When trying to slip into these bedding areas and hunt them, what precautions are you guys taking to minimize human odor.
I don't believe you can minimize your scent enough to make a difference... My idea of scent control is to play the wind, and use a well planned access rought.
How do you guys approach these stands?
From down wind, quietly, and crossing as few of the deers trails as possible.
What are the risks of getting into a bedding area and bumping the big boy out of that "secure" area?
The risk is there, and occasionally it happens. But while scouting in winter/spring we are getting right in the bucks bed and picking are trees based on what he can see, hear, and smell... Only in the AM am I actually hunting in the bedroom. In the evening I am hunting where they stage from 50 to 200 yards from the bed.
Im going to play the role of devils advocate because sometimes in reading threads, I think a lot of people leave out the details of how to be successful. The formula, certainly is NOT, find bed+walk into bed=bruiser.
There are lots of details left out, but not on purpose, more so cause its so much information. I have two video's I sell in the online store: Marsh bucks & Hill country, they are tactical DVD's that go into great detail about the exact methods we use with good examples and maps... I will answer any questions you have, but the DVD's would shorten the curve dramatically.
In areas with small tracts of land 20-80 acre chunks broken into mainly ag ground and then scattered 10-30 acre wood lots, bumping a nice deer off that bed often times results in a change of scenery and the loss of access to that big buck because of property lines. So how do you combat that issue? Im always very hesitant to be too aggressive for that simple fact. I like to hunt close to bedding areas, but actually going into one and being within 100 yards of where I know they are bedded are 2 completely different things.
You only get a couple of cracks at a bedding area, I hunt about 5 days a week, and don't hunt the same bed twice very often. The trick is to have lots of ground, along with the small private I hunt, I also hunt a lot of public land. Mature bucks rarly move far from there beds in daylight. Sitting back a few hundred yards is just going to cement to him to stay in his bed longer. Moving in for the kill do or die style may seem to aggressive, but its better than not killing him because you sat back to far.