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Trophy Deer Bedding Areas

Bedding Areas Of Whitetail Deer

If you can locate trophy deer bedding areas; you have greatly increased your opportunity to harvest one of them.

Trophy Deer Bedding Habitat

Whitetail bucks and does usually differ in the habitat and areas they choose to bed in. Trophy Bucks like seclusion, they are loners when it comes to their bedding areas. Big bucks often bed at least a half mile away from roads and human activity. Bucks like to bed in areas that give them a good view of any approaching danger, often bedded with the wind to their back and dense cover nearby for quick escape. Trophy deer, the big bucks, will often bed just below a ridge; under a conifer tree, or in tall grass on a brushy slope, sunning themselves. Thus allowing them the vision and a quick escape over the ridge if danger approaches form below. Bucks also like field edges, just inside the wood line. Trophy whitetail deer also favor the edges of swamps; bedded in areas of tall swamp grass or amongst the alder-brush. Trophy deer like to bed in corn fields; but not very often on windy days. Large bucks will always pick a bedding area that is to their advantage; line of sight, wind direction, and have escape cover very close by.

The Bed

How can we tell if it is a trophy buck's bed? Three things are dead give-a-ways. First; the size of the deer bed, a buck's bed will be oval and at least 40 inches long. Second; the smell of it, does it have a musky, kind of rank smell to it? It won't be sweet smelling. Put your nose to it and get a whiff. Third; is it alone? Trophy bucks usually bed alone. You won't find another fresh bed (is it still warm, any frost in it, melted snow, fresh droppings near-by? Don't taste them!) near-by, or smaller deer beds (come across a large doe bed with yearlings).

Trophy bucks may have bedding areas near their rub and scrape line; just off doe trails, resting, and waiting a bit before their next romantic opportunity.

Scouting A Buck's Bedding Area

Scout your bedding areas as if you were hunting; were rubber boots and remain scent free. Once you have found a trophy deer's bedding area in your hunting area, get out; don't linger there and leave a bunch of scent. Don't do anything to disrupt it. You should almost back out. You want that buck to come back to his bedding area and be comfortable. You don't want him to leave. Take some mental notes. Evaluate a promising stand site; note prevailing winds, feeding areas, and cover. Don't place your hunting stand over his bedding area. If you do, it won't be his bedding area for long. He will leave and you will be disappointed. Your stand site needs to be placed between his bedding and feeding areas, or just off a promising scrape line, between the two. This is where you want to use a portable hunting stand, or even a ladder stand.

A deer stand that leaves a low impact on the hunting area. By low impact I mean; don't drive an ATV right up to the tree stand site, run a chainsaw, hammer and nail, urinate all over, spend hours getting a stand in place. Do you get the idea? Low impact; get in, set your stand up and get out. Don't hunt there 10 days in a roll either. A serious trophy deer hunter will have multiple hunting stand sites to choose from as conditions dictate. On that note, you may want to place a stand site near a doe bedding area. What are trophy bucks looking for during the rut? That's right; a sweetie to snuggle up to.