PM Sits- distance from fields?

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pewpewpew
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PM Sits- distance from fields?

Unread postby pewpewpew » Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:30 am

The only consistent pattern I’ve been able to pick up on is that deer like to feed in fields after sunset (shocker, I know). Fields in my case are crp, hayfields, cattle fields, and the occasional small food plot.

I understand that being on the field edge itself is not considered a strong strategy, being that the first deer to arrive at fields in shooting light are likely non-shooters. Also more pressure from hunters.

The flip side is the further you go into the timber to catch the deer moving in shooting light, you are farther from the target destination (field), and you create access issues the deeper you are in timber. I can set up 400 yards from a field edge all day, but it seems like poor odds that a shooter will walk within 30 yards of you on it’s way to a field.

Question is: Do you find there is a sweet spot of distance from fields?

If I knew where the bedding area was, I guess it would be a no brainer. In my case, I find that bedding is sporadic and inconsistent.


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Mathewshooter
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Re: PM Sits- distance from fields?

Unread postby Mathewshooter » Sat Nov 25, 2017 3:02 am

I have been hunting bedding areas for years. IMO its the best way to get a crack at a big buck during legal shooting hours. Hunting fields where i hunt is a waste of time (public land). I dont always hunt inside the bedding areas. Sometimes I'll find a good spot just on the outside edge of these bedding areas to hunt. If the area you hunt has sporadic bedding at best, it may be time to find a new area to hunt. If its your own property, it may be time to make your own bedding area.
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Re: PM Sits- distance from fields?

Unread postby pewpewpew » Sat Nov 25, 2017 3:44 am

Mathewshooter wrote:I have been hunting bedding areas for years. IMO its the best way to get a crack at a big buck during legal shooting hours. Hunting fields where i hunt is a waste of time (public land). I dont always hunt inside the bedding areas. Sometimes I'll find a good spot just on the outside edge of these bedding areas to hunt. If the area you hunt has sporadic bedding at best, it may be time to find a new area to hunt. If its your own property, it may be time to make your own bedding area.


I’ve got hundreds of acres of public outside my back door, so it’s my go-to, and I like the challenge of it. Im sort of damned to low deer density, semi big wood type public hill country, unless I want to drive 2 hours away.

I’m an outlier here, but I don’t really see “bedding areas” where I hunt. I can find you dozens of lightly used beds in a shotgun pattern, spread through the timber, but no real concentration of beds.
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Re: PM Sits- distance from fields?

Unread postby mauser06 » Sat Nov 25, 2017 4:09 am

You aren't looking for a concentration of beds...you are looking for single buck beds. Sometimes there will be multiple beds in that spot just due to variations in the wind..but groups of beds usually in a circle fashion are typically doe beds.


One area where I hunt in Michigan is tough to find bedding. When I leave that specific block of woods, I can walk right to beds. Other swamps..hill country etc.

What I found is I have to break the land down. I'm not looking for a bed in 3 miles of land. I picked a small marsh located within that block of land. Looked it over and said "a buck would bed there". Assuming nothing was there because it had to have watched me walk 150yds across the marsh..I was getting close..I wanted to check it for beds. A lone deer blew off of it and I about cried. Had I actually looked it over well, I may have caught him laying there.

I think in big woods and low deer density deer may travel more and abundant bedding makes finding beds tough because they aren't as well used and I only find maybe...50% actually marked with rubs. I've actually seen lone does jump out of marked buck beds which I don't understand. I still think she was ready to breed and waiting for a buck.


There is no set distance to get off field edges. I've seen them bed on the field edge. I've seen parallel trails where they scent check the fields. I've seen them in fields that seemed like way too far from the bedding but it was.
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Re: PM Sits- distance from fields?

Unread postby pewpewpew » Sat Nov 25, 2017 4:37 am

mauser06 wrote:You aren't looking for a concentration of beds...you are looking for single buck beds. Sometimes there will be multiple beds in that spot just due to variations in the wind..but groups of beds usually in a circle fashion are typically doe beds.


One area where I hunt in Michigan is tough to find bedding. When I leave that specific block of woods, I can walk right to beds. Other swamps..hill country etc.

What I found is I have to break the land down. I'm not looking for a bed in 3 miles of land. I picked a small marsh located within that block of land. Looked it over and said "a buck would bed there". Assuming nothing was there because it had to have watched me walk 150yds across the marsh..I was getting close..I wanted to check it for beds. A lone deer blew off of it and I about cried. Had I actually looked it over well, I may have caught him laying there.

I think in big woods and low deer density deer may travel more and abundant bedding makes finding beds tough because they aren't as well used and I only find maybe...50% actually marked with rubs. I've actually seen lone does jump out of marked buck beds which I don't understand. I still think she was ready to breed and waiting for a buck.


There is no set distance to get off field edges. I've seen them bed on the field edge. I've seen parallel trails where they scent check the fields. I've seen them in fields that seemed like way too far from the bedding but it was.


Maybe I’m looking for a short cut here. I don’t know. I’ve set cameras over some very promising marked buck beds for WEEKS. The results were underwhelming. Over the course of several weeks there was a deer (does or young buck) in the bed for a grand total of 1.5 hours. Talk about low odds if I decided to hunt that bed. I have no doubt there are resident beds in some areas of this country, but I don’t think I have that going on.

The hunting pressure is light. I think that really gives them the freedom to bed wherever they feel like it. They don’t really need sanctuaries. A heavy pressure day for me is sharing 500 acres with 4 other guys during gun season opener weekend.

Back to fields. I can do an all day sit in the timber and be lucky to see a doe. But, on my commute home from work, my headlights sweep a field an hour after sunset and there are 5 does and 5 bucks grazing away.

I guess if I had 20 acre wood lots and 500 acre fields, the obvious thing would be to be near bedding. I have the opposite. 500 acres of woods and a 20 acre field.


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