I’m always trying to learn and I’ve got some questions/ observations about how and where bucks bed. I know there are exceptions to everything a buck might do but give me your observations and what you have seen over the years.

Is buck bedding always separate from does?

Do bucks shift their beds based on the wind?

Would you say that in general bucks want to have the wind at their backs and a clear line of sight to their front? A common thing for hunters to say is that bucks will bed in the thickest nastiest cover they can find, but is this really accurate?

From what I’ve read on the hunting beast they will generally bed with back to the wind and observe the ithe direction. They also talk about sight and sound beds, so in a sight bed back will be to the wind and set so they see to the front. If I understand correctly bucks and doe will be separate. I’m no expert I’m new to the bed hunting thing myself. If you haven’t checkout the huntingbeast.com lots of good stuff on there too.

We've been experimenting with making buck beads and are trying to get them to use the beds we make. Were making them out of pine straw and leaves. We've had the most success getting deer to lay in them in areas with lots of blow downs.

a mature buck will bed just about anywhere THAT HE ISN'T DISTURBED, sight, sound, or scent wise.

True words Bfred

How do you tell the difference between a buck bed and doe bed? I have seen does lay down alone

Mature bucks are like grumpy ol' men, they wanta be left alone. They can bed in a very remote thicket or in a small patch behind Walmart. Mature bucks do have some tendencies , but not many when it comes to beds.

I dont think you can. I’m just trying to learn and see if there are tendencies to where bucks bed. I guess it’s relatively unknown.

So let’s say you’ve got a buck coming to a food source and 90% of the time you have pictures of him arriving and exiting the same trail. You don’t think he is headed to bed in the same spot, or at least close?

This exactly. From a dense thicket to just that little thicket you dont look twice at. They are just big rabbits hiding in the thicket is how I always look at them. And like a rabbit most wont move until you step on em.

Those thickets make a racket if you try to come in on him and they love that.

When I was around 15 we were deer hunting on the farm. We would all walk out to this field and spread out and head to different areas. The next field over had this little knoll with some big rocks and just enough thicket and 5 to 7 trees DEAD Center in it. Usually 2 to 3 of us would walk through it on one side heading to a patch of woods.

I decided man,..if I was a buck Id lie there and just watch.

One day I decided I was going to go see. So I started sneaking that way...staying low, then actually crawling the last 50 yards looking the whole time. My little Marlin 30/30 open sights ready to shoot.

Man, I scanned every clump of brush and rocks on the slow way there. I couldnt see a rabbit much less a dang 200 pound deer. Finally I had crawled real close. Probably 25 yards and was behind this tall grass...and I finally figured out" Nope no dang deer at all. What the heck was I thinking? Man I must look like a fool crawling here like this. I hope none of the guys SAW ME! .

I stood up ,....and a big buck jumps up and runs the other way on the other side, keeping that island of brush between us.

I was a 15 yo kid so you know I shot that dang 30/30 quick like the ole "Rifleman" on TV! Man was I mad at myself. All that dang work and I BLEW IT!

Nothing but air but man did that buck teach me something. I never saw that joker and I was looking HARD, but he must have watched me quite a dang while.

I thought I was SMART, but that ole boy was WAY smarter then me. Sneaky and nerves of steel.

And he had watched a couple of the other boys walking right along the one edge of the field the whole time. Probably did every dang day.

All I hunt is thicket. In thicket or as close as I can get to it without spooking them. Thats the best bedding for a big buck IMO.

I get that a lot and he is usually bedding in that area FOR sure. But where. He wont be going to the same SPOT... or even the same thicket. He will have a number of PREFERRED bedding areas in different areas of the thicket, or different PATCHES if the thickets are dispersed. Also, there will be ones he prefers on a South Wind, and others he use more on North Winds.

Again thats just my experience. But one thing I really know about IS big bucks in the thicket. It is TRULY all I hunt. Roads in the thick, food plots or Oak trees in or along the thicket, and Swamp thicket.

I love that kind of stuff.

Had a big one that was bedding 30 yards behind my barn/shop and only 75 from my front door several years ago. I had no idea untill I let a fellow hunt one time and he was gonna cut through that thicket to ease through hard woods. Buck stood up 10 yards from him and just walked off. He was young and forgot to shoot. Looked like he had been bedding there for quite a while but to my knowledge he stopped after that.

Sure he'll bed in the same spot , or not. The sure thing is they are all individuals and make their own rules .

One place not to overlook for bedding is right next to a road….even a major highway. They’ll bed just within the wood line maybe 10-20 yards and just watch the cars go by. They’ll do the same with houses. I’ve seen beds where the deer could see the door of the peoples house and watch them come and go

Here in the South one thing Ive seen for sure is that these bucks love THERMAL COVER.

Thats Pine and/or CEDAR thickets. Dense undergrowth with thick small pines or Cedars in it. Anywhere I find Cedar thickets...from Kansas, Il, KY, Indiana, Ohio to SC, to Al Im hunting them as I am just figuring that is where the big uns are lying.

In KY on our farm thats what holds ALL the deer,..Cedar thickets.

In Illinois on my old lease...same thing. In Indiana, same thing.

On my SC land where I shot that big double main beam velvet buck I showed here on video..same thing but a pine thicket. Thermal Cover...meaning ITS WAY COOLER in the dang heat.

Everyone else was hunting the swamps and seeing does.

I wasnt ..why? Why? Because Ive found those big bucks are smart and they dont want to burn any body weight in the heat. THEY KNOW WHERE IT IS COOLER. Do yall stand in the shade or the sun? just wondering..

Even on my land I own here...they dont go to the swamps until late fall and winter.

They live 2/3s of the way up my mountain...catching any breeze they can..bedded in my cedar thickets...cliffs to their backs..wind in their faces.

I hunt them just KNOWING thats what they are doing. Thats what I believe and I hunt them figuring that.

They love the thermals..warm air rising so they can ride that scent cone below em. When the air cools and the thermals change..they start feeding and working down hill.

They arent in my swamps yet,..too dang hot..too many skeeters and gnats. Plus it is over 10 degrees cooler in there up the mountain. Maybe 20 degrees when they catch a breeze.

Ive literally STUDIED big bucks ( Cue Rulebreaker:...coming in saying im crazy as a run over dog...1 ,2 ,3 ...)

But the truth is I have. Since I was that dang young boy in that field.

And for the 15 years I guided and watched them through binoculars or spotting scopes. AND the 15 years I watched them through a 26 power lense filming other people shooting them for various hunting shows.

I studied tons of good bucks, and Ive seen , recovered or filmed a ton of em lying dead or getting killed later too. Up to 200 inchers.

I also had the pleasure of tagging a whole bunch for me as well. Up to 170 inch bucks.

I had the pleasure of LEARNING from an Old timer..a guy who shot big uns when the density was low...and did it consistently.

Man I wanted to learn any and everything I could from him. I wasnt proud, closed minded or resistant. I wanted to LEARN!

You can only learn by being open minded and learning from those that are DOING IT I figured.

He taught me early. I saw a big buck and man was I pumped. I ran up and told him all about the big buck I saw !!

He simply said. "Boy..thats great. WHAT WAS HE DOING? WHERE WAS HE GOING? WHY WAS HE DOING THAT?"

I then realized...heck, I DIDNT KNOW! Heck I was happy just SEEING HIM.

He taught me then, son..its great seeing a big one. Most folks hardly see one in their LIVES. But when you do you have to STUDY THEM!

"What were they DOING? Where we they coming from? Where were they GOING? and most importantly..WHY? And if you dont know boy..you have to go look."

" Look at the runs they came off of. Follow it to where you think they came from. Look at the run they went in on..follow it. Where does it go? why were they using it?"

You saw a big piece of a puzzle son..but you got to put all them pieces together to see the whole thing"

I took that to heart. And I STUDIED them everytime after that.

Thats the only way youre going to figure em out he said..I may have been a young kid..but I listened, and I learned.

I dont know but I like learning. Heck, I still am..every single time I see a big buck still..over 40 years later. All because of the teaching of an old man 3 times my age...and because I wanted to learn.

I figure how close they are by how often I get pics and the time. If I get pics once every 3-4 days and its 2:30 a.m., I don't think he's real close. But that don't mean he won't lay close by eventually, especially if he tending a doe.

In my observations, a buck beds where is feels safest. He beds where he is not molested and where nothing can sneak up on him. I've seen where they have scent checked a thicket and then bedded near the edge of it, with the wind predominantly at their back where they can watch the more open woods/fields in front of them. They will smell or hear anything trying to approach from behind them and see anything in front of them.

One year, after a heavy snow, I decided to ride my 4 wheeler in some woods close to our house. As I drove down an old logging road, I noticed a fresh set of large tracks on a point of the mountain. I back trailed the tracks and they led to a bare spot in the snow, in some cedars. It was steep on 3 sides. It was obviously his bed where he weathered the snow. There were only one set of tracks leading out, so I know he had been there while it snowed. It was remote and provided thermal cover. There were rubs all over the place. It was during the rut. I know it was a buck because every 3 or 4 steps, there would be a little yellow dot in the snow that had an incredibly strong odor. As I followed his trail to see where he was going, I saw where he stopped and made a rub, further confirming it was a buck. As a side note, as I was tracking him, I realized that he would not walk in the middle, between two trees, but would walk very close to one of the trees and when he stopped, it would be right next to a tree, maybe almost touching it. I thought back to how many times I had seen a buck, but a tree always seemed to be in the way. It was then that I began to understand that this was not a coincidence.

As I was analyzing why he picked that spot to bed, I concluded it was where he felt safe, had thermal cover and where it would be impossible to sneak up on him. If my life depended on it, and I had his same abilities, I would pick that spot also.

thanks for this thread.

As a new hunter - really appreciate the knowledge being shared here.

Good observations . Good story . I've tried to track a couple in the snow , hoping for a shot. I think snow tracking in the hardwood mountains on deer that rarely see snow is easier said than done. All I got was a workout.