Often, the single most challenging aspects of hunting Whitetail Deer is finding good deer habitat. However all Whitetail Deer, regardless of location, require three things in order to survive which consist of readily available food sources, bedding areas that provide protection from predators, and access to a source of fresh water. Thus, finding deer on any tract of land really comes down to two simple tasks: first, you need to find the bedding areas and then you need to find the food sources. However, it should also be noted that because Western deer habitat is often significantly drier than either Eastern or Northern deer habitat, locating a source of fresh water in the vicinity of both good bedding areas and preferred food sources is also necessary because Whitetail Deer will often visit sources of fresh water in the morning before heading out to feed and in the evening before returning to their bedding areas.

But, why start with the bedding areas you might ask and, the answer is because suitable bedding habitat is the more scarce of the two resources in any habitat location. Plus, it tends to concentrate the deer in a particular location. Therefore, because it is prime real estate, the deer will return there over and over again at the end of each day. In addition, it should be noted that ultra wary, mature, bucks spend more of their daylight hours in bedding areas than they do in any other location. Furthermore, a prime bedding area is usually far more clearly defined than a food source and thus, locating bedding areas helps you narrow down a buck's location during in the daylight hours. But, what constitutes a prime deer bedding area you might ask? Well, the answer to that question is thick cover and I do mean thick! In fact, all deer and, especially mature bucks, require security in their choice of bedding areas in order to provide them with protection from predators while they are sleeping. Thus, they specifically look for areas in which they feel like they can become invisible and yet, also have ready access to quick escape routes. Consequently, they look for areas of tall grass and/or weeds along with areas of dense sapling growth or, in the East, dense thickets of Mountain Laurel. Last, once you have located an area that meets these criteria, frequently used bedding areas will often be easy to recognize because there will be well worn trails that provide the deer with ingress and egress to these areas.

Next, after you have located and identified one or more bedding areas, then your next step is to locate and identify the feeding areas. However, in order to accomplish this, you first need to understand what deer like to eat. However, this can be somewhat problematic since deer have been recorded eating over six hundred different species of plants. So, to start with you must understand that deer are Herbivores and thus, they eat plants and only plants. In addition, these plants are classified as either Browse or Mast. In addition, Browse consists of annual and perennial plant species such as wheat, rye, millet, milo, corn, clover, beans, peas, ect. and Mast consists of fruit and nuts that fall from the trees in the late Fall season. Therefore, it is important to understand that the type of Browse and Mast that are available to the deer changes with the months and even with the time of the month as well as the location and type of habitat. Consequently, the location of preferred deer foods is often widely scattered and they tend to move from location to location throughout the year as the seasons progress. Therefore, any given source of deer food may or may not be visited that day by members of the local deer population. However, if you know the location of all of the food sources in the area in relation to the position of their bedding areas, then you can extrapolate the likely routes of travel to and from the bedding and feeding areas by taking into account the terrain as well as the location and type of cover available in the area.

Therefore, the best strategy for getting a shot at a trophy buck is to find both his bedding and feeding areas in places where you also find rubs and scrapes and then, set up near the bedding area on one of the trails leading to a feeding area. After all, we have all had the experience at one time or another of crawling out of bed after a good night’s sleep, groggily rubbing out faces while our brain starts to function again and then, suddenly realizing that we are hungry. Thus, deer experience a similar sensation and, the best time to catch them unawares is just after they have woken up for the day and are heading out to either a source of fresh water or a favored food source.