Bedding Hullabaloo

[BenAllgood]

Coming from Louisiana flat lands, I was both excited and intimidated by setting up bedding areas according to topography. I had draws that all had different slopes. I had north, south, east and west slopes. Thoughts that I was struggling with were numerous. Do I set thick cover at the top of the draws and leave them open at the bottoms? Do I thicken the bottoms and leave the slopes and tops open? Which slopes do I put thickets on? I could go on and on about different scenarios I contemplated. In flat Louisiana, you found the deer bedding in thickets. Trouble was, they're everywhere. You read and watch about north slope bedding for warmer weather, setup with some canopy for shade; south slope bedding with sunlit areas in cooler weather; thick overhead canopies for really cold. But, after being in Kentucky a while, in my area at least, they like to bed in the bottoms of draws. I think it mainly comes down to where the pressure is coming from. In my instance, the roads and houses and open areas are on the ridges right around me. The deer are all down in the draws. In another area I leased in Kentucky, the people, roads and houses were at the bottoms in wider valleys, and the deer were on those slopes on the hills (during the fall). In the summer, they did bed close to or right out in the beans or corn. But, during the fall, I remember one of my first hunts once leaf fall happened. I was walking across a picked corn field, and the hillside on the other side of the field exploded with flashing white tails about 1/3 of the way up the ridge. I did walk up there after and confirmed where they had been bedded. I didn't walk across the field anymore. Where I hunted in New York, the deer were on the tops around laurel thickets, again away from where the humans were. All of this was to say, I think deer may have preferences, but those preferences are overruled by pressure. Escaping pressure is the most important thing I've found no matter what the terrain or what part of the country was. I think that's the key to the whole bedding hullabaloo. Find where most of the pressure in your area comes from, and make bedding cover opposite of that.

 

[SwampCat]

My ground extends from paved highway to down in the river bottoms a mile from the nearest road. I have a forty acre parcel on the north end of my property that borders highway and a community made up of five acre properties. Seven adjacent landowners border that forty acres plus the highway - on the east, north, and west side. That forty had a hack n squirt contract that took out everything under six inches about four years ago. It is a jungle. I have a protein site along the south side of that forty, and this summer I had the largest bachelor herd at a single site I have ever had - 12 bucks including four mature bucks.

I protein feed in two other locations on my 350 acres and didnt have over five bucks at either of the other locations a mile from the nearest road. That said - most of the bucks left the site by the highway when the bachelor herd broke up. The bucks at the other feed locations stayed for the most part through the year. There is no lack of bedding cover in this area - it is everywhere.

To be honest - I dont even know what to think about it.

 

[TreeDaddy]

me neither

Im not sure we can "make deer bed where we want them to bed" as stated by some of the hinge cut apostles

find where they bed , make improvements accordingly

bill

 

[Tree Spud]

Find low pressure areas, allow them to have escape routes, and leave them alone. Bucks will sometimes bed close proximity to human activity areas if they sense they will not be pushed or hunted.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Im not sure we can "make deer bed where we want them to bed" as stated by some of the hinge cut apostles



bill

Ya mean I can't rake the ground bare underneath an overhanging branch on a flat bluff with a perfect 48" piece of log placed just right and expect bucks to bed there every night?

Spinazolla, LaPratt, and Sturgis all say you can. Heck, for $1500 LaPratt will even share with you his trade secrets if you attend his boot camp. LOL.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

View attachment 72502

Ya mean I can't rake the ground bare underneath an overhanging branch on a flat bluff with a perfect 48" piece of log placed just right and expect bucks to bed there every night?

Spinazolla, LaPratt, and Sturgis all say you can. Heck, for $1500 LaPratt will even share with you his trade secrets if you attend his boot camp. LOL.

I accidentally clicked on a link to a podcast cause they got me with how to keep deer off your neighbors clickbait. They had this lapratt slob on there. I was astounded that anyone on planet earth took him seriously. In the three minutes i made it he was talking about making the bedding right up next to the neighbors stand and cutting little holes in the brush so the deer could watch the neighbor walk to his stand and then the deer would know your neighbor was the bad guy and go the other way.
I feel like that guy has never thrown away a two liter bottle or hostess cupcake wrapper in his life

 

[BenAllgood]

I accidentally clicked on a link to a podcast cause they got me with how to keep deer off your neighbors clickbait. They had this lapratt slob on there. I was astounded that anyone on planet earth took him seriously. In the three minutes i made it he was talking about making the bedding right up next to the neighbors stand and cutting little holes in the brush so the deer could watch the neighbor walk to his stand and then the deer would know your neighbor was the bad guy and go the other way.
I feel like that guy has never thrown away a two liter bottle or hostess cupcake wrapper in his life
View attachment 72503

I saw that one. All the neighbor would have to do is setup food on his property and catch them coming out of that bedding. Pretty dumb. He just did half the work for me.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I saw that one. All the neighbor would have to do is setup food on his property and catch them coming out of that bedding. Pretty dumb. He just did half the work for me.

Exactly the same thought I had. Sure go ahead and put bedding right next to me, I’ll put a food source by me and play the wind accordingly.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

So to your point, I’m sure our topography is similar. I can’t find rhyme or reason to where they bed. I’ve watched deer bed in the middle of wide open bottoms and all heights up a slope. I’ve also seen them bed in spades in cedar flats to the middle of wide open of food plots to old field habitat. I think the one place I haven’t seen them bed, or seen beds is the middle of high stem count overgrown cuts. I think they feel “trapped” in there.

 

[BenAllgood]

So to your point, I’m sure our topography is similar. I can’t find rhyme or reason to where they bed. I’ve watched deer bed in the middle of wide open bottoms and all heights up a slope. I’ve also seen them bed in spades in cedar flats to the middle of wide open of food plots to old field habitat. I think the one place I haven’t seen them bed, or seen beds is the middle of high stem count overgrown cuts. I think they feel “trapped” in there.

That's why I think it's all pressure related. In Louisiana, I've seen them bedding in the middle of briar patches so thick that they would have practically had to eat their way in. In other areas, that's too thick. I think they bed where they're not going to get killed. Certain things may be preferred depending on the pressure. Make something safe, and that's where they'll be.

 

[Brian662]

In hill/bluff country they definitely seem to want to bed at certain elevations. Normally it would be the military crest looking down the hill with the wind at their back. Finding these locations and improving them has been a successful endeavor for me. Ideally a property would have these elevations available for every wind direction and you could hunt accordingly.
This isn't to say deer won't bed in the draws or bottoms, they most certainly will but that mostly happens from pressure, IMO. Human pressure or herd pressure can move deer to less desirable locations.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Brooks Johnson discusses these ideas^^^^^^ in the 'skeleton plan' that he will draw up for your property for 100$ using aerial imagery

The plan is a 20 minute video

I learned a tremendous amount about topography ,deer behavior, bedding,access,etc as it applies to my place

What the hey, to me it was well worth 100$


bill

 

[SwampCat]

I dont really, truly know, what is classified as a deer actually “bedding”. Is bedding a deer like this mature buck laying down in a food plot for 45 minutes like this buck did - chewing his cud the whole time?



Is bedding when a deer actually lays its head down on the ground, shuts its eyes, and goes to sleep. The 12 bucks in my bachelor herd last summer largely bedded in a forty acre patch of hack n squirt timber that was right next to 7 private properties but those folks who lived on those lands did not venture into that land. I rarely went in there myself, and I owned it. Those deer were bedding within a 100 or 200 yards of kids and dogs and a paved highway. BUT, nobody went in there

Below is far and away the favorite place for deer to bed on my ground. It has a sxs trail all the way around it and a trail bisecting diagonally from one corner to another. We a around and through this 40 acres every other day from when it dries out in July until it gets too wet - any day now. Our deer are not stressed during winter - in fact, it might be the easy time of the year for them. These are ash trees - thick enough to shade out understory. There is a sedge that grows on the ground that affords them cover that they can see over. They bed in this year round. Second pic down is growing season. There is always a breeze that probably keep some bugs away and good for smelling potential predators, the overstory keeps it shaded and cool in summer. Northern folks think of thermal cover to keep their deer warmer in winter. I think of thermal cover to keep them cooler in summer. This is the most used cover type for deer on my place




But, even though I see bucks bedded in the above habitat, the oldest of my bucks, during season, seem to prefer timber that has more cover/stem counts - tsi ground, five yr old clearcuts, swamp/button brush that is not yet flooded.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've found that more-mature bucks don't bed with doe / family groups anyway. They go to their own places, usually with other bucks of similar class, which may be far from doe groups for most of the year. They start moving in closer when the wind starts to have a pretty smell. In the Pa. mountains anyway .......... YMMV.

 

[omicron1792]

I’ve come to find old bucks really do like the thick stuff….with a caveat. They still want overhead tree cover too. I find tons of does in new clear cuts, but not bucks. I do find the bucks winding the south side during rut.

The 5-10 year old clear cuts is where I find bucks bedding. Still thick and gnarly but with 10-15feet young pines. Something about them craves both low and high cover.