Where To Scout For Buck Bedding Areas 

Coach!! This is the type of information I come to you for. You are by far one of the most knowledgeable and easy to understand Professionals I have ever witnessed! Great Video.

Steve, just listening to you is for me "a major food source"......I mean an education! ...a priceless education. Thank You!

I wish I had your job Jeff. I love going into a new piece of public stand on my back and figuring out where’s the best place to hunt. Seeing deer on that kind of hunting is so rewarding to me

I hunted my first season ever at 56 this last season. I got my limit with a lot of luck, and just some skill. I had such fun just getting out. I'm learning a lot from your videos! I'm lucky to have about 186 acres in rural TN to hunt on. I can hardly wait to get out and recon my area. I'm going to use your suggestions every chance I get. Thanks for the videos!

Every time I watch one of your videos it reafirms just how much I don't know. I'm playing checkers while your playing chess🤣

Great, Great Great information. I hunt the piney woods of east Texas with bedding everywhere I thought but what I’ve learned is exactly what you say, the does bed close to our food plots and the bucks bed farther away in the same looking piney thickets as the does bed. The bucks just bed farther it’s in their nature. Love your videos man they start my brain working and it just starts to click on the way my deer move around and bed and to why. Keep them coming they are a great insight into what’s going on in the deer woods.

As a rookie hunter. This is great! I’m gonna apply all these criteria/tips when I get home in February. Thanks!

Thank you for sharing this invaluable scouting info. I will be applying the idea of layering to the public lands I hunt and I know it will help me narrow down the buck bedding.

More great tips! After the season ends in Michigan, a friend of mine and I scout new areas because I hunt state land. I know the area I've been hunting (south of Big Rapids) is good. Your tips are making it better. Appreciate what you do! Thanks!

I just had the Opportunity to shoot my first buck las year. This video will definitely help me know where the bucks are. Thank you 🦌

Thanks for the input. Getting ready for muzzleloader season in Missouri . Hunting down in bottom of thick cover where I spotted a wall hanger in rifle season. It looks just like the place on your video. You confirmed what I was already thinking . Me and my son have taken bucks over 160 there. Great advice !

Thanks Jeff. I feel like I was one of the guys you made this for. And this will be watched over again a few times fr sure. So much good info.

Super informative. The most user friendly info I have seen in a long time.

So interesting, just got done doing this yesterday in MN,wanted to catch them in there fall patterns before we get to much snow. The bucks were bedding in the spots we thought they were, just outside of the doe bedding ares we made. Need to get the rest of the property set up the same way now.. Thanks for your help Jeff.. and again great videos!

I was at the gym talking to an aquaintence who bow hunts and we showed each other some pics of a big 7. We later realize we hunt about a quarter mile from each other and it was the same buck. What my friend showed me was he planted a nice food plot where he was. I then later found the corridor (a small strip of woods between 2 backyards in my neighborhood) and sure enough there was a deer trail. It will soon be the site of my first 70 gal water hole.😏 Thanks Jeff!

On this place I have up the road from my house there’s a thick hillside I never walk round on it. Deer come from this hillside. I’ve walked it prob 4-5 times in the 8 years I’ve had this farm. It’s perfect for them. Thick with small trees cedars briars honeysuckle. I leave it alone. Last time I walked it rubs were all the way around the hillside. Great video brother. You’ve helped me out. I’ve killed 3 deer out of the same stand still got one buck to go. I’ve got my stand on a knob it’s big white oaks at the end of this hillside. I can sneak across the big field around the hillside and get to my stand. There a fence crossing comin to this hillside and where they come through the fence there a cedar there bout 4 inches thick and a bunch of bucks have rubbed it through the years. I leave them alone on this hillside.

Your Wisdom is priceless! Thank you Sir, and wish you luck this 2019 Season!

I'm am so happy you made this video I have been struggling to find buck bedding areas no matter how hard I look and try to find them thank you for the tips kind of funny but now when I go in the woods I ask myself what would Jeff do and look for lol

Really incredible the amount of valuable information you're sharing. Thank you!

Another awesome video with great information, thanks Jeff!

Hi jeff, I'm still enjoying all these great videos. I would like to send you a pic of the buck I was able to harvest this season. You were a great part of my success. Thanks again

Thank you for everything you do Jeff.

Awsome info.. !!👍👍our food plot at camp changed some travel routes and bedding..but def noticed changes in bedded with winds etc this year they all traveled and bedded much closer .. passed a big fat buck called him fat boy had in cam .. he made me shake .. busted up no tine length looked older. ..But shot a doe at home yesterday ..held off til now I agree deer move and change with changes in there surroundings .. and weather moslty

Very informative segment )) thanks for dispelling many myths 👍

Appalachian hunter here away from where agriculture occurs. Most woods are full of white oak. Deer sneak in people's yards sometimes, eat weeds and grass here and there, and acorns. There are no easily defined feeding areas. Also, unless open field or mature, open woods....our woods all look like what other folks call bedding areas (from thick to machete worthy). It's tough to hunt as a result. Best bet is topographic features, barriers, funnels, and deer sign. Finding well defined deer bedding and feeding areas is very difficult. You can follow sign/trails but it does not lead to bedding or feeding, you realize you are just at some pinch point or easy travel route. This fall I hunted a buck's bedding area. It wasn't "A bedding area" because the whole 100 acres was potential bedding area! I just found the particular subbedding area that that buck chose based upon sign and trail cams. Sometimes it is just random where a nice buck picks among many choices. I'd love for a channel to go to public land in the hardest areas to hunt (no agriculture and low land cover diversity where all of google earth is just green) and then show us how to tackle it.

A friend and I walked my property today and did some brainstorming on my plans for the 'off' season. 1 thing I hope to do is put a food plot in the mix (never done 1 before so should be interesting). If I have established doe beds and at least know where the buck beds ARE NOT.....what distance from those doe beds seems reasonable to put in a food plot or 2? Once again, loved the videos! Can't get enough of em really.

Great advice. I’m goin to fix some plots on my place up here next spring. I put some out the first two years I got this place by my house and the neighbors threw mothballs in it after I done all the work with a tractor and disc.

Awesome! Been waiting for a video like this

Great advice brother thank you for sharing gb

Great vid Jeff! Wanted to share this unconventional bed finding method. I run all my cameras on scrapes and 1min video in the 120,000 acre management area I hunt in here in the Ark Ozarks. 2014 got a vid of nice buck in Oct around 3am pretty often. No idea where he was bedding. Noted the direction he left most times. Found another scrape several hundred yds that way and got him around 5am. 4 scrapes and 1 mile later I was getting him going up on a knob just before light and coming down just after dark. This took 2 months. I got his video on the last scrape 3 yrs in a row with the same pattern. I hunted him every yr with only one sighting in daylight out of bow range. He could not be approached where he was bedded. Didn't put a camera there this yr and got dropped off to hunt him cause I believe he could hear me park the truck. I don't know if he's still alive. Gonna put a camera in there soon. I did find both 2015 sheds which were his best on a food plot very close to the knob! This is the only time I have tried to chase one with cameras but it worked.

I’d love to know about blacktail in Oregon coast range do the same apply to them will they bed away from does

Awesome information like always! God bless

Nice video, very helpful. Where should I look for beds in a big woods setting where no bait is allowed in upstate NY? There is no ag or fields. I know there are bucks in the woods (have some on camera) There is a stream and a lake and some swampy areas upstream.

As far as I know there is no absolutes in deer hunting.

Just seen my big 8pt / 140" missing his left beam, so with that being said as the late doe season gets underway in some states as it will be here in Michigan, use your binoculars and check that big body doe as best as possible to see if it is not actually a big buck that had shed it's antlers.... It's that time of year....

I went out for a look to see whats around and i seen a new hunting blind set up right were we drive. Must be some farmers getting ready for the season. Its just on the edge of the reserve so they got the right of way when it comes to hunting. Its about 300 yards away from the rez line. I hope they get a monster this year. Ive been walking around and found beds were 4 does live and afew days ago there was only 3 does and 1 buck all of a sudden. Its september 22 . I dot know when the deer season starts, rut and hunting season. i know its elk season right now.

Awesome videos man. I live in Wv, and live on 15 acres of land, which borders 120 acres that we have a lease on. We are surrounded by a lot of coal company land 1000s of acres that they are currently timbering, “looks like an atomic bomb has went off”. It seems that all mature bucks have totally vanished, and I can’t blame them. How long will it take things to get back to normal, or will it? Also any tips on luring bucks back to the property?

Thanks great tips,I just subscribed.

Beautiful woods! looks a little like VT where i hunt, Alot of up and down the mountains!

I've noticed that bucks will usually have a thick stem count to their backs, a thicket, briar patch, a log, or a hill plus the wind is usually blowing from that direction for hearing and smell and they usually have a pretty good visibility /escape route ahead of them. Have you noticed this as well? Like you said they don't have to have a canopy but typically I find they'll have some sort of side cover. What's your thoughts on edges, say where a large oak bottom meets thick pines on a ridge top with the food source up on the next ridge over. Would most mature buck movement be on that edge, if the terrain also encourages this line of movement, in the mornings due to thermals rising, doe bedding/scent checking, and limited pressure or would they cruise/bed more in the bottom since the majority of the food is up top with the plots and most acorns are gone by now but there are still privet hedges and woody browse. Also have you noticed a pattern where the bucks cruise the leeward side of a hill as to not get skylighted in the morning thermals while they scent check/cruise? And cruise the bottoms during the afternoon thermals? Sorry I could go on and on. I'll stop there for now lol.

Great video. Question for ya. I own 5 acres of land in between two cow farms. Mostly wooded. I throw corn on the ground with a camera on it. A lot of younger bucks and doe, day and night but I got two beasts bucks that only show up at night. Anywhere from 30minutes after and before daylight. Anything I can do to try and get them in daylight. Thanks for any info. Again great videos for beginners like me.

A couple questions about identifying buck bedding in northern WI big woods, public land. What is the biggest identifying factor in believing you have found a buck bedding area? Is it a high rub concentration, high scrape count, a mix of new and old rubs from years past? Is there typically a rub or scrape line leading from an afternoon/evening food source to a buck's bedding area?

I really enjoy your educational videos. Thank you. I have a question regarding the use of grape vines over scrapes. Do your cameras end up taking a lot of pictures due to the wind moving the vine?

Hey, Jeff. Great info, as always and thanks for sharing. I just finished All Weather Whitetails and really enjoyed it. I grew up hunting ridge and valleys like your talking about here. However, I just recently started hunting a large farm where the highest elevation is around 350' to '450 above sea level. Most elevation changes are around 6' to 7', max. It is very flat. However, the surrounding cover is typical of what you would find in farm country in Illinois or Ohio, with lots of drainage heads in the middle of fields running into naturally timbered edge cover. The creek drainages are wide and shallow with no real ditches to speak of. There is some managed timber plantings with different ages of growth. My question is this; how do I apply your info to this tract of land. Should I look into the thickest timber plantings after the season? This has truly been challenging for me. Add to that the wanderings of other hunters on the same property and you have the makings of a hunting nightmare. Thanks for all you do.

Great video and thank you for the sharing. I hunt in north west MS on a small 90 acre parcel. It has a ton of pressure and the surrounding parcels also have a lot of pressure if the gun shots are any clue. The cover is very thick with visibility out to 10 feet in the CRP fields but out to 168 yards on the adjacent food plots.Average visibility in wooded areas is 30-45 yards. It is covered with food and there is not one square foot without a deer track. The deer have gone almost completely nocturnal. With so much deer sign and bedding areas/food plots/oaks and pressure, what is the method you use to narrow down the best spot/time? I know they are there but Im not seeing them. Thank you.

"My hunting season starts the day after hunting season ends." Here the hunting season is 6 weeks so if the weather hasn't changed then maybe that would give me a good indication of where the deer are. I'd just hate to see a buck the day after hunting season if I don't fill both my tags.

What an awesome video. I have a northern slope that has very tall skinny trees with zero stems available to deer. Mostly ash, sycamore, and soft maples. I can’t get it to grow any cover because it’s north facing and those tall trees canopy over the floor. The slope is about 300 yards long, 8 acres or so in area. Should I clear cut a large percentage of the low value trees to let growth occur or is it going to take a super long time because it is north facing?

Hi Jeff! I've been starting to watch a lot of your videos lately and am very interested in what you have to show and say. I'm from Michigan and have mostly hunted in Gladwin and Hale. Those lands are easy to navigate and to be able to use most of the information you give. Now I have 120 acres in Cheboygan Mi, and this property is absolutely NOTHING like those other properties. Most of it is thick with young cedars and pines and wetlands and hardly an ounce of open land or hardwoods where you can see around a little. So now I'm at a loss of how use your info because most of your info seems to deal with less thick or less dense woods. Do you have videos to help with this?

Crops completely surround a old farm. 75 yard wide strip of creek bottom and thick invasive shrub trees overgrown with hedge maple. 2 clover food plots near middle strip. 20 acres of partially maintained crp grass on both sides of middle strip. Does are satellite bedded throughout crp both sides and in edge of timber strip. Where do I look first for the biggest oldest buck?

I hunt on 5 acres oz land but the rest oz the land belong to some body ease but have a lot oz picture oz does and buck in my food plot at night so what should I do to get them to come in the day time

Can you look at Aerial photos and tell where bedding areas are located? Please let me know thanks

I've seen some of your trail camera video clips on here where the deer look like they are beddig in a pretty open timber? I could be wrong. My question is it typically they are bedding in the woods, but near a honey suckel patch or thick cutover, or do you sometimes see bedding in timber that really isn't that thick? I always hear people saying thicker the better for bedding.

What is your opinion on deer bedding in swampy areas? Big portion of land joining the property where I hunt is wet with dry islands, always have bucks coming from that direction 200 yard or so from stand location. They cross pines to come to oaks. Would this be a good area to plant a kill plot? Thanks for the great videos.

Great videos . My question is : I have a thick high stem count low lying area that I know is a buck bedding area . This area is also naturally a little wet . With all the rain here in NY this year it’s really wet . My deer sightings were down this season in this area .Am I correct in thinking it was just too wet and obviously deer do not like bedding were it is really wet ?

The problem that I have for bedding, in general, is that I'm using native grasses in my sanctuaries, mostly. The 1st heavy snow n they are all matted down, and most of the deer leave. I have been planting white pine and Norway spruce like a madman, but it is going to take a few years for that to be the difference.

Would a large apple orchard be considered a food source for deer?

Great video as always. Do you have any videos on reading topo maps for deer hunting?

So if you find several rubs in a single area is that a good indication of a buck bed nearby?

How close do bucks bed to previous days bed?

You mention that you can pretty much read an area with a topo map... Do you do "desktop assessments" meaning review a topo and satellite imagery? I hunt public land in east Texas. new area, I plan to go after the season is done and take my drone. I want to get Ariel footage and specifically note where the oaks vs pines are, should be pretty obvious with oaks having lost their leaves. Other than that, what could I look for? Water sources? Open areas?... great video BTW

I would like to talk to you and see how much it cost to get you out and look at my place if you have the time.

I just found a great place in Carter co. 300 acres of 90% white oak where should I put my stand?

Nice talk.

Approximately how far should the buck bedding be away from food/doe bedding in average?

I'm late on my comments but does this apply to georgia as well?

Jeff how do I get the bucks to come in daylight they're cloming right after last shooting light

What if you hunt in an area where there are no food plots or crop fields and baiting is not allowed.We hunt a small wooded valley with mountains on both sides and no active farms in the valley for 25 years . the old farms are posted. 1 mountain has farms on the other side but about a mile of wooded areas before the fields all private unhuntable land. The other mountain has another wooded valley on the other side of the mountain. It almost seems that deer movement is random. Mostly red oaks with a few white oaks scattered in. but no real concentrated food sources to keep deer in 1 area

I can nearly look a the the land and tell where most deer like to bed. Usually somewhere where its relatively thick. Usually ceder. Trees. Or small pine tembers. Or if your on a,mountian side it might be where and old tree fell. Or on a nob,where there some mountian ivy or rodadendren. Where. A Buck or doe can see. Around him. But feel safe. And. But knows nothing can ease up on em. With out hearing or seeing you first,,,,

How do rubs play into this. Do they rub trees anywhere? or in their bedding zones?

What tips do you have about CRP field bedding

Its harder in n.y cant have a food plots

How about doing a video on “How to hunt with cattle on same property”?

Just got a new 20 acre ranch style home. Have been putting corn out and doe are eating it up. I have seen 4-8 doe and fawn eating on the corn i place. Is there any tips on how to spot or attract the bucks? I have only seen one spike.

Would love to see this work in the big woods Iam talking about public land and 50.000 thousand acres plus

could you tell me how much you charge to walk and better understand an area? I hunt public land and have amazing bucks during the off season but as soon as the deer season starts and the shift happens I can not figure out where they go.

It's almost impossible to know exactly where a particular buck beds. But I guess you could know where they have certain beds at if your jumping them up in the same spots /areas time and time again

How much do you charge to go out on somebodys property and help them out like this

Iv been hunting my land for 4 years now and still cant figure out where they bed could use some help

Do you come to missouri

My hunting season ends when that ice gets to be thick enough. 🎣

Not sure why all the focus is on bucks.Does taste just as good 👍

is this a wild game farm ? if your having clients paying to hunt there

I would love to get you on my property. How do I go about hiring you?

How can someone contact you?

I like it

what is "high stem count"

GOD BLESS

Here in North Texas we are one week away from opening day of archery season. I believe I have ruined the hunt by driving my ATV there to fill up feeders we can as we can use down here. I have been binge watching your videos for 2 days straight and i can't stop. I do have a question for you though, is one week away from opening day of bow season too close to actually walk out through the whole 100 acres of property that I have been allowed to hunt, to scout for bucks?

Does anybody know how to get ahold of this guy

I like to bow hunting because it is as close to the old way as there is. West Texas bow hunting. I would rather not have as much success than rely on a camera to tell me what is going on versus doing my own homework. To each their own.

That’s the prob with a farm we hunt. There’s no place on it that people don’t go. The deer are never left alone. They have no place they feel safe.

👍

You seem very knowledgable, but your statement about herd sizes in northern michigan is incorrect.

Do not buy the app no one responds to you when you try to send them an email it goes to a dead end

He said "we don't go in this area" yet there is a ground blind right behind him.

The first two minutes all this guy did was talk about himself as credentials and what he did get to the point

Hello brother.

So... Buck beds here, why, and what made you look there.

I just watched a different video that this same guy says it's a myth that bucks bed behind a doe...

THIS GUYS A GREAT BULLSHITTER. NOW LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH. BY FAR THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION IN DEAD HUNTING IS THE WHOLE DEER BEDDING AREA BULLSHIT. BE IT BUCK OR DOE. A DEER BEDS DOWN WHERE IT FEELS COMFORTABLE AT THE TIME. IT MAY BE A WIDE OPEN WOODS OR WEEDY OVERGROWN FIELD OR THICK BRUSH AREA. A BEDDING "AREA" IS PURE BULLSHIT. IT'S WHAT MAGAZINE LIKE TO SELL YOU TO BUY THEIR SHIT. THINK ABOUT IT FOR A MOMENT. IF THERE WAS A BUCK BEDDING AREA .............. ALL THE BUCKS WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW. THATS WHY IT'S NEVER IN THE SAME PLACE OR AREA MOST OF THE TIME. THEY AREN'T THAT STUPID.