To me bedding areas are extremely important to be aware of and a huge part of my scouting/hunting tactics.
I like to know where the bucks bed and where the does bed.
While I don\'t set up in their night stand right on top of their bed, I know the area they do bed down.
My main focuses are their travel routes to and from their beds, their habits to and from the beds (I.E eating, rubbing, scraping, etc), and the difference between where the bucks and does bed.
The reason this is so important is I then have the chance to set up on them when the conditions are right and not spook the animals from their normal routine.
Early season I am watching and setting up on bucks both going to and coming from their bedding areas. Generally early morning or late evening, but it\'s one of my few chances to get a wack at them.
Buck bedding isn\'t the most important thing to me though, it\'s the doe bedding.
Come rut time there are going to be bucks cruising around this area in search of does.
Another thing I like about the rut are funnels too the buck bedding.
After a long night of chasing, the tired buck wants the quickest path with least amount of resistance to their bed. So this is where funnels help a big time!
So I like to identify hot spots for my does and save those spots for pre rut/rut time.
Both deer I shot this year were off of bedding areas.
For someone like Pete though who is a still hunter, it might be taboo, but I am walking bedding areas.
We have all walked up on bedded deer or spooked them from their bed, but guess what, you are right on them and have a shot with a rifle or muzzy.
Taboo to me. I will hunt trails between the bedding area and the feeding areas. I have places on my property that I only go into to search for mushrooms and sheds. Most of the year I stay away. I had a spot where the deer were at every night. I would see 6-12 deer. One year it just shut down. I was at that spot 3-4 times and nothing. Finally I had one doe walk by and she was so skittish. I then learned that on the neighbors property just 100 yds away where the bedding area was had 2 stands in it. His Nephew was hunting it and popped op 2 stand in the middle of the bedding area. The deer left. When I looked for sheds on the neighbors the next spring I found stands in 2 other bedding areas. The deer patterns changed big time after that year.
I was born, and brought up in Mass. Whitetails are what my dad taught me on to still hunt. Bedding areas were the #1 target. After whitetails...elk were easy.
I don\'t recommend you try whitetail bedding areas unless you have some good guidance, but it can certainly be done.
That is something I absolutely do not do but then I have three months to hunt in the same areas every year. Deer will always stay where there is food, cover and privacy. You can have all the food and cover in the world but no deer if you keep chasing them out. A few does and small bucks will put up with that but not an older big one! In fact one time kicking a big one out can be all it takes for him to never be seen again. It took me quite a few years to fully realize that really big bucks were a totally different breed. Now if I only had a week or a little more to hunt I would be more aggressive. From about the middle of the summer to the end of the year I may go into the thick bedding areas one or possibly two times just too see if anything has changed since the previous year. Turkey hunting is the most invasive time of the year. Fortunately it\'s early.
