Public Land Hunting
does, it does you no good to educate
those deer when buck movement is minimal. Like I mentioned earlier, it may
cause those does to bed elsewhere
putting you in a no win situation when
peak buck movement actually arrives.
Our plan for this year is to hunt that stand
when we see rutting activity from our
other stands. This tells us that bucks will
likely be checking that bedding area for
does and it makes the risk of hunting that
bedding area a little bit easier to take. For
that reason we will be hunting our public
land bedding area in late October or early
November.
bedding area towards us. There are two
reasons for this. The first is obvious. We
want absolutely none of our scent blowing anywhere near that bedding area.
The second reason is during the rut when
bucks are looking for does, they don’t go
and walk through every bedding area to
check for does. It takes too much time
and why would you look for does when
you have a sense of smell as great as a
whitetails. Bucks will travel the downwind side of popular doe bedding areas.
If they smell a hot doe, they will investigate further. If not, they will continue on
their way. If you are sitting on the downwind side you should be in prime position
Another rule we have set for this season
to get a shot. These leads into the next
and hunting near bedding areas is that we
question about hunting bedding areas.
need a perfect wind. Not an almost perHow close do you sit?
fect wind, but a perfect wind. Even if you
make the risk a little more worth it by
It all goes back to scouting. I will admit
hunting during peak buck movements
that scouting new and old deer hunting
there is still a big risk in spooking deer
properties is my favorite thing about deer
and causing them to bed elsewhere.
hunting. I realize not everybody that
Hunting during a perfect wind is one way, hunts enjoys scouting as much as I do, but
to yet again, minimize the risk of hunting it is definitely a key to deer hunting sucnear a bedding area. If the wind is not
cess. If you scout during early spring deer
right, don’t hunt! If you are only able to
trails used during the previous fall will still
hunt that stand two times during the year be visible. Look for trails that run parallel
then that is how it is going to have to be. to the bedding area, just outside of the
One mistake can cause you a whole
bedding area. These are the trails bucks
bunch of trouble. Do not be tempted to
will use dur [