How to find where deer bed?

[Tom Anderson]

How do you determine where deer bed?  Over the past couple of yeers, I've jumped deer up from several different places on the farm I hunt.
Folks keep telling me to find where the deer bed and where they eat and intercept them along the way. But, how can you tell where deer bed?

[Benha]

Find the nastiest and thickest place where you hunt that's where they will be bedding.

[Tom Anderson]

Originally posted by Benha:
Find the nastiest and thickest place where you hunt that's where they will be bedding.

Here in eastern N.C., that just about applies to everywhere.  :(

[Whip]

I'm sure if varies a lot from one part of the country to another, but where I hunt the deer don't bed very far from the feeding grounds.  

Where do they come into the feeding areas in the evening?  That gives a good clue on what direction they are coming from.  Trails from there will help tell the rest of the story.  In my areas it is simply follow them back to the first heavy cover and that's where the beds will be.  

Now of course, deer also travel other routes as well.  They will wander from one feeding area to another, etc.  And they don't always bed in the same place day after day. Wind direction plays an important role in where they will bed.  So there is more to it than just knowing the simple bed to feed trails.  But it is great knowledge to have!

[JSimon]

I feel your pain. I basically hunt small woodlots surrounded by farm fields and it seems the deer will bed almost anywhere. There are a few definite, thick bedding areas, but I've also jumped them up in small dead falls in otherwise wide open woods, along fence rows, and in the middle of picked corn fields. Don't overlook small pieces of cover. It doesn't take much to hide a deer.

[reddogge]

Middle of the day they will bed on an open hillside so they can see a long way.  That's what they do here at my place.

[DaveBriner]

Originally posted by Whip:
Wind direction plays an important role in where they will bed.

This is what I have to play for the most part in my neck of the woods.  We have high ridges with deep hollows between.  The deer like to run the ridges and will usually bed about 1/3 of the way down, in thicker stuff.  Always such that they look downhill with the wind coming over their backs.  In really inclement weather, they go to the cedar thickets or down into some of the deepest hollows and hole up out of the wind.
BEst,
Dave

[Swamp Pygmy]

well one good tip is remember where you jumped them from beds in years before. Remember where it was and when. Try to guess why as well.

Not that I'm some expert but my only real tip is if the trails are fresh, they are only going to be coming from bedding, staging, or feeding. So follow the trail. If it ain't more feeding or brush overlooking feeding its probably bedding.

But I admit. Following trails away from food gets louder by the step, and I never know when to stop. I'm sure I jump them and don't know it. I'm curious to hear others opinions.

[deermaster1]

when someone finds a bedding area, do they find actual depressions in the leaves or whatever, or are they just putting 2 and 2 together and figuring that an area is a bedding area?  the woods i hunt is so thick, i really cant find actual bedding marks.  is that normal?

[Tom Anderson]

When I've jumped them up, I'm usually able to find a small spot where they were laying...crushed leaves, matted down straw, etc..

[nutmeg]

Think Rabitts. (nut)

[DaveBriner]

Beds are easy to spot.  They are oval in shape and you can tell something heavy has beenlaying on the ground.  A bed in fallen oak leaves or similar will not keep it's shape for more than a couple days, however a bed in the grass can remain distinguishable for much longer.  The bigger the bed, the bigger the deer.  I've often found one large single bed off to the side of several smaller beds in snow.  Undoubtedly a buck using does as radar in the late season.
Dave

[Jedimaster]

Deer are opportunistic creatures.  They eat where there is food and they sleep where it is comfortable.  They do neither when their scared.  When it's cold they like to lay where they can get some sunshine, think cut-overs and grown up fields.  When the weather is bad or very cold think pine thickets and places that will break the wind and keep the rain off.  Either way you got to find cover.  Very seldom will you find a deer bedding where everyone else can see.

[Bill Carlsen]

Basically deer bed where they feel safe and as Gene and Barry Wensel discuss in their writings, big bucks have to be thought of as another species unto themselves. So finding deer beds and big buck beds can be two different things. We just bought a 23 acre hunk of forested wetland. No mast on it, but it has marshes, blueberries and appears to be a bedding/travel corridor. We know that at least two bucks share the area and are pretty sure about the general area they bed. We have plenty of pictures of them and they always come from the same direction. The does and yearling bucks have plenty of mast this year and in such years they are hard to pattern. They eat, bed down near where they eat and when it's time to eat again they get up and eat. What works best for us is to find where they are feeding. Eventually, if  your set up is accessible without disturbing the deer they will show up. You can also backtrack from the feeding areas and at least get a general sense of where they are coming from. An early snow can make this quite easy to do.

One way to determine where the deer feel safest is to follow a long blood trail. I am not advocating poor shot placement but I have been amazed on more than one occaision  when trailing my own or other's deer where they take you and what you can learn. One deer two years ago took me into a blueberry  thicket that I was totally unaware of even existing. If you have friends that hunt nearby and they need help trailing get right into it with them. It's nice when deer go down quickly from a shot but when they don't and you can trail them in daylight and you pay attention as you go you will be surprised at what the deer will lead you to.

[BobCo 1965]

Another thing to take into consideration is whether you ar looking at a night bedding area or day. Some are both I'm sure. But I have found night bedding areas in places you never would suspect. Like in the middle of a cut hay field.

My best method of finding bedding areas though would be scouting on the first snow fall (you don't want to go too far into winter like after the season because paterns could change). Like Joe said follow track from feedind areas to bedding areas and note the direction of the tracks.

[Bill Carlsen]

Bobco is right. We have a small food plot on our homestead and frequently they bed in it at night. We also have had them bed in the middle of the day. They need to feel safe. Now that the gun season is in full swing it's tough to find them anywhere at any time of day. All of our camera activity is nocturnal right now.

[dino]

Bill is right on.  I've learned alot by trailing deer.  Always pay attention to terrain and cover when trailing.  I've found some honey hole beding areas, travel routes and staging areas that way. dino

[Swamp Pygmy]

snow must be nice for tracking. No such thing this far south.

[paradocs]

Listen for the snoring, Tom...

[Paul WA]

Out here in western Washington where they bed a dog would have a rough time getting through it and a shot with a bow is impossible...PR