Quick Tip: Focus on Bedding Areas for Whitetails

Bedding areas are where whitetails spend much of their time.

This is especially true in pressured spots. Deer tend to prefer areas allowing them to bed with their backs to the wind.

This enables them to smell danger approaching behind while using eyes and ears to locate forward threats. Bucks will often bed just below the peak of a hill, which keeps them hidden from sight.

This allows deer to doze for hours at a time without risking attack.

By finding key bedding areas, you’ll have an idea where a buck is wiling away the daylight hours, and, more importantly, be able to determine best areas to set up a blind or a stand to intercept him when he starts to move.

When you locate a bedding area, you can determine a buck’s likely direction of travel to feeding areas, so focus on travel corridors leading from bedding areas to food sources.

Then set up in a spot that allows you to intercept the deer but that also doesn’t alert a bedded buck to your presence.

Establish a path to your stand, or stands, that won’t carry your scent to the bedding area or permit deer to see your approach.