Where I find deer during breeding

[kbetts]

Same spots. Never changes. The only thing that changes is the timing in which they are there. Simple to find, hard to hunt if it's the right one.....holly knolls.
Where I'm at the good ones are typically bordered by hard edge....phrag, open field, etc. Find one in the briars and its magic. I've been observing the same behavior and consistency in spots for a few years. There's usually a good tree or two in or around them, but they are typically worthless to hunt from. The draw to the deer imo is the sightline from the ground.....they can see what they can't smell. They feel secluded on their own little "island". Usually they are dark....like light is gone at sunset, not afterwards.

Give me a cold, misty drizzle and a ENE wind in November and I can get in front of one. May not get a shot, but the hunt is ALWAYS an adventure.
These are the times I get stuck between wanting a stickbow and a compound. Gun is too easy, bow is harder, stickbow is borderline maddening.

 

[Robert loper]

Same spots. Never changes. The only thing that changes is the timing in which they are there. Simple to find, hard to hunt if it's the right one.....holly knolls.
Where I'm at the good ones are typically bordered by hard edge....phrag, open field, etc. Find one in the briars and its magic. I've been observing the same behavior and consistency in spots for a few years. There's usually a good tree or two in or around them, but they are typically worthless to hunt from. The draw to the deer imo is the sightline from the ground.....they can see what they can't smell. They feel secluded on their own little "island". Usually they are dark....like light is gone at sunset, not afterwards.

Give me a cold, misty drizzle and a ENE wind in November and I can get in front of one. May not get a shot, but the hunt is ALWAYS an adventure.
These are the times I get stuck between wanting a stickbow and a compound. Gun is too easy, bow is harder, stickbow is borderline maddening.

I see the same things with bucks.
the only thing different or may be the same but, in different words is the bucks bed in some sort of transition breakup especially near doe bedding.
especial if it gves a visual advantage of the does getting up and moving.
boom the bucks can be right on them checking if ready.
spot on brotha

 

[kbetts]

I see the same things with bucks.
the only thing different or may be the same but, in different words is the bucks bed in some sort of transition breakup especially near doe bedding.
especial if it gves a visual advantage of the does getting up and moving.
boom the bucks can be right on them checking if ready.
spot on brotha

I understand your explanation. The bedding is so closely related. These patches of low height cover are so open under the canopy....but fall to a thick edge.....or not....could be an opening....but that's where they're looking.
I'm also a firm believer that other deer are kept to a "perimeter" and aid in detecting danger. There always seems to be one or two that push the envelope and are the ones to pick you up/off. Typically a younger buck or lone, curious doe.

 

[Robert loper]

I understand your explanation. The bedding is so closely related. These patches of low height cover are so open under the canopy....but fall to a thick edge.....or not....could be an opening....but that's where they're looking.
I'm also a firm believer that other deer are kept to a "perimeter" and aid in detecting danger. There always seems to be one or two that push the envelope and are the ones to pick you up/off. Typically a younger buck or lone, curious doe.

Greg Miller wrote a book on this, years ago that refrenced the whole mature buck in the middle with smaller bucks and does creating a perimeter for alarm.
and the interesting thing is i think they do so in Delaware because Delaware is so small.
i say that only because i hunt new jersey to which if you get away from extreme south Jersey there are huge chunks of woods which ive hunted my whole life.
The difference i see in bedding and i think its just because New Jersey is just that much bigger is the bucks will bed away from the does because they still want some sort of multiple sense advantage.
The does have so many spots to bed that they bed slmost anywhere its thick in numbers with eyes watching in all directions.
Its crazy how the difference is in things they do in different areas.
I believe it all depends on food, size of habitat, and of course pressure

 

[Fgirtyman]

Greg Miller wrote a book on this, years ago that refrenced the whole mature buck in the middle with smaller bucks and does creating a perimeter for alarm.
and the interesting thing is i think they do so in Delaware because Delaware is so small.
i say that only because i hunt new jersey to which if you get away from extreme south Jersey there are huge chunks of woods which ive hunted my whole life.
The difference i see in bedding and i think its just because New Jersey is just that much bigger is the bucks will bed away from the does because they still want some sort of multiple sense advantage.
The does have so many spots to bed that they bed slmost anywhere its thick in numbers with eyes watching in all directions.
Its crazy how the difference is in things they do in different areas.
I believe it all depends on food, size of habitat, and of course pressure

Yes the older bucks use the does and younger bucks to CYA for sure. Those older does are much harder to kill than the younger bucks for sure. I killed a Matriarch old doe when hunting with a group of Illinois hunters one season They thanked me over and over. I guess that old doe made their buck hunting so much harder, she was always busting them. You’d think I killed a trophy buck lol