Farm country bedding help
- Bmoser77
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Farm country bedding help
Hello everyone! Just wondering about farm country bedding tactics. I’m new to using beast tactics and am struggling to find beds in timber. I live in an area that is flat crop land until you get near a river, then is semi rolling hills with large patches of timber here and there. A typical parcel that would be hunted is 80-90% cropland and the rest timber. Where should I look for beds, And how would I go about hunting a bedding area when I find them? Also, when Dan says that he looks for Big buck sign, what kind of sign exactly should I be looking for? Thanks!
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Re: Farm country bedding help
The terrain you're describing can be tough to hunt beds because the timber is small enough that without good access you'll blow it out before getting setup. Brushy fence rows, ditch lines, field corners, pockets of cover close to the road, isolated trees in ag fields all will hold bedding, over looked spots where most people don't think a buck would be are generally the ticket. It really pays off to have access to a lot of parcels in this scenario because each property may only have 1 good buck bedding location on it. Just last year the buck I killed was bedded on a small ridge 100 yds from the farm house, right above where I usually park. We circled down wind and killed him at the first pocket of cover after bumping him off the ridge. I would have never thought a buck would bed there, but the farmer mentioned they jumped one while chopping corn. That property is 120 acres with a total of about 10 acres of timber. Where the buck was bedded is about 100 yards long and 50 ft wide. As far a big buck sign, I rely heavily on large tracks and droppings. One nice thing about open terrain is the deer are pretty visible throughout the summer and early fall, so if you see a buck in a crop field close to closing time, you know he was bedded close and you can basically pin point where he was bedded because the options are so limited.
- SD_Bowhunter
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Welcome to the beast. The buck sign Dan is referring to would be rubs leading to or from a bedding location and rubs in the beds themselves. Do you have an aerial of some of the area? I have found that bucks will tend bed on the edge of these woodlots where they can get a scent advantage as well as a visual advantage. I would also look for waterways in the middle of fields where weeds grow up. In farm country, I have found that bucks tend to bed in places that most people wouldn't associate with seeing the most deer, but you aren't after a high number of deer sightings. The beast tactic is about quality over quantity. I have found beds near junk piles that have tall grass around them and a slight elevation advantage. Also, farm country bucks are always trying to use the terrain to their advantage. Look for low spots in the fields and where those low spots meet the woodlots. That will most likely be where they enter.
- <DK>
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Welcome Bmoser77!
A great read on farm country is MOBigBuck's Farm Scouting Thread - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17743
A great read on farm country is MOBigBuck's Farm Scouting Thread - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17743
- Bedbug
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Re: Farm country bedding help
I too would like to hear other's Intel on this. As it sounds the primary area I hunt is very similar ground to you Bmoser. Very flat farm land. Would say on average the property's I hunt are 80% crop and 20% wood/brush/other overgrowth.
About to year's ago I really starting focusing on bed hunting these ag land bucks. Though there sporadic I have been really successful in pinpointing there bedding locations. Iv narrowed down the when where and why's. Which I could share if you'd like.
But when it comes to hunting them early man I'll admit I'm still failing hard. Access and exits without educating these old guys. Seems almost impossible prior to rutting behavior and still has me beet.
About to year's ago I really starting focusing on bed hunting these ag land bucks. Though there sporadic I have been really successful in pinpointing there bedding locations. Iv narrowed down the when where and why's. Which I could share if you'd like.
But when it comes to hunting them early man I'll admit I'm still failing hard. Access and exits without educating these old guys. Seems almost impossible prior to rutting behavior and still has me beet.
- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Bedbug wrote:I too would like to hear other's Intel on this. As it sounds the primary area I hunt is very similar ground to you Bmoser. Very flat farm land. Would say on average the property's I hunt are 80% crop and 20% wood/brush/other overgrowth.
About to year's ago I really starting focusing on bed hunting these ag land bucks. Though there sporadic I have been really successful in pinpointing there bedding locations. Iv narrowed down the when where and why's. Which I could share if you'd like.
But when it comes to hunting them early man I'll admit I'm still failing hard. Access and exits without educating these old guys. Seems almost impossible prior to rutting behavior and still has me beet.
I’d love to hear about it, I’m all ears! I’d like to learn as much as I can about this stuff.
Hunt aggressively, not recklessly.
- Jhand
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Look for fingers or points in the timber that come out to the fields. I hunt a lot of flat farm land and find bedding along anything that kinda breaks up the normal transition line. I hunt it a lot like I would the marsh. Also look for internal transitions like where it gets thick butting up against a more open patch of woods. Even a lone blow down could have a bed right by it, just to give the buck a little cover.
- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Darkknight54 wrote:Welcome Bmoser77!
A great read on farm country is MOBigBuck's Farm Scouting Thread - http://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17743
Awesome! Thanks my man!
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Farm bedding is mostly edge or transition bedding. Small woodlots will often find the bucks bedding on the down wind edge watching an open field. Or at an interior transition where terrain changes. They love to bed tree lines and islands of timber that are over looked. Also farms usually also have bedding like in hill country or swamps. I am currently editing a big farm DVD about bedding, it should be out in spring.
- MattyJ
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Im in a pretty similar boat here in Kansas. The only difference is that I live in the Flint Hills. I have some topography but it seems minimal in comparison to hill country/ big woods country. I ll have to look through the Farmland scouting thread.
I purchased marsh bedding and hill country. Some principles cross over and some do not.
Either way... I am in for more...
I purchased marsh bedding and hill country. Some principles cross over and some do not.
Either way... I am in for more...
- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
SD_Bowhunter wrote:Welcome to the beast. The buck sign Dan is referring to would be rubs leading to or from a bedding location and rubs in the beds themselves. Do you have an aerial of some of the area? I have found that bucks will tend bed on the edge of these woodlots where they can get a scent advantage as well as a visual advantage. I would also look for waterways in the middle of fields where weeds grow up. In farm country, I have found that bucks tend to bed in places that most people wouldn't associate with seeing the most deer, but you aren't after a high number of deer sightings. The beast tactic is about quality over quantity. I have found beds near junk piles that have tall grass around them and a slight elevation advantage. Also, farm country bucks are always trying to use the terrain to their advantage. Look for low spots in the fields and where those low spots meet the woodlots. That will most likely be where they enter.
I can’t figure out how to add maps or pictures from my cell phone, but here in a link of a piece of public I just started hunting this year if that helps at all.
http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/wildlife/wmamaps/thompson.pdf
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- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Does elevation mean much for farm country bedding when I’m looking around field edges and transitions? There are little bumps and high and low spots in fields and edges, but I would hardly call them hills. Would I want to look for spots that would offer better vantage points to the deer?
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Bmoser77 wrote:Does elevation mean much for farm country bedding when I’m looking around field edges and transitions? There are little bumps and high and low spots in fields and edges, but I would hardly call them hills. Would I want to look for spots that would offer better vantage points to the deer?
Just below the highest elevation on leeward side, and just above the lowest elevation (water)
Small hills and humps don,t matter in big hill country, but they sure do in flat land.
- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
Does anybody know how to upload screenshots via iPhone? I have a property marked up of where I think I should be looking, and wanted to run it by you guys to see what you thought. I haven’t had time to put boots on the ground yet this week so this is what I’m working with as of right now. Thanks!
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- Bmoser77
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Re: Farm country bedding help
So this is the area. The white is what I partially know, and believe what is pressured by other hunters. I’ve marked cams, and tree stands. The green is what I think could be possible bedding areas that are overlooked.
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