My favorite time to hunt bedding areas is in the early season in the evenings. With the leaves on the trees and thick foilage, it is a lot easier to slip in real close to where they bed down. I also like to do it on fairly windy days. This helps cover any noise that I make and often the wind will die down right before dark and that is when the bucks get on their feet.

I have had limited success hunting bedding areas in the mornings. It really doesnt matter how early you get to your stand, a big buck will nearly always scent check his bedding area from downwind before coming in to bed down. I have seen how they do this by back-tracking bedded bucks in the snow after jumping them from their beds. Most of the time it would have been next to impossible to set up on him and not be detected given the wind direction on that particular day.

Here is something else to consider regarding bedding areas. We all know that a buck will not bed in the same place every day. I believe however that a buck will have a prefered exact location within a larger bedding area. For example lets say a buck is bedding in a large weedy CRP field. He will not just walk out there and plop down anywhere. Instead he will have an exact location that he beds within that field with certain wind conditions and time of year. If you jump a big buck from his bed note the time of year and the wind conditions and everything else that you can. The next time that those conditions are the same, you have a good idea where to look for him. I often do this the following season. For example, if I saw a buck do something while undisturbed last season in Mid-October, I will get set up and be ready for him to do it again this season in mid-October. I just have to wait for the wind to be the same as it was the previous season when I saw it. Good luck