First Buck Bed

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Acts 10:13
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First Buck Bed

Unread postby Acts 10:13 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:48 am

Hey All...haven't posted much on HB. But I have lurked here off and on for two seasons now. I have especially stalked Dan's 'All Time Best Tactical Threads' more than once the past two seasons...as well as watched and rewatched 'Hill Country Bucks'.

I started scouting public land this year in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas around a month ago (I only mention general location to help with knowing the type of terrain and what size of deer you can expect where I hunt versus Northern Missouri, Illinois, or Iowa). I intended to do all this and much more back in the spring but we sold our house in 11 days and then closed on our small, 40 acre farm in February and I just now got my head above water with everything that needed done - fixing up our house, moving, reclaiming pasture, fixing fence, brush hogging, cutting wood, moving in the critters (cows, goats, chickens), etc.

When deciding on what potential buck bed points to scout, I ONLY scouted points that should be empty of bucks for that day's wind. We have had warm weather the last four weeks and the wind has generally been coming out of the South. So I avoided going anywhere near points on the Northern sides of ridges and focused instead on points on the Southern sides of ridges. I only jumped one young buck out of his bed on my first day out. He was bedded on a point on the SE side of an East-West ridge when the wind was coming in at 8 MPH from due South. Go figure. I was unable to even locate where he was bedded after he bolted...telling me that he likely didn't have an established bed in that area anyway (it was very OPEN timber). Or I just missed it.

My first two half days were relatively unsuccessful. The points I had all marked on my topo maps resulted in zero buck beds. I'm sure there were some there. Just not that this beginner was able to locate on those particular days. But after three hours of scouting on my third day, I stumbled upon a bed on a relatively dense point that really only had two paths in and out. And when I say stumbled...honestly, I had given up for the day and had turned back to hike to my truck. I was forced to climb up this Southern point due to the thick undergrowth in the dry creek bed I was walking. When I was nearly up the point, I saw some tall grass and thought, 'I better check this out...' Sure enough, even a blind man stumbles upon what he's looking for every once in awhile after giving up :) I spent the next 15-20 minutes gathering pics and info on the bed and then the next 30-40 minutes slowly hiking out and trying to locate potential trees to hunt. (I felt comfortable really checking out the bed with nothing but winds out of the South for the next couple days and rain in the forecast two days later. It did rain and I was super thankful!)

Topo of the buck bed's location...
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XyHR39]Image
- My access to this point is .55 miles as the crow flies from an access road to the East (out of frame on the topo). There is another access road closer to the West (out of frame also). I think this point gets very little human pressure because of the complete lack of human evidence (shotgun shells, cans, bottles, cut down trees, etc.)
- The white dotted lines are old logging trails that are completely overgrown now. There is no easy path in and out of the timber in this area.

Pics of the buck bed...
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Yey4id]Image
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XyG5P1]Image
- The concave bean of the bed faces nearly due South (where the 6" tree is next to the bed).
- The hiking stick pictured that I was using to block spider webs is 5'1" long.
- There were two small areas (1'-1.5' wide each) next to the bed where the grass was brown and worn down. These two spots had more deer scat in them than I had ever seen in such a small location. At first these spots had me thinking this was doe bedding until I saw the rub. One of the spots is on the other side of the 6" tree in the pic. The other spot is right in front of the camera and appears bigger than it really is.
- You can actually see the rub pictured below in the top left corner of the bottom pic above...

Pics of Scat in the two small brown areas...
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Yey4zf]Image
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Yzqpq5]Image
- The scat was, to me, large for whitetail in our area.
- There was a TON of it...some dry and old...some still shiny...potentially from the previous day or two.

Pic of hair in the bed...
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Yey4J3]Image
- Only saw this one cluster of hair.
- Could have potentially been more but I did not want to be around the bed for too long.

Pic of the rub next to the buck bed...
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Yey4qN]Image
- The broken rub is about as big around as my thumb - 3/4" to 1" in diameter maybe.
- The rub is less than 3 or 4 feet away from the bed.

So, first of all I was giddy as a school girl. I had done 5-6 scouting trips over the last two years looking for beds and coming up empty. I did hunt travel corridors and pinch points near potential bedding points the previous season and ended up killing my best buck ever last year 3/4 of a mile from this spot. I literally have been like a stupid kid at Christmas wondering what's in the box? In this case, what type and size of buck could this be?!?!?!?

Second, I have a million questions but will try to limit them :)

1. Is this for sure a buck bed or am I mistaken? (The two small brown areas still throw me off...)

Assuming the answer to #1 is 'YES'...

2. Knowing that it's impossible to know for sure and that I'm naive in even asking...how large/old do you guess this deer may be? (The bed seemed decent sized for the deer in our area...but again I am a novice at this...)
3. What wind should I hold out for to hunt this spot? (My assumption is anything N to NE...)
4. Which direction from the bed would you try to find a tree to hunt? (There were NO trees large enough to hunt it that put me South of that point on the ridge. They all seemed to parallel the bed North-and-South-wise or be a hair North of the bed. I have two trees marked in my GPS...one that's 65 yards away and one 125ish yards away...)

Thanks already for the wisdom I've already found here. And thanks for enduring my novel!


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SidewayZ
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Re: First Buck Bed

Unread postby SidewayZ » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:17 pm

Looks like a solid buck bed.

I think most of your assumptions are correct. Its a North / northeast wind bed for sure.

If this is a new style hunt for you, I would setup on either the west or east side of the bed, setting up north or south will most likely get you winded. If you did set up south, I would wait to close to dark and wait for thermals to drop, but I wouldn't try that until last resort as an inexperienced hill country hunter. I would only setup on the North side on an off wind and ONLY if I was sure I knew he was headed that way to feed in the evening.

I would probably try the west side first thinking the buck may leave the bed headed west, in hopes of him doping down hill into the valley at night, unless you may know what his current food source is and where that is. It also looks leafy, so maybe waiting for some damp conditions as well as the north / northeast wind may help you get close.
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Re: First Buck Bed

Unread postby SidewayZ » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:21 pm

Also here is a good read on buck bed size. If that bed was 5' long that should be a mature buck for sure.

http://www.drnordbergondeerhunting.com/ ... Areas.html
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Re: First Buck Bed

Unread postby hunter_mike » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:07 pm

8-)
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
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Re: First Buck Bed

Unread postby Acts 10:13 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:51 pm

SidewayZ wrote:Also here is a good read on buck bed size. If that bed was 5' long that should be a mature buck for sure.

http://www.drnordbergondeerhunting.com/ ... Areas.html


Thanks for the input and that link. That article had a ton of good info well beyond just bed size.

You mentioned setting up east or west of that bed...and tended to lean to the west side. Problem is that bed sits right on the edge of the thickest part of that point. There's a path just big enough for him to drop into the ravine and jet..not much else to the west. And that ravine is THICK. Couldn't even fire an arrow beyond 10 yards or so in it...briars and brambles a plenty. It makes me think his emergency exit plan is to drop off to the west into that ravine's cover. But my gut and an older rubline tell me that he's heading east to feed along the flat of the ridge. I'm holding out on a strong north wind before I give it a shot.


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