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Let talk Beds/bedding area

Old 12-20-2010, 03:27 PM
  #1  
Fork Horn
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Default Let talk Beds/bedding area

I am in Eastern Va Richmond County. The area has plenty of woods and Ag fields. With the snow that came in on Thursday I went out Saturday Morning to get some more time in the woods to really see how the deer move threw the area. I had and idea of where the deer bedding area might be or at least where they past threw to get to it. I found a lot of beds but not in the areas that I thought.

I found beds that were very clean no snow at all. kind of like the deer was laying there when the snow started and left when it stopped with other beds around it that you could tell the snow had been melted down to the leaves and then refroze. maybe they came back to the same area for a second night.

I feel these beds where doe beds by the size and how many there were.

Or could a bigger deer have melted all the snow down with the littler deer not being able to melt it all the way.

As I try to improve my knowledge of deer and how they use the woods around them this bedding thing has me scratching head. I am archery only so getting close is the key.

will deer bed where ever they feel like it or do they have a core area? Maybe these deer felt they could not make it to there core area and just found the best spots. (I have not jump any deer in these spots but I could have and not know They could have seen me before I got there.)

What is your thoughts?

Last edited by bushanic; 12-20-2010 at 04:17 PM.
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Old 12-21-2010, 10:33 AM
  #2  
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It is one of those things where there is no definite answer. Hunter pressure has a lot to do with where deer bed, but I have actually watched deer bed down near me in Bow and Rifle season with no logical explanation as to why they chose that spot. If you spend a couple days out and there is snow on the ground, the beds usually seem to have no pattern at all. If you find a good food source in the woods where the deer have been scraping the snow and leaves away to feed, that area would be a more reliable place as long as the food holds out.
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Old 12-21-2010, 05:31 PM
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I think they tend to bed in a position where they can smell what they can't see, and also in spots where if anything or anybody came close they would hear the approach. And I know they bed for different reasons, in thick cover or shelter when the weather is real bad, and one more open knobs and hillsides when weather is better. Minnesota being "home" a lot of the beds I found were on South slopes of hills. Maybe to soak up sun and be out of the North wind?
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Old 12-22-2010, 02:42 AM
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What I found interesting was one bedding spot was not right on top of the ridge but on the (south) downward side near some thick mountain laurel on a really steep drop. The other bedding was also just the highest part of this other ridge with a bunch tree debris from the land clearing. That pile must help break the wind.

Both of these spots are not right in the open but they are on what I feel is a travel corridor, to and from could be the Ag Fields. I don't have permission to go on the property where the trails go deeper in but I feel there could be a core bedding area in the pines.

So would you think deer would bed in these spot regularly or is it still just something make note of.
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Old 12-22-2010, 04:45 AM
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The land we hunt has about 2000 acres of overgrown clear cut. They bed AND feed whereever they want. They just meander around and browse. Then they bed down when they feel like it. I've been hunting this area since 1984 and have not found any pattern.

And even with the clear cut, swamps, blueberry thickets, laurel thickets and steep mountain sides, I've seen them bed down in the open forest or even in a field.

Maybe, in farm country, they have a specific place to bed. Which is the woods, because everything else is field. But, in the big woods, there's not one spot.
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Old 12-22-2010, 07:56 AM
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Most of the beds that I've found here in Texas are either in heavy cover or some sort of break from the North winds. Other beds I've found are really close to their food sources and are pretty much out in the open or just enough cover to hide them once they lay down.

Another way to tell if they beds are new would be to check for the scat. That'll give u an idea if they are utilizing all the time or if it was just a makeshift bedding area.

Just my 2-cents
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Old 12-22-2010, 08:06 AM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by bushanic
What I found interesting was one bedding spot was not right on top of the ridge but on the (south) downward side near some thick mountain laurel on a really steep drop. The other bedding was also just the highest part of this other ridge with a bunch tree debris from the land clearing. That pile must help break the wind.
Well the south side of a hill is where they will get sun to warm up when its cold and just when they want to be lazy and deer definately run ridge lines, because i see it all the time, to scope out whats below i guess
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Old 12-23-2010, 01:11 PM
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Look up Dan Infault at huntingbeast, he is an expert mature buck hunter that has some great DVD in knowledge and theories.
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