Bedding Areas vs. Feeding Areas

[cnelk]

There has been much said about bedding areas - i.e. hunt them soft, stay on the outskirts, stay out of them, etc...

What about feeding areas?
Are they as important as bedding areas?
Do you hunt them the same way?

How closely are bedding and feeding areas linked?

 

[Deertick]

Let me just say:

I\'m only sure what a bedding area or a feeding area is when I know in retrospect.

In other words, I know that flat, timbered benches are, and I know what meadows are, but it seems to me there are a lot more potential bedding and feeding areas than actual bedding and feeding areas. I find I can pick out potential bedding and feeding areas well ... actual ones, not so much!

So far, for me, feeding areas are simply guesses of where elk might be that evening ... and a guess is worth something, I guess. They give me a spot to imagine elk coming to. Then I have to imagine where those elk would come from.

 

[OldMan]

For me. Feeding areas are very important. Not that I hunt them, but I use them to see where the elk go to bed down. Especially, when the elk are being pressured. How much pressure the elk are getting is everything in my style of hunting. The elk have to feed where there\'s food, but can bed anywhere they want.

 

[Swede]

Except for some scab places, rock outcrops, lakes, etc. everything in elk country is a feeding area or a bedding area. Even travel corridors are usually in their feeding area. There are only certain times I avoid bedding areas (9:00 AM-4:00 PM), but I have no limit on hunting feeding areas. Pete is sorta right about elk bedding anywhere, so we need to hunt accordingly. In archery season where I hunt, there are some definite bedding areas. I believe uninformed hunters tooting and blowing their elk calls, hiking (running & gunning) through the bedding areas, is a major factor in the elk leaving and heading for the ranch nearby. As everyone knows by now, I hate run and gun hunting. Run & gun never gets to the :mg: part. :lol:

 

[Deertick]

everything in elk country is a feeding area or a bedding area.

I\'m sure happy to hear that ... I was originally under the impression that in the \"haystack\" of habitat, there were these \"needles\" called feeding and bedding areas.

That may be, but I would wonder if some of those GPS-collared elk don\'t reveal a much more varied travel architecture.

To the original question, though ... I\'ve wondered about the scent left in meadows. It seems to me that back in the trees, on relatively dry, bare ground, less scent is \"deposited\" than in knee-high wet grass in a meadow.

 

[OldMan]

Lets call them prime feeding areas. They\'ll go there if they can.

 

[cohunter14]

Lets call them prime feeding areas. They\'ll go there if they can.

Pete, how do you differentiate a feeding area from a \'prime\' feeding area? I think it could be really helpful hearing your opinion on this...

 

[OldMan]

Well, a prime area is what you expect it to be. A lush meadow, or at least a small park. Elk will always seek that out if hunters don\'t drive them away from it. They\'ll go nocturnal to feed there. If they still get too much pressure they\'ll settle for poorer feed.

 

[cohunter14]

Well, a prime area is what you expect it to be. A lush meadow, or at least a small park. Elk will always seek that out if hunters don\'t drive them away from it. They\'ll go nocturnal to feed there. If they still get too much pressure they\'ll settle for poorer feed.

Dang, I was hoping it was different than what I had experienced