1 bucks beds...How far apart?

[Czabs]

Don't know if this is true and I will ask him tomorrow where he got the info...

But my uncle told me a school in Wisconsin did a study and they put some type of collar on a mature buck.

They found that the buck bedded and did not move out of his bed for 13 days straight during the 9 day gun season...

Interesting too me, doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the topic but I thought it was really interesting that he wouldn't MOVE for 13 days.

[PredatorTC]

A bucks bedding isn't random.

Never said it was. Bedding in the exact same spot every day is more predictable than not.

I agree....their instincts are uncanny. I don't think they'd fall into that trap.

I belive that often times they do. FOr example, if you noticed, there have been many bucks in Andreas videos that he hunted that came back to the same bedding area each morning, and thats exactly how he killed them. I think the reason that they dont fall into that trap often is for many reasons. People dont enter their stands in the correct direction. THey make too much noise. THe buck comes into his bed in a way to scent check it before going into it. A buck may be in his bed before first light. THere are many reasons why hunts like this dont work out but I belive when you have a guy like Andrea hunt a buck in the morning, he knows what he is doing and avoids being busted and makes it happen.

Two years ago, I had a 180 inch buck that I was hunting. I tried setting up on him one night and got too close and heard him jump up ahead of me and take off. The next day, I checked a trail camera that was a few hundred yards away and he was on it just after shooting light. Seeing a buck this old during legal hours is tough where I hunt. So the next day I went in and jumped him again but this time it was on purpose. TO my surprise for the second day in a row he was in the same bed after i jumped him. Before I jumped him the second day, I set a stand up between his bed and the spot where I had gotten the trail camera picture the previouse night. SO I jumped him and turned straight around and made a huge loop to get into the stand I had set. To my surprise the buck made his way to me just as I expected but he was just out of range. A week later I jumped the buck out of the same bed.
My story got a bit long but my point is that this buck used the same bed a lot even with me jumping him up.

[JV NC]

I wouldn't say it NEVER happens.

And, I believe in natural selection. I'm assuming you killed that buck.

You know...you guys might be right....and I'm wrong. It would make it easier, for sure.

[PredatorTC]

Im not taking a stab at ya at all bud. I like your posts because they make me think and see things from another angle. Thats what this fourm is about

I never killed that buck. Things just never worked out perfectly. The orange army brought him down on a drive

[JV NC]

Im not taking a stab at ya at all bud. I like your posts because they make me think and see things from another angle. Thats what this fourm is about

I didn't take it that way at all. One would hope differing angles on hunting would be welcome in any serious forum. I'm not sure they always are, though.

Tough luck on the buck. Sorry it didn't work out for YOU. He was a nice one.

[PredatorTC]

Im not taking a stab at ya at all bud. I like your posts because they make me think and see things from another angle. Thats what this fourm is about

I didn't take it that way at all. One would hope differing angles on hunting would be welcome in any serious forum. I'm not sure they always are, though.

Tough luck on the buck. Sorry it didn't work out for YOU. He was a nice one.

He would have been a pig to have on my wall but im just happy with the knowlege i learned from hunting him. I use the stuff I learned to put other bucks on the ground

[RED OAK]

Spy-
I really like your analogy with the turkey comparison...I hunt turkey's quite a bit and have recently had to hunt them more like deer as they do not respond to calling very well these days especially late in the season and I do exactly what you described...get as close as you can to their "Bed" and know which way they go after flydown. My biggest and most rewarding turkey kill was doing exactly this but in the evening instead as he was coming back to the tree. For some stupid reason I have never thought of it that way. Simple but it does get me thinking as I am trying very hard to learn the big buck bed hunting here in Hill Country...

[BigHunt]

I think if you think of turkey hunting, the buck bed thing might make more sense.

A male turkey is vocal, so we know where he is bedding. Turkeys will roost in the same prime spot over and over until they are messed with, the difference is you can hear a turkey to prove it.

I hunt them in a way that Dan hunts deer. You set up as close to their bedding as you dare, and hope you are on their route when they exit.

I think male deer probably do the same thing, they occupy prime spots until they are messed with.

Sometimes a turkey will have another prime roost or several. The deer probably have the same type of pattern, unfortunatly deer don't give their spots away vocally.

Make any sense to anyone?

makes sense but turkeys Gobble little to none in the fall ....they do but not even close to spring. a turkey will gobble 150 times before he flys down in the spring, in the fall maybe once maybe , so hunting them in the fall is a different story...you may not hear them at all


i think setting up on a turkey as close as you can isn't the way to go ....ive had where i set up to close and they fly right over me time and time aging ...if you do your home work and scout, and see where they fly down and watch that .... then you can sit right where they land ... there a creature of habit like whitetails...

but on the other hand setting up as close as possible to a buck bed with out getting busted is the way to do it ...they cant fly over head.....the only draw back is bucks might not travel that trail your set on

[Indianahunter]

I think if you think of turkey hunting, the buck bed thing might make more sense.

A male turkey is vocal, so we know where he is bedding. Turkeys will roost in the same prime spot over and over until they are messed with, the difference is you can hear a turkey to prove it.

I hunt them in a way that Dan hunts deer. You set up as close to their bedding as you dare, and hope you are on their route when they exit.

I think male deer probably do the same thing, they occupy prime spots until they are messed with.

Sometimes a turkey will have another prime roost or several. The deer probably have the same type of pattern, unfortunatly deer don't give their spots away vocally.

Make any sense to anyone?

I agree 100%

[RaisedByWolves]

I understand that one buck has multiple beds he will use at a time depending upon wind and whatnot. How far apart have you seen their beds and in what terrain. Im not talking about how far apart a buck will bed in the summer and then the one he will use in the in the winter because that can be miles apart. Im talking about at one time. Such as a bunch of bed that he may choose from on any given day. Hope this makes sense.

I would think if anything the beds would be closer together on less pressured land, and further apart on pressured. just saying this as a general answer assuming more pressure=less spots he would bed. I can see how this wouldn't make sense either.

In private farm country I have found mature buck beds 200-300 yards apart. On public marshland I have found 2 beds within 300 yards of each other, and 3 within 900 yards

Otherwise, I really like Spy's turkey analogy and Headgear's response... I think they hold tight in an area until they are messed with.

Predator, after you kicked up the 180 did you step onto his bed, and still manage to have him back the next day? or did you just get close enough to kick him up and then you left?

[PredatorTC]

Predator, after you kicked up the 180 did you step onto his bed, and still manage to have him back the next day? or did you just get close enough to kick him up and then you left?


Now that you say it actualy, I only got close enough to bump him and then backed off. I would say the closest I got was 80 yards from him. This buck never held tight too well. If he heard any funny sounds he ran. But its interesting that you ask that because I have tried to do the same thing with other bucks and it never work the same, but with all the other bucks I did stand right in their beds

Thanks for bringing that up! Little fuel for thought for me

[RaisedByWolves]

Last gun season I kicked up a 160", he let me walk past him at 20 yards and held tight. but 5 minutes later I had to walk past him again to meet my party and then he jumped up. I walked over to his bed to check if maybe he had been hit but there wasn't any blood. The bed was obviously being used alot. It was 20 yards off a field in a mess of thorns and crp. It looks perfect for an ambush! I have been wondering if he came back the next day and smelled that I stepped in his bed, and how he took it?

[Spysar]

Ummm....why did you walk past a 160" and not shoot?

[RaisedByWolves]

Ummm....why did you walk past a 160" and not shoot?

when I walked past him the first time I was looking down into the thick crap with my finger on the safety and never saw him. On the way back(a few minutes later), I didn't expect a deer to jump up and I had a radio in my hand he took about 3 bounds and was down a steep revine, I tried to run through the thorns and grass to the edge of the revine to get a shot and got hung up.

There is a little tree at the field edge I marked as being even with his bed, next gun season I can walk to the edge and be ready for him....