Bedding benches

Hire Tony L. to come out?

Deer use elevation to bed. I have watched them switch hill sides when the wind changes on multiple occassions. Lap rat knows it.

My deer like to bed in a way so they can use elevation to their advantage whenever possible. Typically this means their back to the wind with decent back cover. Not just quality but also quantity. They seem to like this "buffer" to them if it makes noise or the like...these areas tend to be high stem count areas on my place. Saplings, MFR, brambles, and the like...something that hinders a predator from being able to get too close without detection. Then 180 degrees from that is a commanding view. Much less stem density but not wide open. This way they can use their eyes to detect movement from a distance. A bench simply helps create these conditions in a more condensed area.

The one true bench I have is on a bank that the elevation change is probably a good 50 feet. Its in an area where my upland ag field then transitions down to my floodplain ag field. This transition area is maybe 100 feet deep but runs for several 100 yards long. The bench is roughly 3/4 the way up the slope and faces south (big help). In this spot the deer have a view of roughly 30 acres of ground. I have a 30 foot field buffer on the upland side that is mostly weeds, brambles and saplings, and another 120 foot wide buffer of weeds and switchgrass on the downhill side. There is a well worn deer trail at the base of the slope as well. The bench itself is maybe 10 yards deep but roughly 30 yards long. Fairly flat without much brush. Another key is the deer need to have a realistic means of getting in and out...mine tend to walk across the slope vs going straight up and down.

I have hinged some stuff in the area and free up some young oaks. Other than that I simply stay out and only remove fallen limbs and the like. I'll see if I can't dig up some pictures..

One last pic I have...

Here is a view of the bench lengthwise from the other direction....   In this pic the high ground is to the right.



Here is a little bit of an ugly layout of where this is situated...   The "H" is the high ground and the "L" the low.    You can see how the deer have a commanding view over that entire bottom area.   The red line is the beginning of the slope. 

Never made a bench, but I have a long bluff with a natural bench 1/3rd of the way down from the top. The bench is used extensively for travel. It runs north and south, faces west. Anywhere that has a cut that turns the bench towards the south has beds. The best spot on the entire place is a bench facing south that has an opening in the canopy and good grass growing there. Random beds tend to near a blowdown tree or cedar tree (back to the tree).

The grass seems a draw, similar to what Art alluded to.  The grass is low cover the direction they are facing.  They can see through it but they are semihidden?