What do you guys look for when you are scouting public or private land.

[DaveT1963]

if you are talking whitetail bucks then this is the simple answer, for all year I look for three things: 1. Security cover, 2. Food, and 3. water
During Oct-Dec you can add in does as that is what turn their crank that time of year.

really don't over complicate it - find where they can hide, find what they have access to eat then find out where they bed and where the ladies bed - from there you can build a good hunting plan.

 

[Skrause5]

My opinion on hunting bedding: it's a great tactic, but you better be stealthy like a cat. If you're clutzy, your gear isn't quiet, the leaves/snow is crunchy, or anything else you get so close they see/hear/smell you on entrance, odds increase that you're going to blow them out.

I feel like that's why I like hunting on the edges because when go deep into areas like that I feel like I'm scaring off the deer. Normally I hunt on the edge of food plots or crop fields. And just call them in has been more beneficial to me so far.

 

[DaWiz9578]

Sounds like Michigan . . .

Second the michigan perspective. I'm trying to hunt "bedding areas" but they bed everywhere. I've switched to funnels and terrain. Seen deer everytime, just not the big swamp donkey I'm looking for.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[IkemanTX]

If I am buck hunting, it is all about travel patterns between doe bedding groups for me. And further, pinch points within those travel routes.

Finding doe bedding in-season can be a risky endeavor, because it produces a heavy feeling of pressure on them. Out of season, I typically find my doe bedding areas by busting does out of them while scouting. Any time I bust deer mid day out of season, I start checking for sign that it may be primary bedding. Beds in the leaves/grass, droppings, tracks etc...

I am growing to prefer scouting buck core areas in season... either by bumping and verifying like mentioned above, or by how fresh and prevalent sign is. I hunt deer in season, so it is nice to see the freshest locations with the freshest sign that exact time of year.

 

[sureshotscott]

Right, I think you're mostly describing me.

Where to set up then?

If there's a destination (food source or doe bedding), wait for good wind and set up on the path between. Otherwise, we're in the same boat my friend.

 

[Mschmeiske]

Ridges, thick stuff, points, saddles and transitions/edges.

 

[huck72412]

I look for @Erniepower . If I find him, the deer are near.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

Can someone from the Northeast let me know if I am crazy? Seems to me, that the deer in New England feed and bed everywhere!

They have 4 major feeding periods during a 24 hour period and, being ruminants, they lay down and chew cud after each feeding.
Just finding depressions where deer have laid down doesn't mean we've found the kind of bedding area that are the ones used during daylight hours.

 

[Bowmanmike]

I am in upstate NY and agree that does bed anywhere that looks good to them that day. I have been trying to find bedding areas for years and they just seem to switch it up according to wind and who knows what else. It can be pretty frustrating to try to pattern them,especially with the heavy acorn crop this year. Beechnuts were plentiful too.

 

[btsnhos]

Looking at your photo i would be setting up on the crossings going from the bedding towards the creek, they are going to drink at some point during the day

 

[7mmremmag]

Mast crop on ridges, swamp and farmland low