Abundance of bedding cover
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Abundance of bedding cover
The places around me are often very very thick which makes the properties hunt bigger than the acreage... however I am really struggling to find any buck sign at all... I haven’t seen a single scrape and I’ve been out there many times. And only a couple of small, low rubs. In places that there is a lot of heavy thick cover, how do you guys narrow down where you look for buck bedding areas? I have seen enough does and I’m patient enough to sit for hours and be happy with seeing one deer as long as it has antlers. I’m not the kind of guy that needs to see 100 deer to call it a successful hunt.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
Where are you hunting? In Missouri right now there are scrapes and rubs everywhere but in Louisiana you can barely find sign.
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- headgear
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
Yep need more details, how big is the property you are hunting? Public or private? I might scout thousands of acres a year and only hunt hundreds. There will be beds and bedding almost everywhere but the older bucks will be in very small and specific places.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
Lukebroz30 wrote:The places around me are often very very thick which makes the properties hunt bigger than the acreage... however I am really struggling to find any buck sign at all... I haven’t seen a single scrape and I’ve been out there many times. And only a couple of small, low rubs. In places that there is a lot of heavy thick cover, how do you guys narrow down where you look for buck bedding areas? I have seen enough does and I’m patient enough to sit for hours and be happy with seeing one deer as long as it has antlers. I’m not the kind of guy that needs to see 100 deer to call it a successful hunt.
I agree that more details would be helpful, ie hill country, flat woods, swamps, etc. I am in hill country where the trees and shrubs get incredibly thick and a 30 yd shot is almost impossible. I am finding some buck sign on the hillsides which I have walked, and just found some scrapes very near to doe bedding. So I would say to walk along the hillside game trails you might find, along with scouting for doe bedding and then look for sign close to this.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
It’s river bottom timber and crp. About 2000 acres of public land in northern Illinois. You would be hard pressed to shoot 10 yards in most of the places. But I also haven’t seen any rubs or scrapes in the reclaimed strip pit public I hunt either.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
It’s river bottom timber and crp. About 2000 acres of public land in northern Illinois. You would be hard pressed to shoot 10 yards in most of the places. But I also haven’t seen any rubs or scrapes in the reclaimed strip pit public I hunt either.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
There’s also a lot of crp with small bushes, trees, and shrubs strewn about.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
In my experience, if there is an overabundance of ideal cover for bedding bucks will use the same bed less often. They will use the same bedding areas. Also, if areas with little to no ag crops and no acorn production, feeding is almost 100% natural browse and thus they will bed in various areas depending on what that deer personally likes and has access to. There will be specific "hot spots" like maple leaf drop, Honey Locust, persimmons, etc. but once again these do not last as long as acorn/ag crops so finding those well worn beds, hair, etc., is much less common. While I was up in Wisconsin this spring with Dan the amount of hair and well worn beds blew me away - I rarely find such beds in N Texas areas I hunt. Now when I am on a farm with very limited cover, then yes the bedding is more easily identified. I am sure some guys in the true northwoods also find consistent bedding less then other terrains. Of course marshes are the easy as once a buck lies down on cattails it would be pretty hard to miss those. And then there are hogs...... but that is a different discussion for another day.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
:doh
I agree with this. I don’t think non-ag, non-woodlot, non-heavy pressure deer bed with any consistency.
DaveT1963 wrote:In my experience, if there is an overabundance of ideal cover for bedding bucks will use the same bed less often. They will use the same bedding areas. Also, if areas with little to no ag crops and no acorn production, feeding is almost 100% natural browse and thus they will bed in various areas depending on what that deer personally likes and has access to. There will be specific "hot spots" like maple leaf drop, Honey Locust, persimmons, etc. but once again these do not last as long as acorn/ag crops so finding those well worn beds, hair, etc., is much less common. While I was up in Wisconsin this spring with Dan the amount of hair and well worn beds blew me away - I rarely find such beds in N Texas areas I hunt. Now when I am on a farm with very limited cover, then yes the bedding is more easily identified. I am sure some guys in the true northwoods also find consistent bedding less then other terrains. Of course marshes are the easy as once a buck lies down on cattails it would be pretty hard to miss those. And then there are hogs...... but that is a different discussion for another day.
I agree with this. I don’t think non-ag, non-woodlot, non-heavy pressure deer bed with any consistency.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
DaveT1963 wrote:I am sure some guys in the true northwoods also find consistent bedding less then other terrains.
Ya not many beds worn to the dirt, I kind of find more bedding zones where there can be dozens or more beds in an area. Those kinds of areas seem to get used more consistenly than single beds.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
pewpewpew wrote:I agree with this. I don’t think non-ag, non-woodlot, non-heavy pressure deer bed with any consistency.
They might not use the same bed over and over but they have their tendencies and I don't feel they bed at random, there is certainly a purpose to why and when they bed in a certain location. However with a lot of bedding options, changing food sources and endless miles of cover they aren't easy to pattern.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
Most of what I hunt is so thick that you can barely walk through it. I find most of the rubs, scrapes, and beds just inside the transition from thick mixed timber to a brushy swamp grass or cattail area where a deer can walk a bit easier. There's tons of bedding opportunity and low deer density so it seems if I bump one or scent up an area the deer just move on and don't return. It makes it pretty difficult to scout in season since you almost have to walk on top of the sign to see it. After watching dan's swamp bedding video I have been able to pinpoint suspected buck bedding much easier using Google earth. Another thing you can try is observation sits. You may not be able to see the deer, buy you can listen to where they get up from and hear where they are headed.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
headgear wrote:pewpewpew wrote:I agree with this. I don’t think non-ag, non-woodlot, non-heavy pressure deer bed with any consistency.
They might not use the same bed over and over but they have their tendencies and I don't feel they bed at random, there is certainly a purpose to why and when they bed in a certain location. However with a lot of bedding options, changing food sources and endless miles of cover they aren't easy to pattern.
I agree with this - there are preferred bedding areas - and they can move from one to another based upon natural browse availability and mast crops - very difficult to pattern bucks IMO
Another big difference is in season scouting. With Ag fields you can glass and walk the edges to look for tracks/rubs etc. without disturbing the bedding in a lot of cases. To find how sign in big woods, i.e. which acorns are falling/being hit, persimmons, and natural browse being used, etc., you HAVE to get in there and a lot of the time bucks will not be bedded far away and the odds are you will alert them as you verify. In years with high acorn production and bucks will a lot of times bed right where they eat and travel very little during the pre rut - they just do not have a need to travel - that is where ag fields have a huge advantage is because they usually travel a bit to these fields and you can spot check the edges for sign much easier.
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
DaveT1963 wrote:In my experience, if there is an overabundance of ideal cover for bedding bucks will use the same bed less often. They will use the same bedding areas. Also, if areas with little to no ag crops and no acorn production, feeding is almost 100% natural browse and thus they will bed in various areas depending on what that deer personally likes and has access to. There will be specific "hot spots" like maple leaf drop, Honey Locust, persimmons, etc. but once again these do not last as long as acorn/ag crops so finding those well worn beds, hair, etc., is much less common. While I was up in Wisconsin this spring with Dan the amount of hair and well worn beds blew me away - I rarely find such beds in N Texas areas I hunt. Now when I am on a farm with very limited cover, then yes the bedding is more easily identified. I am sure some guys in the true northwoods also find consistent bedding less then other terrains. Of course marshes are the easy as once a buck lies down on cattails it would be pretty hard to miss those. And then there are hogs...... but that is a different discussion for another day.
Is "maple leaf drop" what it sounds like, or is it something else?
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Re: Abundance of bedding cover
HunterBob wrote:Is "maple leaf drop" what it sounds like, or is it something else?
When Maple leaves drop they are like sugar candy - deer will hit them hard
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