Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

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CHALK_1
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Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby CHALK_1 » Tue Sep 03, 2019 8:40 am

I’ve bumped a couple nice bucks this summer on small grassy or brushy points on beaver ponds. The wind was blowing from the pond to dry land. On one pt the buck was able to observe the access road as well. Is that wind direction common for small ponds specifically? Why wouldn’t the wind be opposite? Definitely seems easier to hunt, I can just access from a different direction.


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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Tue Sep 03, 2019 9:25 am

CHALK_1 wrote:I’ve bumped a couple nice bucks this summer on small grassy or brushy points on beaver ponds. The wind was blowing from the pond to dry land. On one pt the buck was able to observe the access road as well. Is that wind direction common for small ponds specifically? Why wouldn’t the wind be opposite? Definitely seems easier to hunt, I can just access from a different direction.


Really tough to answer because there are so many variables, but the bedding makes sense and I'll tell you why in a minute.

The size of the pond, the depth of the water, the thickness of the cover on each side of the pond, the safest route for the buck to approach and exit- all determine what the buck will do for bedding. There are other variables too, but I have found bucks bedded upwind, downwind and crosswind of small beaver ponds. Every time it takes us being analytical but we can typically figure out why.

The small pond you described had the buck bedded with the pond and wind to his back at the end of the small, grassy or brushy point... he can't be approached from the back side without the predator being detected. The small point has water on 3 sides of it.

There's only one direction his airborne scent and his ground scent are blowing and he is lying there watching his approach trail.

Sounds like fantastic instinct by the buck to me... you were detected and he lit out.

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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Tue Sep 03, 2019 9:31 am

By the way, the same holds true for potholes of water in farm country... the same factors will determine where the buck beds on any given day.

And there doesn't have to be a small point, the buck will typically bed inside the heavy cover next to the water based on those factors.
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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby headgear » Tue Sep 03, 2019 9:59 am

With a small bowl or beaver dam you might also see the wind swirling in different directions, when this happens the buck can sometimes smell up a larger area than they would with just a straight line winds. They will also have some kind of thermal in their favor before dark that can be more consistent than the wind.
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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby CHALK_1 » Tue Sep 03, 2019 10:53 am

Singing Bridge wrote:By the way, the same holds true for potholes of water in farm country... the same factors will determine where the buck beds on any given day.

And there doesn't have to be a small point, the buck will typically bed inside the heavy cover next to the water based on those factors.


Interesting...some of these spots you can tell might be better sitting early season before the vegetation dies down. In farm country I’m noticing more and more mature bucks bedded within 30 yards or so of access trails with good overlooked cover like Dan talks about & could care less about atv riders roaring by. I know a couple of these bucks watched me walk by a couple times before I went over to check the pond points and they busted out.
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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Thu Sep 05, 2019 1:32 pm

CHALK_1 wrote:
Singing Bridge wrote:By the way, the same holds true for potholes of water in farm country... the same factors will determine where the buck beds on any given day.

And there doesn't have to be a small point, the buck will typically bed inside the heavy cover next to the water based on those factors.


Interesting...some of these spots you can tell might be better sitting early season before the vegetation dies down. In farm country I’m noticing more and more mature bucks bedded within 30 yards or so of access trails with good overlooked cover like Dan talks about & could care less about atv riders roaring by. I know a couple of these bucks watched me walk by a couple times before I went over to check the pond points and they busted out.


Overlooked is the key term... getting human scent into the bedding you have will change things in a hurry.
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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby matt1336 » Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:06 pm

I’ve seen plenty of bedding on the edges of ponds that gives bucks a visual advantage looking across the pond. Thermals and swirling winds due to the bowl shape of the pond give bucks all kinds of advantages. I have bed just like this that I plan to hunt ASAP this year. I’m struggling to figure out a wind that’ll work for me and not the deer. I’m not sure that there’s one that’ll work well for me.
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Re: Beaver pond bedding & wind direction

Unread postby austin1990 » Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:33 pm

Singing Bridge wrote:By the way, the same holds true for potholes of water in farm country... the same factors will determine where the buck beds on any given day.

And there doesn't have to be a small point, the buck will typically bed inside the heavy cover next to the water based on those factors.


I think this bed I found a few weeks ago shows what you describe nearly spot on. The slough is basically a pothole of water now since its non moving and neither is the river at the moment due to dry weather. I wish I would of slowed down and videoed slower to showcase every detail better, but hindsight is 20/20. Plus I'm not much of a videoer lol https://youtu.be/2L977cEwPxM


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