Buck bedding behavior

[Chainsaw]

Where is everyone finding the better bucks of your property to be bedding this time of year? Here during this week which is muzzle loader season some bucks seem to bed in strange places. One monster this year was holding up in a golden rod patch for about a week here and he apparently changed his bed location several times throughout that week but still stayed in that patch. The golden rod patch which is only a few acres in size is located between two winter wheat fields. Visibility when kneeling in the beds is all of six inches in any direction except straight up. Such beds are not noticed every year but there have been others over the years such as this one and always it has been during this time period.

 

[Elkaddict]

Bucks here are in transition. Traveling more at night and bedding in different places. I’ve got a 41/2 year old bedding in the same spot in a clover plot a few yards from corn, Rutabagas and alfalfa. He moves just before daylight back to the hinge cuts.

 

[Buckly]

Seems this is common. I have several ladder stands that are in extremely thick brush just off of fields. I have paths cleared to the stands and every year when I go and whack out the brush around the bottom of the ladder, on many occasions a mature buck will start bedding at the bottom of the ladder. There is no visibility in these spots except straight up. I have also seen many big bucks bed in the golden rod of a completely flat field. No view at all. Once the late fall and winter really set in, I notice they bed in more open higher spots with a view. Sometimes a knoll right out in the open woods and upon further inspection find that knoll maybe only a couple inches higher than any other knolls around.

 

[Deadeye]

The thick brush and more so the Golden Rod Fields give them a sense of Security and they rely on the Wind to bring them Danger.
There were some years back in Pa where the Bucks all seemed to disappear. Guys started to do Man Drives in the Standing Corn Fields and the Hay Fields, like the Golden Rod Fields, and they found the Deer had moved to them for safety.

Another old trick was to drop some guys off along the Interstate and Drive the Median Woods. Amazing how many Bucks hid there once the Shooting started.

 

[j-bird]

I find the bucks do one of two things. Either they move to the areas/properties where they know they are less likely to be pressured. Biggest buck in my area tends to be hit by a car about 2 miles from me every year because the lady has a cedar thicket surrounded by ag fields that is NEVER hunted. It's about 6 acres and that's it.

I then seen bucks bed like others have mentioned. They will find an area where they can use the wind and sight if possible and only need enough cover to hide their body. I have seen them bed in a low spot in an ag field that held water so only weeds grew and the combine went around that is less than 20 feet square. However the low hid their body and in the flat field they had a 360 degree view with the wind to boot. It was going to be impossible to get within 300 yards of that spot without him seeing you.

I see this when they bed in the woody brush of the houses in my area as well. They county requires a property to be like 5 acres to build on. Most folks don't maintain the entire 5 acres so there is a brushy few acres and those deer will find those places and hang out.

When the equipment hits the fields and the hunters hit the woods....the deer have to change tactics as well. Sometimes the best place to hide is exactly where nobody would expect you to be!

 

[Chainsaw]

Bucks here are in transition. Traveling more at night and bedding in different places. I’ve got a 41/2 year old bedding in the same spot in a clover plot a few yards from corn, Rutabagas and alfalfa. He moves just before daylight back to the hinge cuts.

Good info Tom, thanks. I had presumed the buck was bedding there during daylight which he could have been since I saw him in the wheat field 100 ft. from the beds at 5 p.m. But maybe he was just getting there from our thicker woods and staying there all night like the buck on your property is doing. I have in other years jumped bucks from such spots in the middle of the day. It is always quite the rush as I'm sure you have experienced as well when a buck leaps out from the grass at ones' feet like a pheasant often does.

These days we usually do not walk thru any cover like golden rod. Not used to missing a deer and it appears to have been a clean miss at the mentioned deer, I checked every possibility I could think of and that is when the beds were discovered the other evening. I have practiced longer range shooting than I am used to but apparently not enough.

Buckly, my experience here has been the same as you regarding later in the season, they seem to bed in more traditional spots such as we have come to expect. I have not had one though bed at the base of a ladder stand; that makes for some creative entry and exit for sure.

Dead eye, I've heard that about the medians here also but we can't do that here; it would cause too many accidents; This golden rod bedding is not in response to pressure at this time as there is very little pressure on this property at this time. It is just something strange at least for here that they would bed there when seemingly better options are available.

Jbird, the combines have recently begun hitting the corn fields in this neighborhood so as you stated that could be why they are behaving as they are.

One thing is certain regarding buck beds, the more experience I get the more unknowns there are that surface.

 

[Buckly]

It's just the circumstance. Heavy brush at the bottom of the stands. Once a hole is cleared out and the path leads right to them they seem to find them quite easily. Once they have been bumped out several times from checking cameras or other things then they move on but, late summer into early fall I can almost count on bucks bedding at the bottom of those stands. They are long gone from those beds by hunting season. It is at that time I believe they move to the standing corn AG fields. The corn provides all the cover and food they need starting September on. It's very rare to see a mature buck here past mid September until the corn is cut, at that time is when they appear again and start bedding in what I would say traditional buck bedding areas.

 

[Deadeye]

It's just the circumstance. Heavy brush at the bottom of the stands. Once a hole is cleared out and the path leads right to them they seem to find them quite easily. Once they have been bumped out several times from checking cameras or other things then they move on but, late summer into early fall I can almost count on bucks bedding at the bottom of those stands. They are long gone from those beds by hunting season. It is at that time I believe they move to the standing corn AG fields. The corn provides all the cover and food they need starting September on. It's very rare to see a mature buck here past mid September until the corn is cut, at that time is when they appear again and start bedding in what I would say traditional buck bedding areas.

Tying into this comment on deer using the easy path, I know guys (with my Brother being one of them) that say if you cut lanes in the brush the deer will stop using that area.

I set up a new stand on his property for me to hunt out of and he was insistent that I not cut any shooting lanes through the heavy brush patches. He helped me set it and while I wanted to clear some more he said no. I did go back and trim a few more branches to allow me to see where a trail crossed. That first year (the stand was set only days before the season opened) I didn't shoot a buck from it.

He hunted it the following year during Pa Archery and saw maybe the biggest buck of his life from it. But it was staying in the brush and he couldn't get a shot. First thing he told me was "we need to clear out some trails in that brush so you can get a shot". Ha ha.

In my experience when I have cleaned out trails through brush the deer start to use those trails within a month. They are just like most of us and will take the easier path if one becomes available.

BTW the year following setting that stand I saw a nice old buck walk through one of those openings. A few Grunts and he walked back to see where that other Buck was, giving me a shot.

 

[X-farmerdan]

And I had just the opposite experience last Saturday evening. Archery hunting, I offered a doe bleat and a grunt here and there. Twenty minutes later nice buck within 25 yards, but he stayed in the brush, never setting foot in the two or three sparsely trimmed shooting lanes. I started regretting cutting those opening....and i mean to tell you they aren't very big.

I offer this because I've been thinking about some of the responses to Chainsaw's question. It made we wonder if, maybe, sometimes deer are like little kids. Do they think if they can't see me then i can't see them?

 

[Deadeye]

And I had just the opposite experience last Saturday evening. Archery hunting, I offered a doe bleat and a grunt here and there. Twenty minutes later nice buck within 25 yards, but he stayed in the brush, never setting foot in the two or three sparsely trimmed shooting lanes. I started regretting cutting those opening....and i mean to tell you they aren't very big.

I offer this because I've been thinking about some of the responses to Chainsaw's question. It made we wonder if, maybe, sometimes deer are like little kids. Do they think if they can't see me then i can't see them?

How long had it been since you cut the lanes? I find that it be a BIG Factor in if the deer will use them or not.

In all honesty Does and Young Bucks will start to use them fairly quickly, like 2-3 weeks. Older more wary Bucks might take a year or close to it until they accept it as a natural part of the terrain.

 

[Chainsaw]

As some of you might remember we had our property logged during the same period that we began implementing the habitat plan that Steve Bartylla had put together for us. Part of the plan were sidewalks for the deer. The sidewalks were setup just as if we were landscaping a garden;Sidewalks went from one focal point to another and are planned so that they can be accessed here and there without disturbing the deer excessively. From what I saw the sidewalks in order to be used had to bring the deer to somewhere they wanted to go as well as have the illusion of safety to the deer and in some cases they needed to out compete an existing "sidewalk" that the deer may have made and used from many generations ago.

Usually to setup the sidewalks Steve blocks competing ones and uses dropped trees/hinge cuts to steer the deer into and along the sidewalks. In my case the logging cut off many of the natural sidewalks; to install some of the sidewalks as per the plan, I marked out the sidewalks and then walking backwards and into the wind simply sprayed a herbicide mixture where I wanted to put the sidewalks in. The chainsaw was also used where needed to move the sidewalks thru the tops of heavily cut areas (all tops were left in place by the loggers except where we clear cut poplar). Quickly the surrounding brush grew in "everywhere" except for the sidewalks.There are miles of sidewalks left to install still as I wanted to see it work first before doing the entire property. It works here but as in everything, not always.

Most installed sidewalks were used by seemingly all the deer pretty quickly while for some the deer have made their own that run parallel to mine and those deer made sidewalks run thru heavier cover than the ones we installed and are extremely winding with straight views not exceeding much more than ten yards except where terrain dictates a straight run. And our experience here is somewhat limiting as most of the deer here are less than 3 1/2 years old. Shooting lanes of course usually are straight so it makes sense that some deer won't use or walk in them and especially if they have even the slightest hint of something amiss. Making shooting lanes more winding makes them less effective but may make them more used. Perhaps making them with 3 ft. high not-thinned brush sections to break up the long view could facilitate more use even if they are cut straight.

I like your "little kid concept" X-farmer Dan; We all see it in use regularly with our trail cams. I had not connected it up before but I guess that is what the deer are doing when they "hide" their body behind the tree and then just stick out one eye around the trunk to stare at the camera or even sometimes to stare at us. I'm sure many on here have hundreds of pics like that.

And Dead-eye and Buckly, we also see the deer using the easy paths cut through fallow fields or low brushy spots fairly quickly until hunting starts, then most daytime movement involves heavier cover here. As Buckly found on his property applies here as well,once the corn is cut and the hunting starts the deer seem to favor more traditional type bedding locations. I'd just trying to figure out a way to capitalize on that transition bedding period as Elk Addict calls it; it hits here during early muzzle loader during the most comfortable time of the year.

The transition period seems to just ended here now and the movement patterns of our older deer are mainly outside of legal and safe shooting hours. That should change here in just a short week or so though.

 

[X-farmerdan]

As some of you might remember we had our property logged during the same period that we began implementing the habitat plan that Steve Bartylla had put together for us. Part of the plan were sidewalks for the deer. The sidewalks were setup just as if we were landscaping a garden;Sidewalks went from one focal point to another and are planned so that they can be accessed here and there without disturbing the deer excessively. From what I saw the sidewalks in order to be used had to bring the deer to somewhere they wanted to go as well as have the illusion of safety to the deer and in some cases they needed to out compete an existing "sidewalk" that the deer may have made and used from many generations ago.

Usually to setup the sidewalks Steve blocks competing ones and uses dropped trees/hinge cuts to steer the deer into and along the sidewalks. In my case the logging cut off many of the natural sidewalks; to install some of the sidewalks as per the plan, I marked out the sidewalks and then walking backwards and into the wind simply sprayed a herbicide mixture where I wanted to put the sidewalks in. The chainsaw was also used where needed to move the sidewalks thru the tops of heavily cut areas (all tops were left in place by the loggers except where we clear cut poplar). Quickly the surrounding brush grew in "everywhere" except for the sidewalks.There are miles of sidewalks left to install still as I wanted to see it work first before doing the entire property. It works here but as in everything, not always.

Most installed sidewalks were used by seemingly all the deer pretty quickly while for some the deer have made their own that run parallel to mine and those deer made sidewalks run thru heavier cover than the ones we installed and are extremely winding with straight views not exceeding much more than ten yards except where terrain dictates a straight run. And our experience here is somewhat limiting as most of the deer here are less than 3 1/2 years old. Shooting lanes of course usually are straight so it makes sense that some deer won't use or walk in them and especially if they have even the slightest hint of something amiss. Making shooting lanes more winding makes them less effective but may make them more used. Perhaps making them with 3 ft. high not-thinned brush sections to break up the long view could facilitate more use even if they are cut straight.

I like your "little kid concept" X-farmer Dan; We all see it in use regularly with our trail cams. I had not connected it up before but I guess that is what the deer are doing when they "hide" their body behind the tree and then just stick out one eye around the trunk to stare at the camera or even sometimes to stare at us. I'm sure many on here have hundreds of pics like that.

And Dead-eye and Buckly, we also see the deer using the easy paths cut through fallow fields or low brushy spots fairly quickly until hunting starts, then most daytime movement involves heavier cover here. As Buckly found on his property applies here as well,once the corn is cut and the hunting starts the deer seem to favor more traditional type bedding locations. I'd just trying to figure out a way to capitalize on that transition bedding period as Elk Addict calls it; it hits here during early muzzle loader during the most comfortable time of the year.

The transition period seems to just ended here now and the movement patterns of our older deer are mainly outside of legal and safe shooting hours. That should change here in just a short week or so though.

An absolutely marvelous analysis and synthesis of your experiences, and summary of the posts in this thread. Fantastic, Chainsaw!
Thank you!

 

[Native Hunter]

Dave, my answer is probably going to surprise you - I don't know where they are bedding.

That's because my movements are so limited at this time of year. Other than going to my cameras and walking to the stands, I'm not going anywhere else on the property. I figure if a big one is bedded down and I accidentally jump him, I could ruin my chances of harvesting him. My camera locations are also in non intrusive places away from where I suspect deer are bedding.

The day before our ML season opened I decided to walk to the blind that my son and I would be hunting out of the next day. I wanted to make sure everything looked okay and we wouldn't have any surprises coming into it the next morning before daylight. When I arrived at that blind it was late morning - maybe close to 10 AM. Low and behold, I looked across a big field in a wide shooting lane I had mowed back in September, and there stood that big 8 point he ended up killing the next day. He must have stood there 5 minutes and then just slowly lumbered out of the lane and disappeared into the tall grass. Something tells me he was probably bedded very close to that spot.

I might mention that the spot where he was standing was not anywhere close to timber. The only woods nearby is a 30 acre spot over 300 yards away. It was in the middle of a 20 acre NWSG field. The last time I was there was when I mowed the lane in early September.

That's a long winded answer for me to tell you that I can't answer the questions....

 

[Drycreek]

I can't answer that question either, at least not definitely. I have an idea of the general area, from trail cam pics at my mineral blocks. The theory being that bucks in the early stages of antler growth are probably bedding fairly close to where you get them on camera, especially at that time of year. To bolster my theory, I noticed that I didn't get many deer pics at all for a period of time after I had a thinning cut done to the timber on that end of the place. There simply wasn't enough cover for them. After it grew up a bit, they were back at my blocks during the day as well as at night. So, as the terrain fits a bedding area, and they scrape each year up and down the narrow trail that runs through there, I think it's a bedding area. We mostly hunt my food plots and pretty well stay out of the woods this time of year because it's only 217 acres. The does hit the plots, the bucks hunt the does.