Our knowledge of deer bedding habits has changed

Have we been selecting our archery stands all wrong? Things changed quite a bit in archery hunting since I first started bowhunting back in ’82. New research out of the Mississippi State University about buck bedding habits kind of changes some commonly held beliefs.

The idea of the buck keeping a hidden “bedroom area” that we can’t approach without getting busted, turns out to be a falsehood. Turns out bucks don’t bed in the same location or bedding area every day.

Turns out most deer bed about four times a day. Twice in daylight hours and twice at night. This changes a bit during the rut, but they often don’t bed in the same spots each day or night.

I witnessed this several times back in the day when I rode along with now retired Conservation Officer Sealander to see what it took to catch a poacher, something that he did a pretty good job at. Something that I learned from many nights over several years and for many hours, requires a whole lot of work. So much so that I probably should have used a lot more colorful adjectives to describe the amount of work. When he did catch one with me, it turned out that we caught him because locals called in a complaint because they thought he poached a large thick horned, wide racked buck that frequented their back yards. It turned out that buck was the first deer that person shot legally in his life – but he poached many. Apparently shooting your first legal deer, and a wall-mounter at that, isn’t enough for some guys. He and some friends went driving around poaching with the legal buck in the truck bed that night and poached a small buck. They mistook someone’s driveway as road and had to back out under the yard lights. Their high beams woke up the homeowner who saw the truck and buck. In the morning the homeowner found a gut pile on his lawn and while at his business that morning he saw the same truck with the town deer in the bed pull in for fuel.

The poachers also mistook the homeowners front yard for a golf course. They thought that it would be funny to gut it there and that no warden would patrol a golf course.

Turns out wardens do patrol golf courses, especially when herds of deer bed on that golf course at night and more than one poacher hoped to cash in on that. Which is how I knew that deer bed more than once per day and in more than one bed. Why they bedded there I can’t say. But those same deer weren’t bedded on the golf course during the light of day. Different bedding spots.

This new research came from GPS collars on deer. One deer bedded in 41 different beds over a two week period and in 17 different bedding areas. These bedding areas all fell within a single square mile of deer habitat. He stayed in his one square mile area that provided the food, water, cover, and habitat arrangement needed for him to reach three and a half years of age. Clearly quality habitat.

This research explains another reason why big bucks remain so hard to harvest, but also holds some good news for hunters too. It proved bucks get up and move around a bit for a midday snack. The research showed bucks moving a short distance to feeding areas especially food plots around noon to 1 p.m. The time these areas are least frequented is 3 p.m. If your cameras prove this out in your area you learned when and where to hunt midday.

Some of the YouTube hunting channels have shown viewers that bucks do get up and move in daylight hours. Sometimes only for 50 yards or so and sometimes back to the same bed, sometimes not. I think it also shows that the preferred daytime bedding areas consist of thick browse cover and by water. But what do I know.

Of course, more details exist on this. The topic has been hot for a bit and there are plenty of podcasts that take some deep dives with Dr. Bronson Strickland who did the research. Something to take in on the way to and from the stand.

Maybe this provides you with the tip needed to bag that big boy in the next few weeks. But please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!

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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN