Beds in relation to water

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dan
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 12:12 pm

Here is a post about lake / swamp / marsh thermals that I think is good info:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9257&p=98596&hilit=lake#p98596


dan
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 12:14 pm

dan wrote:Lets take a look at a small river... One needs to assume that there is not regular canoe or kayak traffic on a creek for this to apply. Bedding will be along the river in the bowl shaped depressions. Generally the wind will be blowing into the bowl so if anything walks in from dry land it will be smelled and the river will be the escape.

Image


The biggest typical I ever saw was bedding along a river bowl in S.W. Iowa. Unfortunately, my shot was not true.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby BigHunt » Tue May 29, 2012 12:52 pm

dan wrote:
dan wrote:Lets take a look at a small river... One needs to assume that there is not regular canoe or kayak traffic on a creek for this to apply. Bedding will be along the river in the bowl shaped depressions. Generally the wind will be blowing into the bowl so if anything walks in from dry land it will be smelled and the river will be the escape.

Image


The biggest typical I ever saw was bedding along a river bowl in S.W. Iowa. Unfortunately, my shot was not true.


dan would this relate to rivers in marsh and swamp too???
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dan
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 1:21 pm

dan would this relate to rivers in marsh and swamp too???

Yes... As long as there is bedding cover, and a lack of boat traffic.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby BigHunt » Tue May 29, 2012 1:32 pm

dan wrote:
dan would this relate to rivers in marsh and swamp too???

Yes... As long as there is bedding cover, and a lack of boat traffic.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby moondoondude » Tue May 29, 2012 1:55 pm

I got a lot to add on this, all of the situations that I have experience with are dealing with large bodies of water - big rivers and such.

The first thing I have to add happened 4 or 5 years ago. I was pushing the phragmite and honeysuckle thickets along a bank to two guys farther up ahead. Two of the guys I do this with have been doing this for about 20 years and we learn a lot from each other. We push this place with our bows and our group takes at least one good buck every year, and we have killed and seen some real monsters - all of which are killed because we push them off their beds gently to the waiting standers. Anyways, 4 or 5 years ago I was pushing along this bank and around this cove and I heard what sounded like a cannonball. I looked out to see antlers swimming across a 200 yard wide or so stretch. This buck was laying up on the bank and jumped off when I got too close. He swam to the other side and trudged through the mud and phrag and ran up the opposite bank. I was ranting and raving to these guys I was with and they went back a week later and did the same push and put someone up on the other bank. The buck did the same thing and got shot. The deer swim across here pretty regularly instead of walking aroudn the cove, even when they aren't pressured.

The next instance is a rough one for me, it was 2 years ago. We were pushing out to a peninsula and we had already pushed quite a few deer down to the tip. The deer were stacked up along a small headrow that paralleled the bank. They were stacked up there pretty good and I was waiting for them to wrap around to see if I could get a shot. Right before they got down to the tip, they pushed out what could have been the biggest buck I have ever seen. The buck was laying in a patch of phrag about 20 yards wide - with the beans on one sign and the water on the other. He could probably see and hear everything going on. It had droptines and stuff hanging everywhere. It was huge. I remember the beans were brown and dried up and him running across the beans, cutting across the tip in my direction. He never wrapped around though and came to me - he just kept going - right out into the water and swam to the other side. All the other deer he was with followed suit. If that buck had been laying anywhere else he probably would have at least got shot at. But, he didn't bust loose from his bed until he knew where everyone was and exactly what he was going to do.

These are just examples of times when the deer got away - the amount getting shot is much lower than the amount getting away. I could type all day about this because every deer we jump here is up against the water, if not laying in water in the marsh. Just like anywhere else, they will use whatever they can to their advantage. They use the water as an escape and as a backdrop since danger rarely approaches from the water.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 2:04 pm

Good post moondunedude,
I like specific examples like that.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby huntinsonovagun » Tue May 29, 2012 2:20 pm

Dan- thanks for the reply, and I apologize for the broad question. I assumed it was a given that deer would use different bodies of water differently, I was just looking for any info regarding any types of water features and bedding. I really appreciate the photo and the effort put into your posts.

I'll be honest, the beds in the bowls kind of surprise me- I actually thought they would bed on the opposite side of the river on the "outside" of the bowl. My direction of thought on that stems from the idea that it seems that they're backing themselves into a corner. I guess if that bowl was on a lake or larger river they would be in the corner, but on a creek they use it as a very effective escape route.

Something I take away from this is to look at ANY form of a point, whether it's a ridge, a peninsula, a bowl, or a point going into a marsh. It seems almost any terrain feature that comes to a "point" could be a potential bedding site.

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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby Pullintoobs » Tue May 29, 2012 2:53 pm

Do you feel that bucks will seek out a water barrier for bedding? Alot of potholes in the areas i hunt. I have seen a number of good bucks coming from one area in particular. I thought they were probably bedding somewhere beyond all that water. There is no access in this spot unless hunting season is open. Makes it tough to get it scouted out properly. By the number of bucks I have seen there over the years, I know there is some preferred bedding back there. Just never wanted to go tromping around while season is open. I might have to just do and figure out exactly where the beds are. Might mess it up for awhile. But it drives me crazy that I dont know where they are laying.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 9:19 pm

Something I take away from this is to look at ANY form of a point, whether it's a ridge, a peninsula, a bowl, or a point going into a marsh. It seems almost any terrain feature that comes to a "point" could be a potential bedding site.

Exactly.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Tue May 29, 2012 9:21 pm

Pullintoobs wrote:Do you feel that bucks will seek out a water barrier for bedding? Alot of potholes in the areas i hunt. I have seen a number of good bucks coming from one area in particular. I thought they were probably bedding somewhere beyond all that water. There is no access in this spot unless hunting season is open. Makes it tough to get it scouted out properly. By the number of bucks I have seen there over the years, I know there is some preferred bedding back there. Just never wanted to go tromping around while season is open. I might have to just do and figure out exactly where the beds are. Might mess it up for awhile. But it drives me crazy that I dont know where they are laying.

Once again, it would depend on the layout of the water and the escape rought. A good time to scout these types of areas is right after shooting your buck, when your tagged out, but the area is still open.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby headgear » Wed May 30, 2012 2:36 am

Most of the beds I hunt are in relation to water and I have a pretty even mix of pond, river, and lake beds.

The river beds are as Dan described earlier, on a finger or inside corner of a river. The bucks seem to prefer having the water on 2 or 3 sides of their bed for protection and of course having the wind so they can smell everything in the other directions.

The pond or beaver pond beds are setup so the bucks scent blows over the water so no one can sneak up on him, he can smell everything in the opposite direction and they usually seem to flank themselves in a good location where they can either see you coming, hear you coming, or you have a difficult access to the bed.

Lakes are kind of a different story, I find bedding up next to lakes both big and small but the key ingredients there seem to be super thick cover, no huntable trees, and kind of those area no one else expects a big buck to be hiding out. I feel the lake thermal effect is another key factor in choosing these lake bedding locations.

Sometimes the beds are right up next to the water but most of the time I find them 50 to 100 yards off the water. I kind of feel the buck like to keep a little buffer there to give them escape route options. However it might just be that best location to bed is back off the water a ways so that is kind of a guess on my part.

I have also found places that might be average bedding or a place you might not expect a buck to bed but they are enhanced because of water. I think it just comes down to a buck knowing the odds are low of danger coming from the direction because there is water over there.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby dan » Wed May 30, 2012 4:27 am

Headgear, I shot my gun buck every year year for the last 4 years out of the same bed that is located against a large pond in isolated cattails where no one goes. Last year a giant non-typical busted out and jumped into the pond and swam the 1/4 mile across to get away. I did end up shooting as 9 point out of there though.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby headgear » Wed May 30, 2012 4:50 am

I am finding several of those overlooked lake and pond areas doing some computer scouting, lots of potential out there I have yet to discover.

Dan would you say low to no ducking hunting pressure is a key ingredient in lake/pond bedding? I scouted a lot of lake/pond areas before I found good buck sign, seems like any place the duck hunters used the bucks didn't. The one area I found next to a lake is closed to duck hunting so that might explain the bucks calling it home.
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Re: Beds in relation to water

Unread postby Stanley » Wed May 30, 2012 5:08 am

dan wrote:Lets take a look at a small river... One needs to assume that there is not regular canoe or kayak traffic on a creek for this to apply. Bedding will be along the river in the bowl shaped depressions. Generally the wind will be blowing into the bowl so if anything walks in from dry land it will be smelled and the river will be the escape.

Image


Not trying to be argumentative but respectfully objective. River bottoms are my forte. In my thirty years + of hunting river bottoms I never saw a mature buck use the river as an escape route. I always thought this was due to prolonged exposure. The first thing a buck does when busted is get out of sight. I'm talking swimming rivers with current not shallow wading rivers. I also spent most of my hunting on cut banks with my back to the river (for obvious reasons). The shallow side of rivers "sand bars" would be easier for a buck to access the river to escape danger for sure. Not saying they wouldn't use the river as an escape. Just saying in my experience they just don't very often.
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