Buck Bedding Areas

[Bear55]

Does anyone have any tips on where to find a bucks bedding area. I was scouting hard all spring/early summer and they are hard to identify. I know the basics like thick cover and swamps but if anyone can go into more detail that would be helpful.

[roosterslayer]

This time of year I have found bucks bedding either close to water or food. doesn't have to be the thickest of cover but some where that will provide shade. I actually seen two bucks bedded in the alfalfa on my trail cam.

[fishermatt]

Bear55, no offense, but You're asking the 64 Billion dollar question! If we had a great answer we'd have a lot more racks on the wall! The best way to get close to finding a buck's "core" bedding area (the one he most often uses) is to find an area with lots of rubbed trees close together. Not a rub line where there are rubs every 30 yards or so marking a travel route, but 10 or more rubs on trees within a 20 square yard area or less. The only other thing to give information about a buck's bedding area is the accumulation of big buck sightings in a specific area. When you see a deer in an alfalfa field bedded down, it's probably because it just finished eating and has laid down to chew it's cud.

[fishermn]

My only suggestion is to put in some serious boot time, and just keep looking. I was lucky enough to stumble onto one early last year and when I did find it, it was pretty obvious I was in a good buck's bedroom. I was looking for a doe that had been hit the previous day. After finding the end of the blood trail, we had started circling the area, which happened to be at the edge of a alder swamp/thicket with a small creek running through it. As I made my numerous circles there was one really thick are that we seemed to just keep walking around because of the density of the brush etc in that spot. Finally, I decided that I wanted to take a better look inside that little thicket and much to my surprise, after 30 - 40 feet of the thickest nastiest stuff, it opened up into some nice little open areas. From the size of the beds in this spot and the sheer number of rubs, I was pretty certain it was a core area for a good buck. I waited until November 2 to hunt a stand just 50 yards from that spot and harvested a nice wide 154" buck. I dont know for sure that he was the guy that lived there, but he came right from the area of the thicket when I grunted him in.

[Bear55]

Thanks for the info guys. Fishermn that is a great story and exactly what I was looking for. I know there isn't one answer but if we can all share a little info it might help someone locate a nice buck. I have been doing a lot of scouting lately and I think I might have found a couple of areas. One was a very small patch of high ground surrouded by a swamp, another was a thick ravine that was loaded with deadfalls. Both areas were difficult to access and had several nice sized rubs (last years) in a small area.