All this talk about hunting bedding areas has been pretty cool. I' ve been hunting beds with limited success the last couple years, but mostly because of my own dumb mistakes. I deffinately see more deer though, and bigger bucks. Anyway...

Yesterday I was setting up a new deer camera next in between a Bed and a corn field. It' s a relatively small bed....lets get to the jist. I was making quite abit a noise, and I think this buck just got sick of me. He stayed bedded for about 20 minutes, then jumoed up......20 FEET FROM ME. Never even saw him till he stood up. He was ecery bit of 160 inches. He was still in full velvet. He was a solid 10 with a couple kickers....at lleast that' s how he looked as we stared at each other for 5 seconds. Anyway, was this really bad? What do you think? It' s only July. DO I need to relocate to a different bed or will he be back? I guess the camera will hopefully be able to tell me. What a great deer, and I hope to get him on camera....even better in the lungs. Just wanted to know if he will re-pattern himself or do you think he' ll stick it out and hang around. Hope he stays!!!

To be honest, I would be moving my trail cam further away from where you jumped him nearer to the cornfield. If this is an area that he likes to bed in, when you come to get the film out of the camera you will be in his home turf, you keep jumping him he will move on. Sounds like one heck of a buck, let us know if you get any pics.

It depends on when you plan on taking the camera down. You don' t want to be working in his area for 2-3 weeks before you start the season. Before that you won' t afect his behaviour all that much.

It is still the middle of July. He will be a whole different buck come cooler weather. That may be just a summer bed anyway.

Chubber

IMO this is not where he will be come Oct/Nov. He is just keeping himself close to the food source during the summer. There probably is a few age class bucks using the same area all summer.

Look for larger bedding areas in deeper - the same area but further from the field. Its hard to tell where he will go once the bachelor groups break up - but there is a good chance that some will stay relativly close to that area.

Good Luck

Thanks for the responces. It' s tough for me to move. I' m hunting farm land, so most of it is fence lines deviding fields. All the beds are just overgrown corn fields. Which is exactly what this small bedding area is. I trully think that the buck bedded down after an afternoon stroll. Seems like they are bedding in alarge 100 acre field, and travelling through a small (6 acres) timber are, then through this small bedding area, and into the corn. I think this big guy just decided to take a nap. I' ve been through this area four times this year, and never saw him. We' ll see what happens when the film is developed. I will say that these deer are pretty use to people and noise. The farmer drives through with his tractor pretty regularly. I' m the only hunter out there, but there are some farm hands that walk through as well. Anyway, I' ll post some pics if I can get some good ones. Thanks for the advice.

justhrowit

Arrows up!!!

The biggest advantage you have in this scenerio is that you are the only hunter. It sounds like you are well on you way to getting a pretty good idea what the deer are doing, and if it were me, on opening day I would be driving a tractor to my stand site dressed in farm clothes.

This is cut and dry.

C. Davis