RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

I gotcha Jeff. I kind of got wrapped up in addressing several posts at once.
But yes, I think whatever a person can do to their property to provide food and shelter, just makes sense. If you have one and not the other, you are probably better off adding the one you are missing…..
However, in the oddball situation where one has neither but the spot is a dynamite travel corridor, THAT may merit leaving it as is, to make entry & exit while hunting easier, and with less impact (deer spooking)

And another thing regarding my spot….I wish I had less bedding areas. There are too few areas that I can get into without the increased potential of spooking a deer out. Too much of a good thing I guess.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

I guess what I am saying is that the closer yoiu can get to meeting all of a whitetails needs on a certain property, the more luck you will have holding them. Ag fields are great for nutrition, but these are destination feeding areas that are mainly visited after dark. This does not do you much good on mature bucks, EXCEPT knowing what direction theymight be traveling. You need bedding areas, staging areas, and maybe some small hunting food plots they can browse in on the way to their destination plots. Try and manage the bucks daylight time, that is whats important to the hunter.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

ABSOLUTEY valid points. In reality.....when I say I "wish" I could hunt them in the parks system (the 230 acres I often elude to).....it's probably best that I can't.;)

Crittr:

I look at hunting as staging (the hunter) between points of interest. If we can manipulate these points (add bedding areas, food plots, etc...)....we BETTER know where to stage. Right now....they use this area (parts of it) as a travel corridor. But the bedding areas they're traveling from.....are a good ways off. So....their travel routes to these spots is sporadic. By providing them with a known point......and knowing what that next point is.....we can know, better, wehre to stage to kill them.

It works like that in my head:D

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

In your situation jeff, i think that you might want to create a few smaller bedding areas as opposed to one larger one. My reasoning is i know that you are targeting mature bucks, not just any buck. Im no expert, but i would think that one mature buck would likely not allow any other mature animals bed in "his" bedding area. My setting up a few bedding areas, perhaps you could entice a couple of mature bucks to set up shop in your are. Just a thought.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

nj....don't give me too much credit. To this point....I've been an "opportunist". What you mention is what I'd LIKE to be able to do. Unchartered waters, though.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

That's a situation I see a lot around here. We have a lot of grapevine and other tangles that grow up the trees that create dense cover. Eventually what happens is these vines will bring down some of the canopy which opens the door to the multiflora rose and other thick underbrush. Obviously these areas are great bedding area and they seem to be everywhere. There is one spot that I have that has a bunch of soybean fields surrounded on all sides by this cover. So I have to determine from the wind where I think the deer will be bedded and hope that I'm right to hunt it, because since the whole area is a potential bedding area I could kick up deer no matter how I got in.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

Folks seem to be missing one point. In some areas, everyone seems to be working the usual food plots, feeders, minerals, etc. to attract and hold deer. So, in some cases you are actually competing with neighboring folks for deer. One would think that even if you place a priority on the usual strategies, working the bedding angle as well might give you an edge up on the other folks in the area.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

First of all, I don't have time to read the whole thread right now, but did read about the first half of the first page.

I agree 100% with your first post Jeff. This is something we focused on heavily with our property. We already had outstanding bedding areas that were used with frequency, but in my opinion you can increase the carrying capacity by providing that cover. This is what we did. When we had the logging project done on the property, we had a ton of the tree tops moved onto a specific sidehill. The deer now bed there EVERY day like clockwork. Now we have 6 core bedding areas on the property in total, that you can see deer in on any given day. The food plot work we have done has been good because in my opinion we have reduced the deers core area size, they now don't need to roam as far for good food sources. The other thing we have done is make certain bedding areas much more attractive and used with much higher frequency because of placement of the food plots. I have one bedding area that is now probably my most consistent producer of deer sightings that before the plots rarely had deer. Now they are in there every day........because there is food less than 100 yards from it and they don't get pressured on the food source or in the bedding area.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

Absolutely Jeff, I agree. I have a place I hunt, a very samll place, maybe 5 acres. But it is a very good funnel. 160 acres of irrigated alfalfa to the east, 300 acres of wheat to the west, bedding areas to the south. It is just a point of trees that extends into these fields from the bedding areas. It is just a travel corridor, or used to be. Before I added some small hunting plots in it, with a mineral station, and some manipulation of the actual travel lanes with a chain saw. Next year I am putting in a guzzler to provide some water.

It has changed from just a travel corridor into an area they are comfortable in at any hour of the day. Deer will move in there all day long due to the heavy cover and proximity to the bedding areas (which are not on my property, and hunted by someone else). I do not have room to put bedding areas in there, I have just tweaked things to make it a more attractive place for the deer.

RE: Are we going about this all wrong?
 

Out of all the land that I presently hunt (100 acres), I have at any given time a bedding area within 50 to 100yds of all of my stands. I refuse to hunt an area that does not provide cover for deer. I believe this is the biggest mistake a hunter can make, that is hunting bucks. If they do not have adequate bedding "and" travel cover, they will not be seen as often. Just my experience.

Don't forget though, if a deer has more bedding in your area and less food, chances are, they will travel away from your land to eat, and therefore probably find bedding in that area as well. There definately has to be an equal, or almost equal amount for holding deer to your property.Just an observation.

LT