on the wheel theory. Any thoughts or ideas??

[Singing Bridge]

PTC, not sure what kind of a swamp you are hunting, and everyone's situation is different. In heavy cover cedar swamps, bucks that have had a few birthdays bed differently than they do on hills or bluffs- they have to because their vision is severely restricted as a defense mechanism. In my swamps you can often only see 10-20 yards in any direction if you are lucky. They may use the wind to their advantage for quite some distance while approaching their bed, but most of the time they swing around and approach the bed with the wind at their back. If they don't, they lose their number one defense mechanism- their nose. Put yourself in the bucks shoes and imagine bedding down after an approach that was directly into the wind. You can't smell any predators tracking you on the ground, and you can't smell any predators that picked up your airborne scent. All you could do would be to hope you saw or heard that predator in the final 15-20 yards, which is unacceptable to a nice buck. By making their final approach downwind, they can lie down and smell their backtrail for predators along with watching and listening. A lot of times they will bed with a barrier downwind of them, a beaver pond, river, cattail marsh, lake, uncrossable muck area, etc. That way they don't have to worry about their airborne downwind scent- if anything tries to get at them from downwind, they hear it coming way ahead of time and escape easily. Also, even with the barrier downwind, they have multiple escape routes. Hope that helps a little.....

[dan]

I second what Bridge said... They prefer the wind at there back approaching a bedding area in most cases...
If I did choose to hunt the set up in the morning, I would be close as possible...

[PredatorTC]

That helps a lot, thanks guys. He will be a 5.5 year old this season so he is obviously very smart. The Northwest side of his bed has the blow-down roots from a cedar right up to it. The reason i am hunting him in the morning is because it is a cedar swamp with very little brush or cattails so he can easily see me coming form a long way in the afternoon. Also i had a tree eyed up where i could shoot right into his bed. Would this be ok?

[dan]

Yes, but I would try to shoot him before he beds if possible because anatomy can be deceiving on bedded deer.

[PredatorTC]

alright, makes good sense to me........ Thanks a lot!!! this info is priceless!!

[Singing Bridge]

I just can't ever get enough of swamp bucks- they certainly can adapt their senses to these types of areas.

[Indianahunter]

Predator TC, You are consistently on good deer every year GO GET HIM BUDDY!