dan wrote:Just a couple comments... 1st. I have been watching deer bed, and studying bedded bucks for 40 years and after seeing thousands of beds, and hundreds of bedded deer, outside of groups like doe groups that bed in circles, I have never seen a buck bed looking up wind. The only exception I have seen is if the deer hears or smells something from behind he will spin his head around and stair the other way. I have heard people discuss deer bedding facing the wind, but I think they were mistaken. I have never seen seen it in any terrain. I am sure there has been a deer or two that did not, but I would say its extremely rare. Bucks are loners. They dep;end on themselves for survival, not the groo9up like a doe. They enter beds walking into the wind, spin around and watch there entrance trail, while smelling behind them. They cover all there bases. One scent stream in line with there ground scent.
I have noticed when tracking deer, they quite often do a complete J-hook when entering there bed forcing anybody, or anything tracking them to walk right past them in front of them while they slip out. Leaving you feeling like an idiot when you get to the bed and look up at your track walking past.
2.. Its hard to get confidence in a spot that seems rediculas. Like right next to the road. Thats the biggest hurdle. But, in reality, thats where I kill the majority of my biggest bucks. Crazy spots no one else would ever look at. Big bucks have a knack for finding the little over looked spots where no one goes. Some of my best spots you would be embarrassed to have a friend see you hunting there, but thats exactly where you need to be.
Im obviously not doubting what you just said as you've been doing this A LOT longer than myself. Thanks for the input by the way!
My one question though for my particular case is why he would bed looking at a hill filled with thick laurels and saplings where he can not see anything? Not sure if the video conveyed it well but that first shot was the hill I'm talking about and just beyond it is the road. It would be akin to him bedded up against a wall and staring at the wall. 180 degrees of that he can see a ways off although it is looking into the predominant wind direction (NW). Now, I don't know what wind he is using the bed but it would seem like he had used it quite a bit. I just don't think there would be that many "off" wind days to have a bed that used looking.
Our season just opened yesterday but I'm already looking forward to late winter/ early spring to do some heavy scouting!
) is the thin patch of woods between his bed and the gravel road. I had assumed that he was facing downwind because it would seem silly of him to face a bank towards the road because he can't see anything. So I believe he was facing the predominant downwind side which is the last view of the video. Seems pretty smart actually as he can hear anything driving on the road behind him and has the wind to his nose. I've recently learned on here that bucks typically bed with the wind to their back but I believe there can be exceptions, right? There are no big enough trees to set up in without being right over top of the bed. I would feel really dumb setting up so close to the road and not seeing this guy but being successful would definitely trump that. Thoughts?
