Solving the mystery of buck bedding! Whitetail GPS Study w/ Dr Bronson Strickland

[@jpierce1184]

From someone whose work is data-driven and research oriented, it’s awesome that y’all have people on the podcast who do robust studies and who can interpret the primary data in a hunting context. It also helps contextualize a lot of the anecdotes from some other big buck killers y’all have on. Would love to hear more content like this, and you’re right - we need to fund a grad student to answer these questions! There’s so much available data that just needs the right code. Keep up the awesome content fellas.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

That’s some great feedback and we appreciate you watching! The second episode from this interview will come out next Monday so make sure you don’t miss it!

[@ukjw2]

Keep in mind, these data driven people don’t kill big bucks.

[@jpierce1184]

Based on ep 540, I’d put some money on Jacob asking if they’ve looked at differences between 5/6 year olds versus 2/3 year olds. Looking forward to part 2.

[@ukjw2]

@@jpierce1184 ya but it’s a rut study. A lot of the specific bed hunters hunt early beds…summer habits. After that they will tell you about the same thing this study says.

[@jackychandler8594]

ALL deer use Wind direction to bed . They bed to take advantage of wind for scent detection, and their eyes to protect them from predators, including us. NO deer Ever uses 1 bed every day. Never.

[@thecedarridgechronicles]

My favorite thing about y’all’s approach to hunting education is y’all’s ability to set aside your egos, biases, and opinions and turn them into questions. By getting someone else’s take on a situation before voicing y’all’s opinion you really get a great amount of info that is unique to the guest, hunter, or researcher. It makes the podcasts all about the information, not about y’all’s promotion, and it is so helpful for the listener. Once again, great podcast.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Thanks buddy!

[@jackychandler8594]

I'm originally from Mississippi, and live in Iowa now. Mississippi State is on the top of research on deer. They were the experts who PROVED that spike bucks are NOT Inferior genetics, but actually late born fawns. They actually PROVED it by keeping 1 yr old bucks pinned for 8 yrs. 1 or 2 of thoses bucks actually developed Boone and crochet racks at 6 yrs old. It shattered that B.S thought by hundreds of biologist across the nation in late 70s, or early 80s. Facts, and not assumptions that biologist were saying for decades. Harry Jacobson was over the research to my best recollection. He was awesome.

[@sniper12589]

You guys are spot on talking about how different it is in the Midwest. I’m located in north east Indiana and you have small blocks of woods 3-5-20 acre blocks 400-800 yards apart. You can blow out your woods easily. We hunted a 20 acre woods getting lots of deer on camera but my buddy could never could get an arrow in one. About 1000 yards across the street is a 2.5 acre woods that no one hunts and I told him that’s where the deer are at. He blew it off thinking I was crazy until one night he sent me a video from his front porch of more than a dozen deer breaching cover right at dark from that woods. Yes you can look around and pick out where the deer might be but the key around my area for good bucks is to look at the small grassy strips along creeks and ditches. Or a random tree out in the middle of a farm field surrounded by less than a quarter acre of brush. Everyone around here are in the woods but always get big big bucks on camera but hardly ever see them and it’s all bc they hold tight to those ditch cover that’s always over looked.

[@caseyrayburn5887]

I live in the north east (northern NY) I would LOVE to see a study done up in this area. I got a public giant a few years ago and have been hunting a farm with monsters since. Would be awesome to see their patterns in a different landscape than the south

[@warrengreen3217]

Im from western Pennsylvania Pittsburgh region in farmlands and we did this study years ago I believe it was Penn state and the game wardens I remember reading about it in PA game news

[@byroncharles]

You guys have one of the best podcast out there. This is my first year deer hunting and just absorbing the info, 3 days out saw a doe on the last 2 outings on public land so i know im close on taking one out.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We appreciate that! Good luck this season and make sure you send in your listener success story once you get one!

[@chasearmstrong6742]

This is amazing content. Hats off to Mississippi State for coming on the podcast and helping clarify and share some new research with the public.

[@Ben_Allgood]

Awesome content. I think this can be carried over to the midwest. Y'all could do an interview with Dan Storm at the Wisconsin DNR who is doing similar studies in agricultural areas. He has maps showing mature bucks bouncing from bedding area to bedding area there too. I know this is a southern centric podcast, but it would be interesting for y'all to do a similar interview with Dr. Jacob Haus at Bemidji State in Minnesota. He's doing a gps study there deer in a more urban environment. It would neat to see the differences environmental factors can play on buck behavior.

[@curtismerriman9956]

Great job at asking questions guys. Another thing to consider on highly pressured national forest is the fact that only certain personality types of bucks make it to maturity. Not the rut crazy ones live past 1 1/2

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Excellent point!

[@TaylorZiolkowski]

Great episode! I’d like to hear more, specifically on the travel routes. The gps simulator showed all the bed sites and travel routes taken over a period of time. When the simulator stopped we were left with the map of bed sites and travel routes, some of which intersected each other, and some intersections were very dense. If that simulation could be run only with legal hunting hours I’d love to see the difference and focus on the highest density intersections. Essentially “where is he most vulnerable during legal hours and if there is any correlation to what is there”. It would be incredibly tough to kill him in his bed, or to know exactly where he’s bedded (1/4 chance roughly speaking), so specifically look at the highest density intersections and on average what time/times of day he was in them

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

That is an excellent idea! We will bring it up to Dr. Strickland for a future episode.

[@justinschultz764]

I tried beast tactics down here in the south for a couple years and wondered if I was crazy because I could never find reliable buck bedding. Thanks to podcasts like yours and studies like this I now know I wasn’t do anything wrong it just works different down here.

[@ukjw2]

Weird….there are guys in Florida who do it. As southern as it gets.

[@justinschultz764]

@@ukjw2 cool story bro

[@ukjw2]

@@justinschultz764 no worries, you’ll figure it out.

[@shaneshonda]

​@ukjw2 Florida is the red headed step child of the south.

[@tacticalwhitetailmappingso5118]

Even in the Midwest they play the numbers game on bedding… not every bed is good… not every spot is consistent… and where u have more options u can have less consistency… u have to look at other variables outside of bed and feed… bc in some states in the south that’s everywhere is what u think but really it’s not…

[@northerncaptain855]

Great to watch a data driven Podcast about my favorite subject.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Thank you for watching and we are glad you are enjoying the show!

[@ZachByrd]

18 minutes in and maybe this gets covered later, but I've always felt where a buck beds is nearly 100% predicated on the wind and cover. I never thought a buck would have just one or two beds. Fascinating conversation so far.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We are glad you are enjoying the episode so far. Don’t miss part two which goes into your question

[@ImNotHereToArgueFacts]

59:00 Move the camera in direction deer is coming from. Start several-few months before season. Do this quite a few times. You can plot a common path usually and have an idea where he's waiting or will be before sunset.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Yes sir! We actually did a whole episode on this topic last year on episode 512 and an older one ep 420

[@chrisgarrison1158]

Awesome podcast. You Jacob definitely taught something today. Don’t spend much time hanging cameras on those really big beds that are obviously in the open during the rut. lol

[@timhewitson9424]

It would be great to have the weather recorded to collate info on weather paterns and wind direction as to where they are bedding. They seem to be moving enough to assume wind might play a huge role in where they bed. Ex. East wind bed on western areas ?? It would be very interesting

[@sammylacks4937]

Amazing , I stopped hunting , deer hunting years ago but I still love to learn about deer. Their habits , anything. The biggest lesson I have picked up is " how intune deer are with their home range. They know whats going on in their home.

[@buck16]

Great study. One observation no one usually mentions is that as the season moves on and the Bucks get to the food plots later and later it coincides with the fact that their routes have gradually lost more and more leaves on the bushes, shrubs, and small and large trees making them feel more vulnerable and therefor making them move later and later.

[@briceconway7443]

I’ve been binging you guys the last couple days. Cool to see so many different perspectives and tactics. I don’t know of anything quite like it. I know your southern outdoorsman, but could we possibly hear from someone experienced in the big woods up north in mountain laurel country ? PA, NY, WV ??? Thanks guys.

[@ec9697]

One more thing about KS,most cornfields are picked by thanksgiving..yeah you have less bucks but..every year there are big ones that make it..since they have pretty well Managed herds.

[@randybrown7023]

I'm sorry but where I'm at, Il,Ia,Mo, corner, the rut is around 2nd 3rd week of November.

[@dadocta06]

Love your podcasts:videos! Side note, I know the channel is Southern based and focused, but I would love to see you guys do a podcast or series on the New England area. I’m in Massachusetts and bow hunt and black powder. Here in Mass we’ve had some giants taken (unfortunately not by me lol). So we’ve got some great deer up here and I’d love to see what your thoughts are and how you’d approach things up here. Where I am specifically is in the valley in central Mass.

[@shootingsupplies3961]

It would be VERY interesting to overlay the buck's travel routes over a Lidar map, to see if travel routes follow certain terrain features

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

That would be cool to see!

[@ImNotHereToArgueFacts]

Great content The 200 acres doesn't sound very solid anywhere I've hunted in Texas. Piney Woods, Marsh, Live Oak, and Hill Country. Really depends more on the acreage of cover in a range. A thin/narrow corridor expands even more. I've seen several generations of deer (not just bucks) travel the same route (to and from) on almost a daily basis (crossing a swamp & swimming a river spring-early winter). The larger/older bucks tend to range farther offset from does/younger bucks in spring/summer. I presume you do get these generations (elsewhere) that do have less than 200 acre ranges if food is plentiful, enough cover exits and expanding the range is difficult.

[@FiveInDaPink]

Big woods Wisconsin guy here, I’d like to put in a vote that we get these guys together and collaborate at the table at the same time. I feel every is making fair points to a degree but there’s a drastic difference geographically between the predators and the pressure. I’ve seen a lot of bucks that have circuits as the deer lab guy talks about but in those there’s only a handful of places that can provide them what they need to actually survive these wolves and people up here. I’ll be the last guy to get in the wolf soapbox but it is a part of the equation. It’d be cool to get these guys together would be pretty neat

[@ernestluedke3927]

Of course, Dan Infalt is one guy that emphasizes the tactic of hunting particular buck beds. Knowing that Dan hunts SE WI and knowing what the habitat is like down there which is a large amount marsh with limited high land. High land that is accessible by humans in that area is heavily hunted which leaves the small islands within the marshes. So therefore, the deer have limited bedding options. In that situation, and based on Dan's success, I think bucks may be more likely to use a particular bed. Where I hunt in central WI, the habitat is much more like what you have described. Bigger woods. Clearcuts. Nearly unlimited bedding options. I have never found any sort of pattern as to where the bucks will bed. The one exception to that was I was scouting in July and found a well worn bed so I put a camera on it. The first deer that showed up was two days later was a nice buck looking all suspicious. I never got another picture of him. No other deer laid in that bed while the camera was there, so I am guessing that was him.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

@@ernestluedke3927 you’re 100% right and that’s what we deal with down south. An abundance of bedding cover and less concentrated hunting pressure allows for the deer to bed in so many more places.

[@doncampbell1961]

i have always wondered if deer are not coming out closer to dark or after dark , not because of pressure but because its getting dark earlier. he comes out early sept at 7 pm two hurs before sunset , but a month later its a half hour before and a month after that its dark but its still 7 pm.

[@nathanlester5054]

Great podcast and excellent guest. One thing going forward; it would be great for the guest to be the one talking the most. Jacob, you asked some great questions but it appeared to he your podcast, not the guest's.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We definitely got wordy on this episode no doubt! Part two next week is a great one and we are looking forward to getting Bronson back on the show this summer so let us know if you would like any specific topics to be covered with him! Thanks for watching and the feedback brother!

[@warrengreen3217]

Im from western Pennsylvania Pittsburgh region I believe it was Penn state who did a study GPS tracking bucks and dose remember reading about it in PA game news

[@Outrunninaround.]

I wander tortuously through these videos and get a migraine. 🦌

[@curtismerriman9956]

Andrew asked how would you kill the buck taking different trail to and from a bedding area. Use Natures corn pile AKA scrapes. It’s a target in a sea of timber. Picking the times they like to visit them might be the nail in the coffin.

[@northernboers5969]

This study is great for the area with relatively low predation(coyotes, bobcats) but we have to understand areas with high predation areas(Timberwolves, mountain lions). In the area we hunt in there is high predation. A human/ coyotes and a pack of wolves are two completely different threats to deer. I'd like to see this study in a high predation areas. I think the bedding areas would become more pronounced to security cover and how they use the wind to their advantage.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

On that note make sure you tune it for the part 2 to this episode that comes out Monday. For a study like what your asking for you would need to have a DNR or University in the North to conduct that study.

[@chattahoocheeoutdoorsman4865]

Finally got to watch this one. Great episode fellas! I guess I'm the only one with eyes here. Andrew I'm going to be needing one of those next weekend 😎

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We will have a pile of em 😎

[@kackupa752]

Is the data they talk about when it comes to code open sourced and available? I'd really like to run some code on that dataset.

[@scottfrederick8299]

If I was going back to Kansas (Have not been in 6 years) I would personally want to be there from right before Halloween through the first 10 days of November. I took 4 book deer in 4 years, 2 of which where taken on October 31, one at 11:30, then exactly 1 year and 15 minutes later (out of the same tree) I haversted my largest bow kill ever. The year pior, my hunting partner harvested a mature 10 out of the same tree during this time period (last of Oct - first of Nov.). This was not guided hunts, but was on private lands.

[@cameronlancaster2456]

Everytime Jacob says "select cut pines" I hear "slut cut pines" 😂

[@charlesgilliland532]

Yup same!!

[@jmlochala]

In relation to deer movement, do they know where the rub lines, scrapes, food sources and licking branches are somewhere in their day to day movements

[@gordonwagner6932]

Very educational and l enjoyed. It very much.😊😊

[@topJimmyP1984]

Excellent deer information!!! Thx

[@midmoproperties]

best area in missouri for public booners is grand bluffs conservation area along the mo river

[@kylebell850]

Please do a study in the Bankhead forest.

[@bassmankelly1744]

If you're talking about bankhead in north Alabama those bucks have a northern bloodline because they are transplants. Thats why they rut before the rest of the state.

[@kylebell850]

@@bassmankelly1744 I'd love to see some studies done on that place.

[@toddfoxx7233]

So basically every question you asked he said. “Well we didn’t look at that” or “that deserves a closer look” lol

[@bassmankelly1744]

I appreciate people putting in the hard work to gather this info but i feel like it is only good for the area the study was done in. Every location has different variables that have to be considered. Different predators, different hunting pressures, different wind directions throughout the year, different terrain, the number of 5yr old deer and older could make a difference also. Some of the answers he gave are confusing while other stats i would have thought he would have taken into consideration he said he didn't know basically. If they didn't put collars on the older/alpha bucks in this territory they could make the result different. The alphas will push all the weaker bucks out of the best beds for any given time. The alphas could be spending more time in a smaller area.

[@DJPaulDiddy]

Where can I read and find this study online ???

[@robertshepard8482]

Great content!

[@NManitou]

Is the white paper available for download?

[@MrSquidwardGames]

40 mins in, very good!

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We are glad you are enjoying it! Part 2 will come out next Monday.

[@jimmybradley6654]

How often do they get up and drink?

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Great question and we never got to cover that on this episode. It would be interesting if they even looked at that with the study.

[@namericanprepper4648]

They bed in. the Interior of that clear cut bush. I was in this situation the other. Day. Was walking on the edge where the power lines was travling .. Got maybe 20 25m on him . Never saw him that's how thick that bush was but when he started running was so close it rumbled the ground underneath my feet. He was 15 25 ms away and I couldn't see him Thhiiiccckkkk. When I ran around the corner of that bush. It was a decent gap. And it was clear the direction he ran. Back into the woods.

[@austenstults8707]

Man those hats are 🔥

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

They are going live on our website on Monday the 1st!

[@stdavis22]

take a drink every time Andrew says "like"

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

There wouldn’t be many sober viewers then 🤣

[@joshtrauger3088]

what questions did they ask? you guys should have ran the study.

[@ShootStraight84]

gooooooooood stuuffffffff

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

We are glad you liked this episode! Don’t miss part 2!

[@ShootStraight84]

@ oh yeah I’ve been all over this Chanel good stuff all around , very eye opening and myth busting lol

[@randythompson7497]

love it

[@twilliger22]

Deer follow the saw!

[@ChanNevarez-y8k]

Lorine Court

[@naimliss4488]

How does any deer have 55 beds in 14 days.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

Exactly what the study showed. It’s pretty wild.

[@Crayz919]

I can believe that here in central north Carolina

[@bassmankelly1744]

I could see them moving beds based on wind shifts or other factors. I don't see the 200 acre in a day movement he talked about. I feel like the bucks studied were of the immature variety.

[@karmas.busdriver]

It's not really controversy, its agenda & marketed products, vs actual scientific research. The people who's products get debunked by sound science don't want to lose money, so they try to discredit it, or narrative spin how it some how doesn't apply outside their study area.

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

That’s a good point. You see a lot more people talking about bed hunting in the Midwest but a lot of their habitat is much different from us southerners. So we are sure that can work well in specific habitat types but when a lot of those hunters hear about these topics it seems to get them fired up. But what we see down here in the data and what they experience isn’t apples to apples. Hopefully a university in the Midwest will do a similar study but in an area with more agricultural.

[@karmas.busdriver]

@@thesouthernoutdoorsmen Even in the swamps, we under stand that a Buck bed thats a fortress with one wind direction is a tomb from another.

[@karmas.busdriver]

If it's easy He's probably not Home.😁

[@karmas.busdriver]

When The Hunting Public talked about buck nests, There's much less bedding cover up here where hunting pressure doesn't effectively go, and often we jump multiple Bucks in prime bedding cover. Like Dan Infalt calls satellite bedding.

[@doncampbell1961]

@@thesouthernoutdoorsmen I hunt Michigan and only public. I never see Bucks use the same Bed all the time. I see them use the same bedding area that is maybe 30 acres. And Im hunting 10,000 acres of mostly river bottom that 50 percent bedding and grass.

[@KimKowalski-j3h]

Baumbach Loaf

[@PatriciaSharp-b7h]

Francesco Rapid

[@AmyYoung-g2r]

Mosciski Plains

[@adamlaroux3488]

I’m so tired of beating around the bush. Smh. Waste of time. GIVE US A DAMN ANSWER!!!!!!

[@thesouthernoutdoorsmen]

What answers are you looking for specifically?

[@markwesthoff1757]

All the data in world isn't going to help if you think a yard is an acre. 1.5 hours of listening to a dude confuse yards with acres. I'm sure he can drive a golf ball 300 acres on a good day though lmfao.

[@kevinhall1537]

I've never turned on a podcast and found it so full of filler nonsense that even after putting it on double speed i had to quit listening. Unreal. Y'all just like to hear yourselves talk