# What do you call a bedding area ?????



## Walkie Takie

Quick question, when you find a ( so call bedding area )  do the deer lay there in the mid - day  or  when every ????? and do they lay in the same spot  or close to the old one's????
  I've alway heard other hunter say oh this is a bedding area , and wondered  why they think this  is so , but this one  look's like the deer have been laying in differ small area w/ lot's of travel trails and lot's of dropping ( big pile's )  the bed's are big looking also,    and in the hardwood , not the thick stuff ,   w/t


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## PHIL M

I call a bedding area a patch of thick woods where deer are likely to bed. If I go into it to see if its is truely a bedding area, it wont be a bedding area any more! I like hunting these kind of places. I watch them bed sometimes. they get up and change beds through out the day. I dont know if the get uncomfortable, or if the sun is bothering them or what, but every couple hours or so the deer that I have watched will get up, move a little ways and lay down again. alot of the times when they do get up, they will take a few steps and releive themselves. so I think that maybe droppings could be some type of a indicator.
just my .02


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## Tom Borck

A bedding area is a place where deer feel comfortable and undisturbed.  I have seen them bed right in the middle of wheat, oats and rye field I planted.  THis field was not even 12 in. high.  It could be thick, open or even in  the middle of a field, just as long as it is undisturbed.


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## PHIL M

I found a bedding area once in the middle of a big feild. there was a patch of brush about the size of a swimming pool. when I walked by it 6 deer jumped up out of it. they where able to see anything coming from 360 degrees. they will also bed right next to major hwys, and right next to houses. they seem to know where they wont be disturbed.


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## huntnnut

Bedding areas are usually found in areas where the deer are least likely to be disturbed and where they have several escape routes.  I've found bedding areas in hardwood flats on top of knolls surrounded by thick pines before.  Thick pines are also favorite places as is most any real thick spots.  Old overgrown food plots sometimes make good bedding areas as well.

If you find several areas where the brush is layed down in small circles along with droppings scattered about then you have found a bedding area.


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## PAPALAPIN

*Best Thing To Do Whit A Bedding Area Is - Stay Out*

Set up on trails leading to and away from it.

Best to set up well away from it and watch the traffic in and out.  Once you establish how deer are using the trails to get in and out, then set up a stand where the most used trails are.  Don't forget to play the wind.


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## whitworth

I was trout fishing on the Chattahoochee and was walking back to my vehicle after a successful day of fishing.   I was walking near a high chain linked fence, when I stopped to adjust the float tube.  Four deer jumbed up from their bed some ten feet away, on the other side of the fence.  Nearly gave me a heart attack.


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## SouthPaw Draw

I consider a bedding area to be a place where the animal considers themselves to be safe from harm and intrusion- whether it be of the human or predator type of harm. It also seems to me once you bump a deer out of their bedding area they seem less adapt to return to that same area.


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## dbodkin

I agree anywhere they feel safe and unthreatened. Weather is a big factor in some areas as the deer sense bad storms etc....


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## DoDahDaze

I found one once and that was the last time they used it during this past summer.


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## short stop

An area thick w cover mostly unhuntable --- knowing they stay there it's a place that u would waste your time trying to hunt it. Areas u couldnt getem out of unless ya set fire to it ---thats a beddin area   i hunt near it  and around it.


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## caughtinarut

bump


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## 660griz

Anywhere deer lay, where they feel safe enough to either sleep and/or chew their cud.


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## jbogg

Around 20 years ago I bumped a nice 8pt while walking back to my truck after a morning bow hunt on Dawson Forest.  He was in a 5 acre two year old clear cut That bordered the road.  The next morning I was 30' up a white oak on the edge of that clear cut hunting in a drizzling rain.  At 9AM I watched the same buck enter the clear cut from the opposite side less than 80yds away.  He rubbed a couple of pine saplings and then walked straight towards the road where I was parked, bedding less than 40 yds from the road.  
After climbing down quietly, I began stalking to get within bow range.  Everything looked different from ground level, and just when I thought he must have snuck out the back door he exploded out of his bed less than 15' away.  There were large piles of droppings everywhere.  
No telling exactly how long he had been bedding right next to the road in a busy WMA, or how many hunters had passed within 30 yds of him on their way in or out of the woods as I had.  This experience definitely changed the way I thought about deer behavior.


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## mtr3333

It's a place where they feel no pressure or less pressure enough to take a snooze.


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## swamp hunter

Little different in my woods some time.
I had a Bedding area all scouted out. Here's where they'll be come mid season.  
Sat there and watched a Dim road just South of the ....Bedding Area and watched deer all Morning long go the Wrong Way.
Turns out they were bedding in open Pines with a lot of 2 to 3 ft' high ground cover.
I slip hunted it on a windy day not long after and was walking up on sleepy eyed does .
Some of them didn't even want to get up and run...just leave me alone.  
Sooo , It ain't Always the thickest areas...


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## GA DAWG

They lay all out in my hay field at night but to me. Thats not a bedding area. My bedding areas is where the lay during daylight. Mostly thickest places around.


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## shakey gizzard

The areas you shouldn't" booger" up!


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## GTHunter007

Most people view a bedding area way smaller than what it actually is.  They also fail to distinguish the difference in daytime and nighttime bedding.  

A nighttime bedding area is generally close to or in the primary food source.  Its why you find beds in open hardwoods or out in fields where they fill up and feed at night.  In the open under cover of darkness.  

What we as hunters must also be able to distinguish is daytime bedding areas.  These will likely be heavy cover with multiple escape points.  Perhaps very noisy danger approaches for safety and plenty of low growing browse to sustain the animal for hours of being holed up.  Especially if its a mature buck.  As he is not moving from this area more than a few yards while the sun is up.  People also do not consider the role bright sunlight plays in a deer's eyes and how they want to be under cover.  Their eyesight is at its weakest when the sun is overhead.  (This is why on overcast days you are more likely to catch a deer moving in daylight, especially in wide open areas).  

A daytime bedding area in most cases won't be that small 50 yard circle you think you know of, but more like that 500 yard by 500 yard planted pine area with pockets of sweetgums and briars growing all through it.  Pin pointing where a deer will lay on a daily basis inside of that is not really going to be possible.  If it was you could kill your target deer every weekend.  Or a large area of select cut where most hunters can't even move through the middle of it without every animal in a 300 yard circle hearing their every step.  

Once you figure these two types of bedding, the next step in being able to work the area correctly is being able to think like the deer and figure out where they will be during two times...your approach to the stand and then while in the stand.  Trudge through the open hardwoods 30 minutes before daylight and bust every deer feeding or bedding nearby out and then enter into the pine bedding area...with them on full alert, puts you in the stand after having just let every animal around know you are there.  

You have many choices how to deal with this...you can walk a mile out of your way to come in behind the deer and reach your spot undetected (at least by the animals who are where you believe them to be) or you can cut and maintain a silent approach trail to your stand where you can tip toe right by them and never give them the idea you exist.  

Edges of bedding areas are where most of us should concentrate our focus.  Keeping the wind in mind, the downwind side is the safest, but that makes deer have to come out with the wind over their backs to get out...not very smart if you are a mature animal.  So for me it is about a crosswind on the downwind side of the upwind exit points.  Wind not hitting me in the face, but my shoulder.  And blowing away from the bedding area but where an animal can still exit with the wind in his face and feel comfortable with the area he is heading into.  Wind is critical anytime you venture into or close to a bedding area.  Knowing it and having a plan for whichever wind you have for the day is crucial for staying in the game and not ending it prematurely to a screwed up approach or setup.  

Knowing the difference between primary food sources, secondary food sources, bedding area browse, bedding areas and travel corridors between them all is the great puzzle that is whitetail deer hunting.  You can't just figure out one and hope to be consistently successful.  It takes the whole picture to understand what deer are doing on an area of dirt.  It also must be kept in mind that the simplest from point A to point B repeatedly is almost NEVER the answer when solving the puzzle on a 5+ year old animal.  Especially one who is hunted and knows hunters are all over his woods.  He may not do the same thing twice in a 2 week period. But he will have his habits and will come close to doing what he feels most comfortable with on multiple occasions.


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## Jeff Phillips

Anyplace that is too thick to hunt is a bedding area!


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## kmckinnie

I have found one thing to be true about bedding areas.A buck knows where does bed & inthe middle of the day during the rut he will visit & jump them from there beds. That is when the chase starts. Locate your stands in funnel areas between bedding areas. small creeks with thickets on both sides is aexample. Roads where it looks like a major trail going back an forth around thick areas. Once the chase starts it can go on for awhile.
These is a great thread topic. alot of good info here.


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## Flaustin1

I find beds and droppings everywhere.  I cant say for certain ive ever found a "bedding area".  Ive jumped them out of open hardwoods, thick creek bottoms, nearly impenetrable pines and everything in between.


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## Old Bart

I think of bedding areas where the animal has the highest chance of survival. 

Check out this buck bed, he can see & smell everything down the ridge while the evening thermals allow him to smell anything above him.


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## GT-40 GUY

A place where deer catch some ZZZZZZZZZZs.

gt40


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## Derek Snider

In my opinion, mature deer will bed on a hillside or elevation and have the wind to their back and be able to see upwind of their location. They will typically face away from the wind. This way, they smell ( their most trusted and best sense) what's downwind and see anything coming from upwind. These place include high spots in fields, side of ridges, ditches or creek bottoms, etc.  They definitely frequent doe bedding areas during the rut and will be on their feet late morning after does have bedded seeking out the does bedding areas. As aforementioned, they will jump does that smell "right" and thus creating the midday chase that happens often during the chase phase of the rut.


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## kbuck1

Derek Snider said:


> In my opinion, mature deer will bed on a hillside or elevation and have the wind to their back and be able to see upwind of their location. They will typically face away from the wind. This way, they smell ( their most trusted and best sense) what's downwind and see anything coming from upwind. These place include high spots in fields, side of ridges, ditches or creek bottoms, etc.  They definitely frequent doe bedding areas during the rut and will be on their feet late morning after does have bedded seeking out the does bedding areas. As aforementioned, they will jump does that smell "right" and thus creating the midday chase that happens often during the chase phase of the rut.



I think you got your up and down winds backwards. Everything else I agree with.


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