Always Makes Me Grin...

[bowriter]

when I hear someone talk about finding a bedding area or something to that affect.

I have been hunting TN since 1972, and I know with certainty, I could not find a bedding area if I had to. I also think, if you could ask a deer where they liked to bed, they would look at you with a blank expression.

I do know this: Finding a bed or six, jumping a deer or seeing a deer bed down, does not constitute a bedding area. I have learned that in woodland ridge country deer in general and bucks perhaps in particular prefer to bed on the more open ridges. In the Midwest, especially in shotgun only states, they like to bed in big, open fields. In Manitoba, they bed in grassy river bottoms except for when they don't.

One year, back when it still snowed, I found a dozen or beds in a pine thicket. I assumed it was a bedding area. Of course it was...when it snowed six inches. The rest of the time, they did as deer so often do. They bedded wherever they felt like it.

For that reason, I have not given the slightest thought to worrying about where a deer beds because 90% of the time, I would be wrong.

 

[timberjack86]

I will agree mostly BW.But I do know of a thick hollar with a creek running thru it that always has a deer or two bedded in it.This is public land that is heavily pressured btw.But I agree 90% of the time deer will bed where they darn well please.

 

[OnceMoreIntoTheFray]

100% agree. On the farms I hunt, I find where deer bed down all over.

 

[catman529]

Depends on where I guess. The 40+ acre field where I tracked that buck always has fresh beds everywhere, especially in the thicker stuff. I just call that whole field a bedding area even though they do more than just bed in there.

 

[Public land rat]

ive hunted a spot for several years and i can tell u 4 sure that the deer in this area bed the same ridge thicket year after year. shot 2 bucks this weekend cruising that ridge top. they are checking for bedded does. every time i walk thru that area, which is only to retrieve my deer there are beds all through the area. I hunt one side of it in the mornings and the other side in evenings.

 

[Shed Hunter]

There are places deer are more likely to bed (saafer areas) but deer definately don't bed in the same spot continuously. I think people fail to realize how much deer move and bed down in a given 24hr period.

 

[Mike Belt]

The only specific areas I know that deer bed are dependant on the surrounding terrain. When you have quite a bit of open territory with few thick areas you can almost bet that's where they're bedding. Conversely where I hunt over 50% of the area is thick and many of those thick areaqs are 100's of acres so no way to even begin to guess where they'd be.

 

[Elmer]

I have killed many deer, and millions others have been killed in between known bedding and known feeding areas.

 

[JGreg]

Bw I 70% agree. There are areas that deer bed more often, but I have never found an area that deer bed always.

 

[BSK]

WHAT!? You mean that the pictures below don't mean I've found a bedding area in the middle of a logging road, on the edge of food plot, and right on top of a scrape? Dang, and just when I thought I was learning something...

 

[JGreg]

Guess he found the lazy way to tend a scrape...

 

[westtntoms]

Great pics BSK!

 

[catman529]

BSK quit posting Radnor lake pictures, tame deer don't count

 

[Shed Hunter]

BSK, it's funny you posted that pic.. last week I jumped a group of deer and when I got to where they were at, I found 7 different bed spots within a 10yrd radius of a scrape. That made three times I've jumped bedded deer in that area and that same day I had a doe bed up 50 yards from me. This is all open pine/oak ridges too. I definately wouldn't call it a bedding area though.

I thought about backing off from that spot but I went Sunday and rattled two up.

 

[whistlinwingman]

I agree partially as I find many beds in different areas. I do have a "sanctuary" area that I don't enter unless I am retrieving a deer. Many deer enter and exit this area and is an absolute hot spot. I don't know what all goes on in there, but I do know the deer stay in there often.

I believe pressure has a lot to do with when and where the deer bed.

 

[bowriter]

Oh come on. Surely you don't think deer react to pressure. That makesme just laugh and laugh. I wonder how releasing all those problem bears will affect them at Cheatham?

 

[BSK]

I agree partially as I find many beds in different areas. I do have a "sanctuary" area that I don't enter unless I am retrieving a deer. Many deer enter and exit this area and is an absolute hot spot. I don't know what all goes on in there, but I do know the deer stay in there often.

I believe pressure has a lot to do with when and where the deer bed.

Without question, hunting pressure drives deer to utilize thick sanctuary cover during daylight. But is it a true "bedding area" or is it just sanctuary from hunting pressure?

I've got lots of sanctuary areas scattered around my property, but I still find fresh deer beds out in the middle of open hardwoods, often just a stones throw from the thick sanctuary cover.

 

[Winchester]

I think deer are sometimes more comfortable bedding where they can see a good distance with the wind at their backs, especially during rain and windy conditions. Matter of fact they will often bed in wide open fields during times of heavy rain and high winds! Ive seen them bed anywhere from thickets to open fields to old barns with a roof over their heads!

 

[BigD_625]

Right on.

 

[Coach]

Bowriter, I agree that the deer would look at you with a blank stare! Ha....How would you differentiate between a bedding area and an area where deer are "yarding" up?

 

[infoman jr.]

I've found a way to make buck beds, but this only works when they're in velvet. It's kind of a proprietary method, but it involves corn and a mineral block. The deer on the right laid there for 50 minutes.

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

I hunt several overgrown fields. Haven't been bushhogged for years. I get on the stand before daylight I often see deer stand up feed a little and go back to the same area and lay back down .I thought it was called a bedding area. Guess I was wrong ??What is the area called ?? a laying down area ??

 

[Winchester]

There are definitely bedding areas, meaning areas deer will often bed. There is nothing iron clad that says they will always bed there, but definitely some areas are preferred on a given piece of ground.