Mature bucks select their sleeping areas based on scent, security and sight; with close access to food and water sources. Transitional zones — where thick cover such as forests meets open fields or meadows — may provide suitable options.
Keep an eye out for topographic features like saddles, ridges and benches which offer escape routes. Be sure to physically scout bedding areas while they remain covered with snow.
Topographic maps
Topographic maps are an invaluable tool for finding bedding areas, as they display the contours of the land. Use your topographical map to locate areas such as ridges, saddles, and benches where the cover is thickest for security against predators as well as food and water resources nearby.
Southwest-facing slopes offer two key elements that a buck looks for when choosing their bedding area: headwind and sunshine. A headwind helps deer sense danger before they see it while also providing warmth during winter. Mature bucks often find shelter behind dense stands of trees for protection from hunters coming downhill.
An essential factor when searching for bedding areas is having an escape route in mind. Consider steep terrain like ridges or gullies which offer quick exit routes in case of emergency. Bucks prefer bedding in places near water sources such as streams or ponds to ensure quick escape routes should something arise that requires immediate action.
As part of your research for bedding areas during the fall season, make sure that you remain quiet and scent-free so as to minimize risk of alarming any deer who might be present in your search area. Furthermore, take extra caution not to disturb rubs or droppings that have already been left behind when searching.
To identify likely bedding areas, utilize topographical maps and satellite imagery. These tools will enable you to identify areas with dense cover as well as food and water supplies, ridges, saddles or benches which offer shelter from wind while still allowing bucks to view their surroundings without being seen by predators; in winter time bucks often like to find spots with southern exposure where they can soak up some sun’s warmth – both these tools will assist greatly when selecting probable bedding areas for identification.
Apps
Bedding areas might seem inconsequential when compared with hot scrapes and rubs, but they play an integral part of any whitetail hunt. With ample cover, a good line of sight, and ample sunlight. Utilizing apps designed for mapping fresh bedding areas will allow you to quickly identify where the ideal locations on your property lie – even before setting foot into the woods!
Beds tend to be situated in thick cover that provides protection from predators while at the same time offering shelter from wind and cold. Such thick spots might include thick brush along a stream bank, swampy alder stands, thick pine ridges or large clusters of small trees; ideally they would also be nearby water sources or other food sources.
Bucks will often bed against something to provide additional cover and an uninterrupted line of sight – this is especially important on public land where hunting pressure often pushes deer beds apart. Look for secluded ridges or points with ample cover, along with strong north-south winds to locate where bucks typically rest their heads at night.
Some bedding areas may be home to individual bucks while others could house families of doe and fawns, who all occupy one bed at night or use it during the day as resting spaces for restful relaxation. When this occurs, a buck might use his bed as daytime resting spots rather than sleeping there overnight.
Apps can be extremely helpful when searching for a bedding area of a buck, but nothing beats physically visiting its site yourself. Use an app like OnX to mark bedding sites before visiting them on foot to study all their details – size, shape, color of beds; impressions left in the ground by antler impressions or signs nearby as these details could offer clues as to its habits and tendencies.
A buck deer standing at attention during the rut and the Wisconsin rifle hunting season.
Physical scouting
Deer bedding areas may often go overlooked, yet they play a critical role in successful buck hunting. A deer’s home base serves as the center from which all other movements emanate, such as food sources, funnels, trails and rubs. By learning where and when deer will congregate it allows hunters to better predict when and where they should hunt.
To pinpoint potential buck bedding areas, begin by studying topographical maps and satellite imagery. By employing these tools you can see the land through deer eyes, recognizing ridges, slopes, natural resources and hard habitat edges as they would appear from their perspective. Also look out for features favored by deer such as south-facing slopes that allow sunlight to warm them during winter and consider availability of water since deer need regular supply to drink and bathe themselves.
Next, physically survey the property, looking for signs of deer activity such as droppings and rubs. Walk every trail and ridge edge where possible and pay close attention at intersections where trails diverge. Pay particular attention at intersections where trails appear more frequently used by bucks than others; finally examine surrounding landscape for travel corridors connecting known food/water sources with anticipated bedding areas.
Pay particular attention when reviewing satellite images to bare ground and brushy areas that provide security, cover, food and water access. Also look out for areas containing thickets of riverside willows or cedars; isolated islands in grassy terrain; as well as horseshoe-shaped bends cut off from main streams that provide deer with good food, shelter and safe escape routes. Oxbows could also prove helpful.
Satellite imagery
Deer are known to choose bedding areas close to food sources and protected from predators for restful nights’ rest. Satellite imagery can help locate these bedding spots by showing converging hubs, transition lines, or any other features which lead to good hunting spots.
A buck’s ideal bedding area lies along or nearby natural travel routes such as ridgelines, valleys, or swale. These locations are known as “converging hubs.” Cruised bucks will find these hubs ideal because there will likely be several potential routes close by; making them suitable places for hunting stands or ground blinds.
Look for saddles – areas of lower ground between two higher elevations which serve as funnel zones – as these offer ideal ambush spots that funnel deer movement while simultaneously giving hunters the ability to conceal themselves well and ambush potential targets.
Deer are known to prefer areas with plenty of natural resources such as rivers or streams for bedding down. Furthermore, deer tend to gravitate toward areas featuring abundant brush cover as these make ideal places for them. Their bedding areas often lie adjacent to more resources such as fields or forests.
Scout for deer bedding areas by looking for oval depressions slightly larger than a deer, or mature buck beds will have spoke-like exit trails leading out and may feature a rub at its edge as well as an extended scent field around its perimeter. Such signs will provide an accurate assessment of whether an area would make for suitable deer buck bedding sites.
Weather data
Many hunters rely on maps and apps to locate bedding areas for deer hunting, but it is still essential to visit these spots in person and look for signs such as rubs and scrapes on the ground if possible. Doing this will allow you to better understand where deer spend time during both daytime and nighttime activity.
Pay special attention when studying topographic maps to the slopes of the land; deer often prefer sloping terrain for its security and wind protection, making bed on these sloping sections their home. Furthermore, clear cuts on edges of thick cover should also be noted since deer use them to access food and water resources.
Other aspects to keep in mind when looking for bedding areas for bucks include the wind direction and whether or not there is a clearing from which they can view their surroundings. Bucks typically prefer sleeping facing downwind so they can smell what’s behind them and avoid predators.
Other bedding sites to look out for include swales, CRP fields, ridge points and saddles, swamps, old field edges, thickets and overlooked pockets of early successional habitat. It can also help if the location offers both edge habitat and overhead cover – for instance a ridge or hillside provides both. Finally, finding deer bedding areas with south-facing slopes would provide radiant sunshine during the coldest times of year and make an excellent location to set up winter quarters if that’s possible – good luck and best wishes!