Bedding areas....

[Toke2]

I continue to try to be a student of the hunt. The more I read, the more I realize how much i have yet to learn. One big "miss" in my pre-hunt planning/scouting is that I that in my first couple of years hunting, I may have put too much stock in rubs and scrapes and not enough in bedding areas.

So I call on the collective knowledge you all. I hunt public land around a large lake. Water to my right ridge to my left. Probably 200-300 feet of elevation change from water to top of ridge. Top of ridge is about the end of the public land and beginning of non-hunter friendly land. At the top of ridge there is a mix of open fields with thick high grasses ( no crops) and some pine groves up there.

I have seen deer in the late day come down the ridge... so I assume they are bedding up top. Do they always bed up high? or might they bed also on the hillside and even close to the water? Any tips on Bedding areas would be appreciated.... specific to my situation or just in general.

Thanks!

[nomad_archer]

In my experience deer bed where they feel safe. If that is on the top of the hill of in the bottom of the valley. Typically I find deer are bedded close to food/water and in the thickest nastiest cover around. Best way to find the bedding areas is to walk your property. Find the rubs and scrapes and follow the rubline or trail they are on sooner or later you will run into a food source or a bedding area.

[mrbb]

a deer can and will bed any where, top of a hill bottom or in the middle
they tend to bed base on a lot of things, from safety being towards the top, where they can excape fast from, to places with thermals, to gain an advantage with scent traveling to them, and or in cover to protect from winds, and cold temps, summer they sometimes prefer shady places, winter sunny places
BUT typically deer tend to have learned behaviors, from being small and in social groups, I , MY opinion, is deer tend to learn from each other whan and where to bed, and develop traditional beding area's, from yr to yr, as long as things, like cover and food and water sources, and Pressures stay the same
but finding them places can be very very hard, and all the more so on large tracts of forest
the smaller the options for bedding places, as in many heavy farmed area's, the easier it becomes, simply due to deer having less places with good cover(well after certain crops come down,as any heavy crop hunter knows, deer will live in corn and other crops till its cut, and use that as bedding areas making a needle in a hay stack seem high odds of finding LOL)
in my next of the woods, swamps and thick hemlock pine stands, tend to be favored bedding area's, the swamps due to so few folks go in them, and the hemlock, due to they provide shade in summer, protect from heavy winds and rain and sbow all yr long, and seem to allow for faster quiet in's and out's for the deer, giving them heads up on anything coming near them and excape routes before they get seen
every place is different, and public lands, My first places to look would be thickest cover area's off the beaten path of where most folks would want to go, or, like where you hunt, the lands where NO hunting is allowed being a high odds area
as again, I feel deer learn from yr to yr where the safest places are to bed, and hard to beat a no hunting lands area for that
90% of the deer where I hunt all bed on NO hunting lands, only sadly cheaters do play by the rules
Good luck hope this helps a little

[no trespassing]

big woods deer can be tough to find their bedding.....so I basically made their own bed....I set aside the middle of my property as off limits to hunting/human entry. It's a nasty thick creek bottom with ridges on both sides. Probably close 30 acres I set aside as a sanctuary that I only enter in Feb to do some hinge cutting and maybe turkey season. Most of the deer I see come from there. They will find areas they don't get bumped. My neighbor just cut his 29 arcres so I expect that to be a bedding area as well.

[Toke2]

Thanks guys... so my take-away is that because I'm on public land finding where they are bedding down will really be tough ( especially since it could be anywhere). I suppose I will keep following the rub lines... using my cams and this year I'm trying some throw and grow... I appreciate you taking some time to share your thoughts....

[buckstalker17]

for me i will spend a little more time trying to find there staging areas where i hunt the staging area where most of my oaks are then i will start placing my camera on the trails leading to there and work my way back from there you can start to judge which trails they are using the most then you can start narrow the area they are coming from and before you know you will be rite in the middle of them and i will have my morning and evening spot..hope this help

[mrbb]

don't give up, its very possible to find bedding area's on public grounds
been doing that for yrs and yrs
public and private lands all can have pressure and disturbances' and great cover too
deer find safe places on public lands all the time, and why so many BIG bucks are killed on public lands every yr
BUT to be honest, you really don't want to be hunting in a bedding area,
area's between bedding and Food have always been my best luck
or just outside of bedding area's come the rut when bucks are scent checking bedding area's

[Mikebaker]

for me i will spend a little more time trying to find there staging areas where i hunt the staging area where most of my oaks are then i will start placing my camera on the trails leading to there and work my way back from there you can start to judge which trails they are using the most then you can start narrow the area they are coming from and before you know you will be rite in the middle of them and i will have my morning and evening spot..hope this help
Pretty much what I do as well. And I agree with not hunting right in a bedding area. There was a guy I knew that raised deer in 35 acre pens and he said if he walked thru a bedding area while the deer where up feeding they changed locations for a couple days but alway kept there feeding patterns where they was used to him going. I think deer will sometimes over look some scent where they except to come accross human scent. Bedding areas isn't one of them in my experiance. If you havnt seen this video, get it! "invading big buck areas" by Roger Raglin. Old but had some good tips. Funny too! lol