The ability to locate the bedding place of the deer is most dependable. Trailing the track of the deer can do this. This could save you a lot of time and energy. The deer rest in different places of the forest. Keeping a good knowledge of their preferred resting place could help the hunter to locate them easily.

The deer's feeding time changes with the moon. Sometimes they will feed early in the afternoon and early in the morning, leaving the feeding area before it is light enough to do much shooting. As the moonlight changes, they will change so that after a time they will not start feeding in the evening until nearly dark, but will feed later in the morning. The hunter's problem if he wishes to see feeding deer is to locate the deer's feeding area and to watch that area at a time when the animals are expected.

Most of a deer's time is expended in eating and in digesting this food. The digestive process should be carried on in quiet surroundings and, with a few exceptions, is not attempted at the feeding area. I have found a few deer chewing their cud under apple trees or on oak and beech ridges, but usually they travel to some secluded bedding area where there is less chance of interruption. Because of this habit there is not much chance of bagging a deer at a feeding area during a greater part of the day. Of course, there is always the chance of sighting a roving buck at these places for, during the rutting season; a buck might be seen at any spot and at any time.

While deer are in a bed digesting a meal, it is obvious that the hunter has very little chance of sighting one, unless he is able to find their bed or depends on some other hunter to find and move them. If he decides to try to find their bed, he should have some knowledge of the country as well as of the habits of the deer. There is nothing to prevent deer from stopping at any place in the woods, but they have their favorite bedding areas and will often travel for some distance to use them instead of resting near a feeding area. Seclusion is what deer want most at this time. A safe escape route is desirable. Comfort is sometimes a factor in time of cold or stormy weather.

The most dependable way to locate these bedding areas is to trail a deer to them. This is a difficult task on bare ground, but is fairly simple when there is a tracking snow. The hunter merely has to pick up a track at a feeding area and follow it to the place where the deer is, or has been, spending the rest period. This trail will lead the hunter over an apparently aimless route until it makes an abrupt turn, usually into the wind. This turn is nearly always in sight of the deer's bed so that it can be watched. Other directions, too, may be watched, with the nose and ears supplementing vision. The bed may be on a low ridge; it may be in a thicket of small softwood; it may be under or behind a blow-down; it may be well hidden or in plain sight; but no matter where the location is, the hunter should be able to see at least one good reason for that location and, after seeing several such places, should be able to recognize desirable bedding grounds without the necessity of trailing deer to them.

If a man knows the approximate range of the deer in his hunting area and if he is able to recognize the probable bedding places of these deer, he should be able to locate and move a deer at almost any time of day. This ability to find deer at all times of day often results in a shot, but often it is necessary to trail or anticipate a deer's course in order to bag him. This requires knowledge of deer trails for best results.

The country that is inhabited by deer is covered by a network of game trails that are similar to the network of roads used by humans. There are trunk lines, secondary trails and little used trails which correspond to our country roads. Each deer's range is crisscrossed by trails leading from one place to another.

The next time you get out for hunting deer, be well informed of when and how they take their food and rest fro it to digest for the rest of the day. If you cannot spot them in their feeding places then look out for their resting places.

To keep the deer track is necessary to locate them easily. This requires knowledge of deer trail for best results. The deer use a network of trails that are similar to the network of roads used by humans with different divisions of trails.