Buck bedding areas should be easy to locate on most land unless there is intense hunting pressure; the key lies in finding them in ways that provide hunting opportunities.
Outside the rut, bucks prefer bedding areas distinct from doe bedding areas; usually doe bedding areas will be aligned with food sources.
Maps and Apps
Searching public or private land, finding bedding areas begins by studying topographical maps and satellite imagery. This will enable you to pinpoint spots with sufficient cover and visibility while eliminating difficult-to-hunt locations from your initial search process.
Apps can also help you identify terrain features that attract bucks, like ridges, saddles, or benches. These areas serve as great vantage points and allow deer to easily spot approaching threats while offering escape routes if needed.
Search the map and consider wind direction when scouting for areas suitable for bedding buck. They prefer areas that offer them shelter from wind. Use an app such as Heat Map to get an idea of the amount of hunting pressure in an area and quickly identify spots with an increased chance of seeing less pressured hunting conditions, helping you pinpoint bedding areas.
Once you’ve identified several potential bedding areas, mark them on a map or app to save time when out hunting on foot by quickly narrowing down your search. Keep in mind, however, that just because a buck likes sleeping there doesn’t guarantee it will make a good hunting spot; before placing a stand in that area.
Maps and apps are great tools to make scouting easier, but they aren’t foolproof. While these resources provide useful data that may cut back on unnecessary scouting trips, in order to fully evaluate each potential bedding site for buck bedding, you will still need to visit each location yourself to assess if the effort was worthwhile.
While bedding areas for bucks may take various forms, most tend to share similar traits. They’re typically located near transition zones — areas where dense cover meets open areas such as fields or meadows — offering security, visibility, food, and water sources in abundance during fall migration. They might even be perched atop hills or ridges that provide great vantage points or in corners of timber patches with enough cover to ward off predators.
Scouting on Foot
Mature bucks typically seek bedding locations that provide scent, security, sight and proximity to food and water sources as well as downwind from any potential predators that could pose threats – this will allow them to avoid detection while providing escape routes should any dangerous situations arise. Furthermore, they opt for spots sheltered from elements and offering protection from strong winds.
Mature deer may move to different bedding sites throughout the fall depending on weather and hunting pressure, retreating into thick cover that conceals their movements as hunters approach, such as dense weeds, brushy areas, CRP fields or overgrown homesteads. By identifying these bedding locations early, identifying an advantage when hunting pressure increases will become significantly easier.
Scouting for buck beds can be done using maps and apps, but also requires spending some time walking. Eliminating easy-access locations using maps can save days of scouting while focusing on more challenging spots that have good potential to house mature bucks.
Keep an eye out for draw areas with drainages or creeks running through them to provide deer with access to water and travel routes, or use a map to locate ridges or hilltops that offer height advantages that give bucks an advantage in sensing potential threats before they are visible; such features could prove invaluable when hunting buck deer with an arrow.
Finding bedding areas of bucks requires looking for signs such as rubbed-up trees and rubs in nearby habitat. This will show where deer have been and may indicate where they will head next. To pinpoint specific bedding locations on a property, utilize all landscape elements at once, specifically locations with consistent rubs throughout the season.
Locating good bedding locations can help you formulate an effective hunt strategy in both early and late seasons. When hunting pressure increases, mature deer often retreat to these bedding spots – being able to locate them early can make all the difference when the hunt heats up!
Scent
Mature bucks choose their bedding areas according to security, scent, and proximity of food sources. They typically choose downwind of potential predators to avoid detection while having clear visibility for escape routes and water sources nearby. Beds also may be found close by to supplement feed sources for greater security and feeding options.
While bedding areas can vary in terms of size and cover type, most have a similar layout. Doe family bedding areas typically cover 10-40 acres in area and feature an irregularly-shaded checkerboard of saplings to mature timber with grassy openings in between. Buck beds, in contrast, tend to be much smaller – often bordered by brushy areas – often found within close proximity but more discretely than doe family sites.
Bucks use their beds both morning and evening for movement purposes, making them easily accessible to their daytime food sources and social meetings. A mature buck’s bedding area may even provide the ideal opportunity for ambushing him when he returns there during daylight hours.
Solitary beds of dominant bucks can be more challenging to locate; however, where buck rubs exist they are generally easy to identify. In the northern U.S. States, Iowa and Canada beds measuring 40-42 inches long represent 2-1/2 year-old bucks while bedding areas that measure 50-60 inches indicate they may be 3 1/2-6 year old bucks.
One of the most frequent mistakes deer hunters make when hunting buck deer is overlooking their bedroom. This mistake can be corrected by quietly creeping into a pre-set tree stand like an invisible predator, ready to surprise nocturnal bucks as they return home for breakfast each morning.
Although it is possible to kill trophy whitetails during rut hunting, most deer hunters are unable to consistently shoot big bucks due to scouting too far from a buck’s bedding area and missing his predictable movement into and out of his bedroom during daylight hours.
Thermals
While maps and apps may provide a good starting point for finding bedding areas for bucks, nothing beats physically exploring them on foot. Use satellite and topographical maps to identify large tracts of public land with lots of cover that hunters don’t frequent as these could be some of the most likely spots where bucks live.
Next, locate areas where thick cover transitions into open habitat such as fields or meadows – such as transitional zones between thick cover and open habitat can provide security and easy access to food and water sources for deer. Ridges and points that catch thermals may offer additional shelter from wind currents; bucks often like to bed with views of their surroundings while being shielded from winds when sleeping. Finally, if possible access weather data, try and find areas experiencing both hot and cold temperatures; this may influence where deer seek shelter or head out hunting.
Once you have identified several potential spots, visit them on foot to assess what kind of signs may be present. Rub lines and scrapes may indicate where a buck has bedded already; otherwise move on and check back later; over time you may discover where an adult buck’s core bedding area lies.
Dependent upon environmental and hunting pressure factors, a buck’s bedding area might only cover several acres. On open ag land with low cover it might even only stretch 200 yards wide! But this is not true of big woods and wilderness areas where deer may be forced further and further away by hunting pressure and herd stressors.
Deer can move easily between bedding areas without being detected, yet will typically return to their core area before sunset. This is particularly true of bucks as they want to be close to an ag field or food source so they can get there before dark. When bedding near these core areas, signs of their presence such as rubs and scrapes often remain evident during the day which will help you quickly locate their bedding area when temperatures change.