Bedding deer?

[FishingWebGuy]

It seems whenever we are scouting and follow what appears to be a deer trail through the tall grass, we come across bedding spots. I assume they are bedding spots because they are matted down grass that looks to be the size of a deer.

It seems like we find a lot of these bedding spots so my question is, how often to deer bed down and do they regularly bed down in the same spot?

When I walk into some cover and see 12 beds does that mean 12 deer were bedding here or 1 deer was bedding 12 different times?

When I follow a trail and come to cover every 100-200 yards and see bedding areas, are these the same deer that bed down as they walk a trail and graze or are they likely different deer?

I also rarely find any scat in the beds. Now I don't dig around in them and I try to view them from a couple yards away so maybe I'm just not seeing it. Would there normally be droppings in a bedding area? Or do they like to keep these spots clean?

Maybe all of this depends on the environment also. But I have seen these same signs in ag areas as well as the big woods up North. I'm sure they bed down more in warm weather also but do they tend to go back to the exact same spot? Same general area? or are they likely to have many bedding areas and spots?

[Cheetah]

The grass they lay in doesn't just spring back up, so if one deer is in the same field he can make a lot of beds by changing spots regularly. Sometimes they use the same spot over and over though, like under a shrub in a field or swamp that they like for shade.

Normally when you find a bedding area like that, figure out where the deer are feeding that bed there. Then you can set your stand to hunt them as they move to it in the morning from their feeding area, or when they get up in the evening to go feed.

Trying to stalk in an open field to shoot a deer in it's bed will be tough. Older and wiser deer will often just disappear once you bust them out of their regular bedding area and move to a new one. So don't try to stalk unless you are confident in your chances at getting close enough for a shot.

[B. Amish]

deer will often bed down during the middle of the night between feeding. the beds in the tall grass could be from that. kind of like if you've ever cut an alfalfa field, you'll notive tons of deer beds. they're really not "bedding areas" more or less just a good place to rest. they'll get up and head into thicker cover to bed for the day.

or they could certainly be the more classic bedding areas where they are bedding during the day. do you ever jump deer out of those areas when you're scouting?

[FishingWebGuy]

We haven't jumped deer out of any of these areas but not to say they didn't hear us coming and leave.

The areas we are in are full of food so it's really tough to tell where they are feeding. Up North there is an abundance of browse, and vegetation. I always figure the deer could probably live within a 100yd^2 area for months and they only travel because they want to or get pushed out.

In the Ag areas it's the same. A stand of trees between a bean field and corn field with an alfalfa field across the road. For some reason the farmers in these areas tell me the deer travel. They will see them for a couple days and then their gone -- only to return a week or two later.

I think I heard once that deer will feed every four hours in the fall before rut. I imagine that would have them bedding down every four hours also to chew some cud. 24 hours divided by 4 gives 6 bedding times in a day. If they lay down in different spots each time or even just some times, I guess that results in a lot of beds per deer.

I'm not trying to hunt their beds. Just trying to figure out their behavior and patterns a little. I usually happen upon the beds by accident while following a trail during scouting time.

[UdeLakeTom]

We have about 15 acres of open field, and when going from camp to the stands, we come across many beds is the open. I have never seen any deer get up out of these beds, in the summer or in the winter.

Even when there is snow and you can see that they were there after the snow fell because of the melt and compaction, I have never seen them get up and leave.

On the other hand, where there are beds in the wooded areas, you can see them get up from their beds from your stand at times.

There was a thread a while back, about it being ethical to shoot a bedded down deer.

[Cheetah]

I guess it just depends on the area you hunt. I hunt quite a bit near the SD border where it is mostly grassland surrounded by fields, the deer usually bed way out in the tall grass or swamps where you'll never find them.

[CatchPhotoFilet]

Walk around when your sick of sitting in your stand. I kicked the biggest buck up out of a swamp in mid day just walking around. Needless to say by the time i was done ooogling at him he was long gone before i even thought of shooting. Watched him for years after on a trial camera and he was never to be seen again. So something got him, car,people,wolves?

[BobT]

When I was in the logging industry we used to enjoy watching how deer acted. One thing I noticed was how predictible they became.

Every morning we’d see them moving around for about an hour or two after daybreak. Then, they’d lie down somewhere until around midday when they’d be out and about for an hour or so. Back to bed for a couple hours until about the last hour or two before dark. Obviously, this was during midwinter when we were out there from about dawn to dusk but I have noticed similar predictability in September while bow hunting.