how many of you have cameras over beds?

[Divergent]

It seems like we have a growing number of hunters with cams placed over bedding. I've noted a few observations from some of your posts. Anyone care to add additional observations from your cams or things that cought your eye from other pics that have been posted?

1. Beds don't get used as often as I thought
2. Bucks stretch and browse more often than I thought
3. Entry and exit to bed
4. Several bucks using the same bed(I don't know the time between use, but interesting if it's within a short time frame)

[dan]

#5 a lot of beds I would of thought were day beds ended up being night beds.

[JakeB]

I've got 5 over beds right now, first time I've tried it and I'm itching to check them bad! I've got a good feeling ill be disappointed in my findings on a few of them though, since they appeared to not be very frequently used.

I'm curious how long it usually takes for the deer to go back to using them normally after you've been in there? My plan was to give them a little over a month or so and adjust or move my unproductive cameras.

[JoeRE]

Yes there was a two year period that I hung a lot of cameras directly on beds. More than a dozen times all together. I would agree with all 5 of the observations so far.

These bed cams have definitely reminded us a deer just doesn't sit in his bed all day. Rarely do they stay bedded more than 2 hours before getting up, browsing, and bedding again. They have to biologically - to relieve themselves and to feed lightly through the day. They cannot go 12 hours w/o eating and stay healthy from what I understand. The idea that a big old buck lays down behind a log all day and only stands up in darkness is a physical impossibility. He may only move 50 or 100 feet but he DOES move in daylight.

In the last two years I have put cameras almost entirely on entry or exit routes (they are often different) into bedding locations that usually contain multiple beds. What I have gotten on camera convinced me that is the way to approach monitoring bedding - lower impact and more obvious patterns. But I agree it's cool to see a buck bedded on camera.

Most of my half dozen cams are used for that every fall now. Not so much for this year's intel but for setups next year and just learning in general.

[Divergent]

In the last two years I have put cameras almost entirely on entry or exit routes (they are often different) into bedding locations that usually contain multiple beds.

I purchased a bunch of cameras this year and this is what I want to learn about. Are they all entering and exiting a particular bed the same way(conditions and time being the same)?

Do they have a specific entry and a specific exit? If they do, do the exits always drop in elevation, stay the same elevation, go up in elevation?

I'd really like to see some examples if you have the time Joe.

I've seen them stage around the same elevation and drop at dark to a falling thermal hub and then head up and along another ridge. This is in a big block of timber with no ag. I bet some people see them rise in elevation if their fields and ag are on top.

[JoeRE]

In the last two years I have put cameras almost entirely on entry or exit routes (they are often different) into bedding locations that usually contain multiple beds.

I purchased a bunch of cameras this year and this is what I want to learn about. Are they all entering and exiting a particular bed the same way(conditions and time being the same)?

Do they have a specific entry and a specific exit? If they do, do the exits always drop in elevation, stay the same elevation, go up in elevation?

I'd really like to see some examples if you have the time Joe.

I've seen them stage around the same elevation and drop at dark to a falling thermal hub and then head up and along another ridge. This is in a big block of timber with no ag. I bet some people see them rise in elevation if their fields and ag are on top.

From what I have seen so far, there is a favored entry and favored exit to each bedding area. I have not clustered several cams around 1 area though, would be interesting but don't have the cams to do it.

Entry routes are usually from below, probably the J-hook just like gets talked about on here. So if there are several beds on a point, I look for a travel route coming up from below. Sometimes its not much of a trail, but if there are a couple rubs facing a certain way or tracks that helps decide where the buck is coming from.

Its often hard to decide just where to put a camera, some bedding locations have a spiderweb of travel routes to them. Frankly I try to target the ones that have pinch points near the bedding to hang cams so I am not wasting my time. Say there is a steep ditch only 100 yards away with only a couple crossings, or a fence crossing.

Leaving the bed, the buck seems to head in the direction of where he wants to go that night. In the pre-rut its often down to a thermal hub location or maybe just the direction of the does in the area, if its just food he wants then that is the direction he heads sometimes up and sometimes down. I often see bucks go right up a ridge to crop fields or oak trees up top early season. So it can depend by time of year. Basically my observations line up with what I remember Dan talking about years ago - in the evening a buck heads toward whatever he is interested in.

I will see if I can dig up a few examples and post some pics later today or this weekend.

[tgreeno]

I'm sure hill beds are different from marsh beds also. As well as different areas of the country. And different age class bucks act differently. And weather conditions and wind directions.

There are many variables that will effect a buck movement. I think it would be difficult to generalize bucks bedding patterns. A much easier task to do for one specific buck.

[Stanley]

Great thread. The biggest deterrent I see when trying to set a camera up on a specific bed. The bucks that use the beds are killed by other hunters. So the beds I have my eyes on right now are not being used because the bucks are no longer alive. I watched 7 bucks use the same bed while hunting 5 years ago. I have not seen the bed used since. If you find a well used buck bed during hunting season you better jump on it.

[JakeB]

Joe,
Generally will the bucks bed back down in the same bed after they get up to browse? Or will they move to another bed in the same area if one is there?

[rfickes87]

#5 as Dan said. This was my problem this summer. Mostly always bedded at night. I don't understand why.

#6. Ill say something that i did not expect... That is all the daytime buck movement in and around the beds, smelling the beds, etc. They didn't bed in them hardly at all but just passed by. Often in daylight. Curiosity thing? Who knows... i dont

[Twenty Up]

Got 4 up on beds or overlooking bedding areas right now. Curious to see how things pan out as this is my first time ever doing something like this

[Divergent]

Great thread. The biggest deterrent I see when trying to set a camera up on a specific bed. The bucks that use the beds are killed by other hunters. So the beds I have my eyes on right now are not being used because the bucks are no longer alive. I watched 7 bucks use the same bed while hunting 5 years ago. I have not seen the bed used since. If you find a well used buck bed during hunting season you better jump on it.

Thanks for sharing Stanley. What was the timeframe between each buck using the bed? Did it look like they were pushing one another out or was there a lot of time in between.

Was there some drastic change that forced them to re-locate or did they just feel the pressure from a hunting beast lol?

[Divergent]

Joe,
Generally will the bucks bed back down in the same bed after they get up to browse? Or will they move to another bed in the same area if one is there?

I'm not sure about most, but another member shared his pics recently and that buck walked off and came back multiple times in a day. I was shocked at just how much.

[Divergent]

#5 as Dan said. This was my problem this summer. Mostly always bedded at night. I don't understand why.

#6. Ill say something that i did not expect... That is all the daytime buck movement in and around the beds, smelling the beds, etc. They didn't bed in them hardly at all but just passed by. Often in daylight. Curiosity thing? Who knows... i dont

Were most of these beds low in elevation? Were they south wind bedding locations?

[dan]

#5 as Dan said. This was my problem this summer. Mostly always bedded at night. I don't understand why.

#6. Ill say something that i did not expect... That is all the daytime buck movement in and around the beds, smelling the beds, etc. They didn't bed in them hardly at all but just passed by. Often in daylight. Curiosity thing? Who knows... i dont

When tracking deer in snow I often have them walk into the wind j-hooking to a bed, walk into the bed, smell it, then move to another, I think they are often looking for the "perfect" danger scenting conditions, the perfect bed for that exact day, that exact wind...