Where do Big Muleys Bed?

L

LTrain210

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When you're looking for where the big bucks bed is there
a typical place they like to bed or hang out during daylight hours? I've mainly hunted in Rocky Mountain country consisiting of ridges,draws, and moutains in the 7,500 to 10,000' elevation ranges. Do you find bucks bedded at the tops of draws or do they like to bed lower in the draws in the shade? Do they bed on ridge tops and if so what direction do you usually find them facing. I'm talking about hunting during the regular rifle season when the bucks are typically still in bachelor groups. I know at the end of the day big bucks are going to be where big bucks are, but if any of you have noticed some slight patterns over the years I'd love to hear about it. I've harvested several nice animals but I'd like to get some help and advice on this to improve my scouting and hunting efforts.

Thanks,

Lance
 
From some of my past experiences It seems to me like the big bucks especially bed 3/4 way up the ridge and even closer to the top but never to high so that they would skyline themselves, nose most times into the wind,and yeah seems to me that they are always in a shady spot -mid day anyway. It also seems that they get into a spot that is also a very good vantage point. Sometimes though I have seen some big ol deer get into the middle of some nasty thicket patches like willows or tamarack and sometimes even quakey pockets were there really isn't that great of a vantage point at all but they are definetley well hidden - Good luck in your scouting and future hunting
 
In some of the better places i've hunted I've see a few dandies bedded about 100yds below a high north facing ridge. They were by themselves and had some kind of bare sparce bush in front, downhill, of them to break up their outline from the huge vista below.

North slopes...steep, rocky, fairly high up, dwarf Quakies, i'd spend time looking there in the middle of the day.

Joey
 
+1 to the comments above. I've found that the bucks are usually just below a ridgeline in thick stuff (the kind of place a hunter is unlikely to wander). They have a good vantage point to see from and can escape down into the timber or bust over the top without showing themselves too much. I don't know that they prefer North or South facing - either seems to suit them. And when they are bedded down, it usually takes quite a bit to bust them out. When hunting mid-day, definitely check these areas - sending someone through the bottom to push them over the top to you is often a killer formula.
 
most of the bucks I have seen have been in between two pines so you can't see them from the top or the bottom or they are almost on the top in the shade of a pine. in the lower country they bed all over the place but below or in a scrub oak/service berry patch. not usualy in the sage. when they lose there velvet they head to the aspens. and you well need to catch them at first light or last light. but they always have the wind in there face. so you'll need to come in from the side or your best bet is the top. also don't over look big rocks or cliffs. I jumped 20 deer out from the shade of a huge rock. most of the beds they use will be dug out so if your low you won't be able to see them well. get high come in from the top and you'll be fine.

Public Land Muleys The Bottom line
by David Long
Get it and don't look back.
 
All good points. I too think bigger bucks bed higher up on the hill so they have a good vantage point. Dont overlook any areas though. I have seen big bucks bedded, high up on the hill, but out in the middle of nowhere - with nothing around them, just enjoying the sun. The most important is glass, glass, glass. Everywhere. Then glass it all again. Then, when you get tired of glassing, glass some more. Deer can materialize out of nowhere.
 
mule deer bed where they want to bed! They can be on any slope any time of the year. they can be high and they can be low. most of the time I find them in deep steep canyon where people dont want to go or is it on a steep mountain where people dont want to go. I think it is just where people dont want to go and that must be why my camo dosent last a year.

good luck! because once you find a given area that holds deer you can bet there will always be deer in that area.
 
In my years of hunting, I've come to the conclusion that big bucks can bed down anywhere. They bed down in a good spot wherever they happen to be when the sky starts getting light. This year we caught a big one out in a burned area at first light. He looked like he had been caught too. He was very cautious and decided that it would be better to bed down right there in the burned trees, then to try to make it to the next thick patch.

The best way to know where a particular buck is bedded, is to be out there before it is light enough to see, and get your binoculars on him. Then watch him until he beds. He will stay there until the sun gets too hot, then he will move to a better shady area where he will stay - all day. He might move again if the shade goes away, but he won't go far - usually.
 
I agree with the last couple posts. They can bed anywhere. Down in AZ you almost never found them bedded on hillsides in the desert, they loved shady washes. Here in Wyoming, I've seen them bedded in every kind of country you can think of... including my front yard under my apple tree.

Donnie
 
With all due respect, i'm a bit surprised by this "anywhere" answer to his question. Where do "big" bucks bed and hang out during the day? I would not think or believe that in the hard hunted country that i hunt, a buck would live very long, certainly not long enough, if they just bedded or hung out any old place during the day as the man asked.

Most of the bigger bucks that i've run across either are completely nocturnal or only leave the thickest cover very late in the evening and return before the sun hits the mountain. Many times i've admired their smarts in picking a bedding spot. There usually are several ways for them to escape, have serious cover near by, and usually, not the easiest place to get to.

There are always exceptions of course and it always pays to look everywhere, but i don't believe that is what the man was asking for. That's the country i've hunted. Maybe where you hunt or have hunted, they act different.

Joey
 
Sage, you seem like someone who knows what you are talking about. Let me ask you a question. How many times in a season do you think hunters look for big bucks where they think they should be? How many times do those same hunters check places where they know there are no bucks? The bucks that live where the hunters think they are, get killed.

Bucks can only grow to old age by being lucky enough to not get killed.... That usually means they have to live in a place where nobody will look for them.
 
I killed a big buck out of this bed at over 12,500. As you can see, this buck had one heck of a view and several escape routes. His bed was 8 inches deep. What you can't see from this picture is the 100+ foot cliff 35 yds in front of the bed. When we spotted him at over 2 miles away, the terrain looked non negotiable. They like the steep nasty stuff were man seldom ventures...... or dares to venture!


493593315dde57e2.jpg
 
That may be how they act where you hunt because thats "where" you hunt them. From what I've seen they'll bed anywhere they want. Of course when you start looking you want to look at shaded areas on the north slope of hills but the point that is trying to be made is that alot of times bucks will bed in the most oddball places you can think of. It is a great answer to his question to say they can be anywhere, because they can be. If a hunter gets in the habit of only looking certain places (thick cover)he is limiting his opportunity to see alot of good bucks. There have been many times I've been glassing a north facing slope covered with junipers only to find that I was looking to high on the face and the buck was bedded in the sage brush at the bottom of the draw. Or hunting the desert glassing hillsides only to find that a buck was bedded under a mesquite tree next a wash. Never, never, never limit your looking to one type of terrain!!!!

Donnie
 
dleonard, i can only speak of the places i've seen, shot, shown to someone else, or passed on, bucks in those places like those i've mentioned. Most were on public property but had limited access because of the private below and not a great amount of hunters because so.

You do make good points IMO, i'll give you that. A buddy of mine killed a dandy Nevada buck this year on very highly hunted country not a 500 yds off a main access road in a deep ditch out in nowhere looking country. Him and his dad, both residents, have been taking huge bucks in that same spot for years any time they get drawn and go because nobody takes the time to walk over and look the little but deep pocket drainage over. They just drive on by headed to the better looking country above.

We have also have had some decent success hunting lower in the sagebrush draws, that usually later in the season when the bigger bucks move in with the dinks and does.

Sorry to not totally agree with your last/this statement "Bucks can only grow to old age by being lucky enough to not get killed.... That usually means they have to live in a place where nobody will look for them."

From my findings, big bucks are not "Lucky", they're smart, they don't just bed down anywhere they happen to feel tired. All bets are off during the rut but before that, they will pick a very good place to hid including those Quakie infested, choked up, high vantage, rocky north slopes, especially during the day. Most hunters don't take the time or effort to put themselves in position so they can actually see into that thick stuff or hunt it hard enough, slow enough, glass enough, to find what they are looking for. They can't kill it if they can't see or find it. That's how the bucks i've hunted get big.

Happy hunting, Joey
 
Sage, you may not think you totally agree with me, but you do.

Bucks that choose to bed in those quakie infested, choked up, high vantage, rocky north slopes are lucky that no-one goes in there and chases them out. They would be killed - by someone.

You hit the nail on the head with this statement: "They can't kill it if they can't see or find it. That's how the bucks i've hunted get big."

So the tip is to look for big bucks in places where nobody can see them, or better yet, in places where nobody else looks.
 
Cabinfever, Yes, that is a classic! Most awesome pic you have there, very nice!!

DL, It's all good bro. There's probably guys from other states saying "Quakies?, what's quakies?";-)

A lot depends where a guy is at, what the country is like, time of year, what he's hunting with, how many hunters around, and most important, that there are big bucks in the country to begin with.

Joey
 
Ha, I cut and pasted from your post.

Quakies sounds like crazy ducks to me.
 
Quakey's Quaky's Quakies Quakie's, pick a card, any card. Or, how's about Aspen trees? :)

My spelling sucks, i know it plain. Most can understand what i'm meaning to say though and that's what i'm talking about. lol

Joey
 
..........and then sometimes they bed down right out in an old burn where no one would expect them to be. :)

Goodale_08_094.jpg




BOHNTR )))---------->
 
OH, GREAT!!!!! Now everybody will be looking for them there.

That's a really nice buck there.
 
This ought to stir the doo doo.

Christ.....I hate Walt Disney!

First off, deer are dumb animals; they don't know hunters from hikers. They don't "know" anything.

They don't discuss politics, religion or sex.
They don't do simple math or have the ability to think.
They have zero ability to "multi task".
They have never seen TV, so they don't know what a rifle is
or know what the sound from a rifle means.

They are prey animals and simply act as such.

They have patterns based on the ease of finding food and water with the least ammount of expended energy. They don't have the ability to remember where anything was last year.

The big, trophy quality deer are lucky, not smart. When they are shot, they are unlucky, not stupid.

Bucks bed down where they feel like it and can see what's going on around them and what the other prey animals are reacting to.......then they react accordingly. They use the same beds year after year because they are convenient, not because they remember them from the year before.

Same with migration routes. Most of them are centuries old because they are easy. They cannot think about adjusting those routes to avoid highways.

They have a "comfort zone" and don't let anything in it....man or beast. During the rut, that "comfort zone" shrinks so that every available deer concentrates on perpetuating the species.

At no time do they ever "think" that they can hide from anything.

Nature gave them huge ears, eyes and noses and they make use of all three. They can hear you for 3 miles, see you from 2 and smell you for 1.

Nature made them the color of the world they live in. That is why they are hard to spot when bedded down.

Nature gave them white butts so they can follow each other around in the dark, not knowing, or caring, that hunters can spot them easier.

Nature gave deer legs and lungs that allow them to outrun and outmanuever just about all available predators. When they are threatened, they run, as designed, they don't try to hide.

Their brain power is less than the dumbest poodle you ever saw and they cannot be trained to do diddly squat.....except pulling sleighs.

People who give deer credit for ability to outsmart humans make me laugh. Your dog must REALLY be laughing at you!

The "smart" in hunting anything is knowing that the animal will react to any situation in the way that is the most natural and convenient for them to survive. Period. They don't have the ability to preplan anything. Retirement, summer vacations or escape routes.

You need to use your ability to see what that reaction may entail, then adjust your hunt accordingly. When you blow it and some buck slips past you, it was because you were stupid.....the deer wasn't smart, it was just doing what it had to do to escape.

Okay, so you guys' who have seen deer crawling on their bellies to escape, or seen them walk backwards in their own footprints, or seen them run alongside a tumbleweed in the wind .....or whatever, let 'er rip. Be careful though, a little common sense will make you sound real funny to most people.
 
Must have had a bad day eh nickman? Everyone's entitled to their opinion but you're going against 35 years of hunting big bucks all over the country by self, family, and a good sized network of bud's. Maybe they're all wrong and you're right. You know we're not talking IQ kinda smart here, more like "Street Smart, mountain smart, survival smart..." Parts of what you say here is debatable but i believe most of it is pure B.S.

Big Bucks on public ground have evaded getting killed because they have adapted to survival during the hunting season. You might see them in velvet, you might see them in the rut. In between, they make themselves tough or impossible to find or they don't grow to be Monster bucks. if a buck makes it past his 3rd of 4th season you can bet that he learned a few things.

There are thousands of hunters out there that have never even seen a truely big buck yet there are a few dozen who manage to take a biggie on public most every year. Luck has little to do with it. The guys that do well, know where to look, and look it over hard, over and over, and over again. Those that run all over the hills, only see other hunters and few bucks, assume the area is hunted out and give up and shoot a dink thinking the big boys have been shot already. Big boy is still there, hunkered down tight.

Ever try and get a big buck out of a small quakie patch on his turf. I recall two different occations when i broke SOP and went in after great bucks that i knew were there. The patches were no bigger than a football field. Could i get a shot or chase them out? Hours and hours spent, tried everything i knew, got brief glimses, led me up and down on a merry chase, but no shots and they never did leave those patches. The deer won those times, and not because they were lucky, they were smart!

Joey
 
Sage, you hit the nail right on the head with that last post, I agree 110%! A mature mule deer buck is a very intelligent creature. They absolutley "DO" learn and have a great capacity to do so. I actually believe they can tell the difference between a hiker and a hunter, just because of body language. There have been countless time's in my own yard that I've snapped a good picture of a buck and got nice and close because I appeared to be going about my buisness and pretending not to notice the buck 10 yds away. As soon as I show that I notice he's there, he's up and moving. Now tell me that he hasn't learned that being noticed is a bad thing!

Donnie
 
nickman, I completely agree with your post. However, most of us "hunters" need to think that we are in some sort of a competition with these old Einstein bucks. The reason most of us don't get big bucks is because they are too smart - I know that isn't true.

The real reason we all don't get big bucks every year is because there just aren't that many running around, especially in areas that get hunted hard.

That's why I've decided to look for big bucks in places that don't look like deer country.
 
Can't we all be right? I like black & white. Sometimes they go great together.

I've seen big bucks that seem to be pretty smart, but I've also seen big bucks that were dumb as a mud fence. I still think they get big by being lucky.
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-08 AT 09:39AM (MST)[p]Sorry guys, I'll have to stand my ground here.

It wasn't that it was a bad day, it was just hearing another guy tell me about how a deer walked backwards in his own tracks till he got to a creek and hid his tracks in the water.....then walked out on a wet rock and dissappeared. WOW!

No argument, this is simply one mans opinion. You have yours and I have mine.

This is my personal post and I doubt Elkoholic will find it in print elsewhere. I "doubt" you bother to read elsewhere anyway.

I have been at it far longer than 35 years and grew up in the "animal" business, in a family of cattlemen, hunters and meat processors. Add several college level biology courses......and some common sense........but hey, maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Joey, you pretty much confirmed what I said, those bucks that "outsmart" us are simply better survivors than others.

Body language????Seriously?

What happens is, you looked right at him, but you didn't actually see him. He dosen't know that you never saw him, but his space has been invaded....his survival instinct kicks in and it's game over.

You can call it whatever you want but, "luck" on the deer's part or the hunter's part is a HUGE factor.

Look at how many bumpkins kill big deer every year from the road.

Look at how many big deer get killed ON the road by motorists....You would think that an animal smart enough to "know" anything would avoid roads alltogether.

They just keep crossing them year after year, headlights, engine noise, smells......don't matter.

They will need a few hundred thousand more years of evolution to develop the instinct to avoid roads. Unless, of course, they were smart enough to learn to avoid roads, in which case, the last road killed deer should have went down in like 1932, or so. HMMM.

Anyway, we are the ones with intelligence and the ability to learn. Some of us simply gave up on the process.
 
DL, i am not running for office, just not built that way. Don't care to ride the fence either, i'll just get down on one side or the other, thank you. When you agree 100% with statements like this;

"Nature gave them white butts so they can follow each other around in the dark"

...then i don't know what to say. There's more than a few of these in that "pile" my buddy nickman left us.

Then you close with," I still think they get big by being lucky."

There's a "bit" of luck in everything. Lucky for us, we all have the right to our opinion. I'm good with that if you are but Nickman's been smoking too much crack! ;-)

Joey
 
A great post going here.
Here is some of my knowledge of things I learned. Might be some agreement in some of the answers here.
But just remember this is where I hunt.
As for deer being smart I would have to say they are very smart and that comes from being prey not a predator. I have seen bucks lay there heads down a minute before a pickup comes driving by and pick them up a minute after I do not hear it anymore. The doe's just kept there heads up. I HAVE SEEN THEM BACKTRACK ON THEMSELVES! I have seen bucks do things totally beyond belief.This stuff has to come from experience. But come the rut they are dumb as a box of rocks. The buck I killed this year with my bow I stalked glassed him up and every time he was up and running and gone till the day I killed him. He walked 100 yds in front of my truck across the road all because that doe was sweet smelling. So to say they have no brains is beyond me. Maybe was being meant in the rut. But then again it could be there survival instincts as a prey animal. Kinda contradictory. But smarts or instincts as prey I enjoy chasing them.

As for finding bucks I look everywhere. I do not pick just thick stuff, hillsides, or somewhere I think they would be. I look everywhere. If you listen to most hunters they say the same thing. Always say thick heavy timber. Might be right about some bucks but when you open your mind and think about it they stay where it is safe and they know. If you have hunters always pushing areas then they will find other areas the hunter are not. One thing I have found on public land is there is always people that will always push area's instead of hunt it. This makes the deer find those little pockets that the pushers are not in. This can mean area's with less cover or less timber. Because with a mind set of always thinking they will be in thick cover and people hunt just that they adapt to this and find where it is safe. I have found bucks within 75 yds from roads and people drive right by them. Because no one thinks they are there. I am talking mature bucks.

But this is what I have found in the area's I hunt. The rut kicks in and its whereever the doe's are.
 
<<<<<<<<Must be a bumpkin cuz he kills them next to roads.....








Think about it the roads 99% of hunters do not look near roads but some people do and thats why they get killed.LOL
 
nickman, it's almost too funny how we both have such similar family, educational, and experience in our backgrounds yet differ so much in our opinions on the subject. I though, have not been privy into the thought process of bigger ol surviving bucks so you might have the edge there. I have though spent countless hours in chase of Mr. rimrock runner and have been "schooled" on more than one occation.

Reminds me of the college debating class in that i learned any topic could be debated and won or lost either way. I don't care for the game, just giving a bit more than my two cents and have tired of it. You don't give big bucks credit for getting to get big. I do. We differ. Good luck!!

Joey
 
Big mature bucks are smarter than the the rest of their kind as a general statement. They behave differently, they look different, they live in areas the majority of the herd does not..........I almost consider them a breed apart from the rest of their species. A different critter altogether. They survive when smaller bucks are taken. IMO they do this mostly by hiding. When hunters are present, they hide. Lesser bucks may try to run......not the big ones. My experiences tell me that a big buck in hunted country runs away as a last resort. I also believe they possess some sixth sense that lets them know when they've been detected...even from hundreds of yards. They know...........somehow, someway.......they know.
 
It appears that we have been moderated some and that's fair enough. To me, this has been a pretty decent thread and lots of different opinions have been thrown in the bowl to make a hunting big bucks cake. It's all good!

I'd like meeting you one day Nickman. I'd like to shake your hand, look you in the eye, and BS about hunting, life, and what goes over the mountain or down the road.

You're a different sort, that don't make you bad atall. I like it when people are who they are!

Joey
 
I'm no biologist, but I have to agree with both sides.

They're not as brilliant as some make them out to be, but they are not axactly brain dead running on nothing but instinct. These animals do possess the ability to learn some evasion "techniques" that work for them when given the chance to get experience with age.

I've seen big bucks hold in an attempt to not be noticed, when the other deer nearby bail out and run. I've seen them hold motionless and let people walk by, only running when eye contact is made. I've also seen then keep a tree between them and an unknowing hunter as he walked by...carefully and deliberately moving to keep the tree between them and the hunter.

I just cannot believe these are the acts of an animal running strictly on instinct when the younger animals do not display this kind of behavior.
 
Add in the fact that every sense a mule deer has is ten times more powerful than a humans. The odds are stacked against you from the get go.Big bucks above timberline will bed in the same areas you will find mountain goats. The feed is much better and more abundant a 1000 ft lower yet they prefer the high rocky benches. I can think of no other reason that they bed in such steep nasty places other than to evade predators.

Refer to my pic in my previous post. Notice the small stream 1700 ft below. The buck I killed had to travel that distance to water. So why wouldn't he just water and than bed in a patch of willows near excellent feed and a water source. I disagree with nickman. These big bucks are smarter than we give them credit.

Mike
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-08 AT 09:10PM (MST)[p]This bad boy was within a 1/2 mile of a walmart in Utah county

he was about 8000' lower than the high saddles on Timp.
Pic was taken a month ago and he wasn't spooked. Note that patio furniture on the left.

4937577d74f6db07.jpg
 

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