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Starting the Post season scouting tours

Robert loper

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Messages
1,772
Location
NJ
Well my friends Its mid February and its time for my backside to pull cameras and collect info in our known areas for next year.
Also its time to discover new areas and keep up on the new state pieces that will be considered public next year in both states i hunt.
In my honest opinion this time of year alot of people are searching for some answers of why’s and why nots.
This is definitely the time of year to discover alot of good intel and maybe get a grasp on a timeline of activity in certain areas.

The problem im seeing guys are getting into is taking the term buck beds literally, and pretty much watching youtube gods who hunt and scout 7 days a week
this is a dream life or season most of us do not live.
We or most gave jobs, families, obligations, responsibilities at home that

The real work begins now but theres alot more to do than just discover buck beds. That is just one piece of the puzzle that needs to be considered.
I see guys going to workshops and paid scouting outings to learn what they can learn themselves if they just put a bit more thought into what they are seeing.
I am very guilty of this same thing as I dove into it around 2014-15.
I Watched every one of the you tube videos bought the dvd’s and got sucked into marketing gimmiks that states “ find the buck beds buy this and that and you will kill mature bucks every year”. Lol
I learned one thing , buck bedding is like i said earlier “just a piece of the puzzle”.
In my opinion at least where i hunt the few things that need to be put together are these and its suer simple concept. Food, Pressure,,bedding , does ( which pretty much is near food), and after the rut it all goes full circle.
Not all beds are going to be used all year unless there is a constant food supply with minimal pressure.
find those super thick areas that transition between food and bedding.
Yes I do get as close as i can to bedding as i can but thats where entry ways are so important and i can go on and on about that.
jyst a heads up for my peoples who think that they are going to find a few buck beds or buck bedding areas that its not a almost sure thing like some of these so called pro hunters claim.
That is just a piece of a large puzzle that takes months and months to assemble intel together that most of the time crumbles away with one small mistake or left out detail.
its not as easy to be consistent year after year as some claim it is
To achieve that it takes a-lot if dedication and time all year.

Chasing down, figuring some sort of pattern a certain time of year on a certain so called mature public land buck.Is very difficult to most especially with limited time.
I am by far not any kind of expert on anything in life especially deer hunting but I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m pretty confident in things i believe because Ive seen things time and time again.
Anyone needing any advice or just love to chat about deer. Feel free to pm me.
We are all members here to help each other and its a privilege to belong to in my opinion the best forum for deer and saddle info on the internet

Its time for long long walk my people.
Stay on the edges of thick ir just inside of the thick just like the more educated bucks do during daylight hours.
I try to Look at a spot and think like a buck.
I ask myself “would i feel safe walking, bedding, or browsing here in daylight hours?”
If you have any doubt move on til you don't.
this will save big amounts of time with meaningless scouting and keep you in spots where the odds of daytime appearances are high.
please be safe, please enjoy what your doing and do not put pressure on yourself like a-lot of us do or have in the past.
 
A great reminder for the old pros and sound advice for newbies. I've been out 4 times since February 1st and have logged 14.3 miles so far, mostly in new (to me) areas. So far, I have two great locations for this fall added to the list. I, like you, rarely see what I would call a definitive buck bed.
 
Well my friends Its mid February and its time for my backside to pull cameras and collect info in our known areas for next year.
Also its time to discover new areas and keep up on the new state pieces that will be considered public next year in both states i hunt.
In my honest opinion this time of year alot of people are searching for some answers of why’s and why nots.
This is definitely the time of year to discover alot of good intel and maybe get a grasp on a timeline of activity in certain areas.

The problem im seeing guys are getting into is taking the term buck beds literally, and pretty much watching youtube gods who hunt and scout 7 days a week
this is a dream life or season most of us do not live.
We or most gave jobs, families, obligations, responsibilities at home that

The real work begins now but theres alot more to do than just discover buck beds. That is just one piece of the puzzle that needs to be considered.
I see guys going to workshops and paid scouting outings to learn what they can learn themselves if they just put a bit more thought into what they are seeing.
I am very guilty of this same thing as I dove into it around 2014-15.
I Watched every one of the you tube videos bought the dvd’s and got sucked into marketing gimmiks that states “ find the buck beds buy this and that and you will kill mature bucks every year”. Lol
I learned one thing , buck bedding is like i said earlier “just a piece of the puzzle”.
In my opinion at least where i hunt the few things that need to be put together are these and its suer simple concept. Food, Pressure,,bedding , does ( which pretty much is near food), and after the rut it all goes full circle.
Not all beds are going to be used all year unless there is a constant food supply with minimal pressure.
find those super thick areas that transition between food and bedding.
Yes I do get as close as i can to bedding as i can but thats where entry ways are so important and i can go on and on about that.
jyst a heads up for my peoples who think that they are going to find a few buck beds or buck bedding areas that its not a almost sure thing like some of these so called pro hunters claim.
That is just a piece of a large puzzle that takes months and months to assemble intel together that most of the time crumbles away with one small mistake or left out detail.
its not as easy to be consistent year after year as some claim it is
To achieve that it takes a-lot if dedication and time all year.

Chasing down, figuring some sort of pattern a certain time of year on a certain so called mature public land buck.Is very difficult to most especially with limited time.
I am by far not any kind of expert on anything in life especially deer hunting but I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m pretty confident in things i believe because Ive seen things time and time again.
Anyone needing any advice or just love to chat about deer. Feel free to pm me.
We are all members here to help each other and its a privilege to belong to in my opinion the best forum for deer and saddle info on the internet

Its time for long long walk my people.
Stay on the edges of thick ir just inside of the thick just like the more educated bucks do during daylight hours.
I try to Look at a spot and think like a buck.
I ask myself “would i feel safe walking, bedding, or browsing here in daylight hours?”
If you have any doubt move on til you don't.
this will save big amounts of time with meaningless scouting and keep you in spots where the odds of daytime appearances are high.
please be safe, please enjoy what your doing and do not put pressure on yourself like a-lot of us do or have in the past.
Very good post. I live in south central Alabama and the hunting can be night and day from mile to mile depending on a number of variables like managed private, unmanaged private, good public land, not so good public land, habitat, soil, and on and on. I only bow hunt and even on good land here, it's hard to arrow 120 inch bucks which will normally be at least four and a half. Pressure of course makes a difference as far as how much the mature bucks daylight and with the thickness of terrain it's tough without a good dose of luck. That being said, I still enjoy the difficult challenge of it it and will continue to pursue it and try to find new, decent land to scout and hunt!
 
I have a ton of new places I want to scout and I have 3 cameras still out. One of them is about 40 yards from what I think is a buck bed with hair in it that I found on a point in January. I get 3 does on the camera now and then but never a buck. I’m thinking it might be a rut bed so I’m going to leave that one out all year for the heck of it. Can’t wait to get out and find new spots.
 
I have a ton of new places I want to scout and I have 3 cameras still out. One of them is about 40 yards from what I think is a buck bed with hair in it that I found on a point in January. I get 3 does on the camera now and then but never a buck. I’m thinking it might be a rut bed so I’m going to leave that one out all year for the heck of it. Can’t wait to get out and find new spots.
It may be also doe bedding. Does will bed on points and bowls too especially when sufficient cover is around.
from what i have seen and experienced in years of hunting my areas I have pretty much done and kind of concluded on this this.
When i Look around for buck sign especially on points and fingers i focus at the beginning of where the point starts . (Between the two bowls it forms).
The tell tale sign i always see between doe bedding and buck bedding is this.
Doe bedding or very near doe bedding will usually have a high amount of buck sign , especially rubs in all sizes, scrapes, and licking branches.
rub clusters are pretty common in these areas.
Buck bedding will have limited to almost none only because the sign is just to tell other bucks that “ im in here right now “.
I would poke around a bit more and see if you can find a few more beds or sign that will or should tell you why, when, and what is bedding there.
hope this makes sense and helps.
keep-us posted and stay safe
 
It may be also doe bedding. Does will bed on points and bowls too especially when sufficient cover is around.
from what i have seen and experienced in years of hunting my areas I have pretty much done and kind of concluded on this this.
When i Look around for buck sign especially on points and fingers i focus at the beginning of where the point starts . (Between the two bowls it forms).
The tell tale sign i always see between doe bedding and buck bedding is this.
Doe bedding or very near doe bedding will usually have a high amount of buck sign , especially rubs in all sizes, scrapes, and licking branches.
rub clusters are pretty common in these areas.
Buck bedding will have limited to almost none only because the sign is just to tell other bucks that “ im in here right now “.
I would poke around a bit more and see if you can find a few more beds or sign that will or should tell you why, when, and what is bedding there.
hope this makes sense and helps.
keep-us posted and stay safe
Thanks for the tips. Here is what I know about the spot as of now. There seems to be only one bed and it’s under a Hemlock tree (which is the preferred tree they make scraps on in my area). There are two scraps from this past year. Let’s say, one is NW (which is down hill on a large bench 50 yards away) the other is NE 50 yards away slightly up hill. It all seems to be a travel route situation. The camera is facing the bed and the does don’t seem to go to it. They walk by about 25 yards from it. I’ll know better when I download the card and watch the videos. That is probably why I think it’s a rut bed because it’s on a travel route. The south side of the point drops into a ridiculously deep gorge with a creek. Straight East is a major trail the doe group is using. It goes straight up 100 yards to a ridge top trail that runs (i don’t even know how far!). There is a section of younger hemlocks there that is so dense it’s impossible to get through without touching and moving branches out of the way. (Great security). And that ridge trail is loaded with pellets. The actual bed area has no rubs anywhere but there are some random ones up top.
As a side note, last year I hunted a bench 150 yards below this point. Somewhere between 8am-10am a doe group came by from the briar patch/swamp at the main river in the valley below (not the gorge next to me.) They headed towards this bed/point. About 4pm they came back almost the same way. They would have walked right past the scrape on the bench just below the bed. Then past the bed. I did jump a buck that year on that lower bench where I was hunting.
I’m leaning a little bit each year. Poking around there is not fun because it is such steep terrain.
 
Thanks for the tips. Here is what I know about the spot as of now. There seems to be only one bed and it’s under a Hemlock tree (which is the preferred tree they make scraps on in my area). There are two scraps from this past year. Let’s say, one is NW (which is down hill on a large bench 50 yards away) the other is NE 50 yards away slightly up hill. It all seems to be a travel route situation. The camera is facing the bed and the does don’t seem to go to it. They walk by about 25 yards from it. I’ll know better when I download the card and watch the videos. That is probably why I think it’s a rut bed because it’s on a travel route. The south side of the point drops into a ridiculously deep gorge with a creek. Straight East is a major trail the doe group is using. It goes straight up 100 yards to a ridge top trail that runs (i don’t even know how far!). There is a section of younger hemlocks there that is so dense it’s impossible to get through without touching and moving branches out of the way. (Great security). And that ridge trail is loaded with pellets. The actual bed area has no rubs anywhere but there are some random ones up top.
As a side note, last year I hunted a bench 150 yards below this point. Somewhere between 8am-10am a doe group came by from the briar patch/swamp at the main river in the valley below (not the gorge next to me.) They headed towards this bed/point. About 4pm they came back almost the same way. They would have walked right past the scrape on the bench just below the bed. Then past the bed. I did jump a buck that year on that lower bench where I was hunting.
I’m leaning a little bit each year. Poking around there is not fun because it is such steep terrain.
Seems like your figuring out whats going on nicely.
honestly i would put quite a few cameras from July til February to monitor the times of year and winds they seem to be using that particular area.
hill country is not really my thing but I hear and read all the time that figuring the winds and how the bucks are using the winds to their advantages is huge for knowing when and where to-move in and setup.
You gotta think “outside the norm or box. “
Remember most people go out and dcout and find rubs, scrapes, or even nowadays the notorious “ buck beds”. They dont think on whey its there and whrn its being used.
this is a huge mistake for most hunters only because of there is nowadays so much public land buck beds stuff online that its crazy.
Its so easy to get caught up in thehype thatit will eventually make you make the mistakes most of us go through. Think way too into things.
keep it simple
Just scout the right areas, evaluate the sign your finding, snd try to figure out the timing on when to attack that area.
its honestly that simple.
 
Great topic! I’ll add a few observations I’ve made in my home hunting areas. “Buck bedding” is useless during the rut - they are off their own patterns, out chasing tail and avoiding hunters. The bedding areas bucks use before and after the rut tend to shift quite a bit. Before the rut they are near high calorie summer foods they had used to grow antlers, in places where all their needs were met. After the primary rut, the leaves are gone and the food sources are very different - these post rut patterns can change a lot from year to year. Hunting post primary rut, in December I usually rely entirely on fresh sign, generally tracks, to help me figure out exactly what foods and areas bucks are focused on.
On a side note, I’m injured and unable to do my usual winter scouting and shed hunting rituals. So friends, this is a remider to enjoy every minute you have in the woods, even the days you don’t find or see what you hoped. It’s a gift to be in the woods.
 
Great topic! I’ll add a few observations I’ve made in my home hunting areas. “Buck bedding” is useless during the rut - they are off their own patterns, out chasing tail and avoiding hunters. The bedding areas bucks use before and after the rut tend to shift quite a bit. Before the rut they are near high calorie summer foods they had used to grow antlers, in places where all their needs were met. After the primary rut, the leaves are gone and the food sources are very different - these post rut patterns can change a lot from year to year. Hunting post primary rut, in December I usually rely entirely on fresh sign, generally tracks, to help me figure out exactly what foods and areas bucks are focused on.
On a side note, I’m injured and unable to do my usual winter scouting and shed hunting rituals. So friends, this is a remider to enjoy every minute you have in the woods, even the days you don’t find or see what you hoped. It’s a gift to be in the woods.
Agreed 100%. Great stuff bro.
Please i hope you get well soon and have a speedy recovery
 
honestly i would put quite a few cameras from July til February to monitor the times of year and winds they seem to be using that particular area.

Do you set up windicators in front of cameras, tske the time to line up wind history with your pics, or use some other technique to help you understand how bucks use different winds?
 
Do you set up windicators in front of cameras, tske the time to line up wind history with your pics, or use some other technique to help you understand how bucks use different winds?
Man, that’s a great idea! Where I hunt there is so much terrain features and ridges that you can almost guarantee whatever you’re apps say about the wind direction is often about the opposite of what the milk weed will tell you when you get there. I have to start keeping a log on wind prediction and actual wind direction in the field so I know better when to use my spots.
 
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