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5/10/85
12-15-2006, 01:33 PM
With the cost of stand, the difficulty putting it up, the boredom of sitting in one place, what are the benefits of stand hunting? Wind? Smell? Sight? I always walk with my bow, but I think I've got a great place to put a stand after knowing the area - but, how often do you have to be there to make sure you get a chance? How early you have to get there? Blacktails seem to be bedded even before shooting light - have any of you done stand hunting? Is it worth it?

NEEHAMA
12-15-2006, 02:00 PM
no i can't stand for long. i like to sit, then lay down. after that i can stand a little longer.

GoatGuy
12-15-2006, 02:07 PM
I don't know about BT's but when it comes to WT's you'll see bigger, better deer and you'll have more close encounters and shooting opportunities. Wind and sight also increase your chances not to mention deer don't generally look up unless they're well educated!

Rainwater
12-15-2006, 03:06 PM
The great thing about stand hunting is not just the ability to see unalarmed deer but all our wild creatures seem to accept you. It's fun to try and draw down on a cock pheasant though from a tree, they're smarter than a whitetail. I've had birds land on me, squirrels crawling around me, bears under my stand, dropped a pinecone on a deer and just generally have fun in my tree. I sit in some of my stands (without bow) even during the off season just to watch. Get in a 1/2 hour before daylight and let things calm down. You will be amazed totally. Ernie

Onesock
12-15-2006, 03:08 PM
Guys that hunt out of stands for WT's kill deer. Guys that still hunt with a bow are still hunting or most of them are anyway.

Awishanew
12-15-2006, 05:04 PM
A fellow told me a good piece of advice I now fully believe. Quote: If you want to see deer go into the bush. If you want to kill a deer go up a tree.

Eagle1
12-15-2006, 06:17 PM
Guys that hunt out of stands for WT's kill deer. Guys that still hunt with a bow are still hunting or most of them are anyway.

and guys with" ROTORTILLER BOWS " are STILL hunting ,for missed arrows:twisted:

I get bored stitting in a stand, I'd rather walk and see more deer cause generaly BT's don't folow the same path every day like predictable WTs.
I've taken my fair share of BTs over the years and all on the gound spot and stalk on their level more of a challenge. And not to mention very good exercise walking a few miles every day, you can tell the wife your getting out to get exercise :smile:.

mark
12-15-2006, 06:36 PM
If you think you have a great spot, but dont have the time or patience to sit there forever, buy a trail-cam, set it up, and go check it in a week! i f you see big bucks there on a regular basis, youll have the patience to wait for them!

Rainwater
12-16-2006, 10:55 AM
What's A Rotortiller Bow?

Ddog
12-16-2006, 11:33 AM
i love hunting from my stands, not once have i ever been bored in a treestand, all sorts of things happen when you sit up a tree, BT's are a very predictable deer during the pre and post rut stages and once i have found one that i think is a shooter i find a spot where he feeds and travel routes and will set a stand for him.
cost of stands have come down, you can get the baby gorilla stand from Wal-Mart for $80 on clearance right now, steps, if you use the screw in ones range from $2 and up depending on brand and quality.
i use the screw in ones from Wal-Mart on one of my stands and i have a ladder for my other stand. I have been stand hunting for a number of years and find that if i sit under the 15 foot mark, deer catch movement, so i sit at the 20 foot level. I have had great success with stands set in the appropriate spots. i will always hunt from a stand given the opportunity.
cheers....................ddog

The Hermit
12-17-2006, 02:39 PM
I have a hard time sitting really still so my attempts at blind hunting have been dismal... I plan to buy a stand this year and give it a whorl above the magic 20' mark.

WoodOx
12-17-2006, 02:40 PM
magic 20ft? I heard 15ft was the magic mark :D

Ron.C
12-17-2006, 03:17 PM
Stands work great, BUT you do need alot of patience. That is where most people fail. They will take all the time in the world to find a good spot, hand the stand, and sneak in long before shooting light, only to leave 2 hours later becuase they are not seeing anything. The longer you sit in your stand, the better the chance you will have at a good shot. And yes, tree stands work just fine on Blacktails. In my opinion, they are just harder to pattern than whitetails. As far as stand height, there is no magic height. It all depends on the particular tree and its location. Here on Van Isle, I prefer to set up in cedars because they offer great background cover, and if you have good cover, you only need to go as high as your shot situation dictates. Best to focus on one really good shooting lane then trying to coner the whole forrest.

J_T
12-17-2006, 04:16 PM
Stands are great. If patience is an issue take a good book, a thermos of something to drink. An afternoon in a stand can be more than hunting, it can be time to reflect, to learn to analyze to strategize, to simply be, undisturbed.

Becoming one with nature and observing nature at work when it doesn't know you are intervening is quite an experience.

Why sometimes you may not want to shoot the animal because it might disturb an otherwise wonderful experience of just being there.

20 feet is normally to high, it compromises your shot. Your arrow must work all the way through the animal, not just on one side as it intersects.

Normal stand height is 12 to 15 feet. Perhaps 9 to 10 steps.

JT

mapguy
12-18-2006, 09:53 AM
iv,e had good success with just sitting on a stump . stalking to within 10 ft.
and with a treestand a bow makes it a little more difficult . The secret is where you put your stand and when . I have a buddy who leaves his stand for weeks .

Red Eye
12-21-2006, 04:16 PM
I tried a stand for the first time 2 weeks ago hunting mulies. I was cammoed pretty good, but the few that came into view, from different directions, spotted me. They definitely looked up. Are mulies different then WT's that way?

5/10/85
12-22-2006, 07:51 AM
And what kind of shot do you take on a deer directly beneath you? How far from the game trail do you set up the stand?

huntwriter
12-22-2006, 08:59 AM
Nothing spoils a hunting area more than walking around and letting all the critters know you’re there.

A stand will bring the deer to you. With a stand you can get closer to the deer. A stand lets you be on a place before the deer get there. Deer look for possible danger at ground level not up in the trees.

To make stand hunting a success you have to scout differently than for other hunting methods. To place a stand correctly you have to know what trails the deer use at what time of the season and at what time of the day. By placing the stand correctly and hunt from it when the time is right you do not need patience and sit in it for long hours. A hunter that sits in his stand for 4 to 8 hours, and has seen nothing, has not scouted properly or the stand location has gone cold for various reasons. Go scout and find out why the stand has gone cold.

If you bowhunt from a stand you have to find the exact right tree to hang your stand. The right tree is the one that gives you two or more shooting lanes at you preferred distance at traveling deer coming from different directions. The stand should be placed where you have good background cover from the surrounding trees or other vegetation. A stand should always be placed somewhere between two destinations, such as between feeding and bedding area and not directly by the food source or bedding area. Proper scouting will reveal where that exact location is.

Stand hunting myth:

Being high up in a tree is not an assurance that deer will not smell you. Your scent will be carried further and then drops to the ground. A deer that can smell a hunter 500 yards away surely will not come any closer to investigate. Stay down wind from the deer.

Higher is not better. A treestand is most effective at heights between 10ft to 20ft of off the ground. The higher you climb the steeper you have to shoot and the target area becomes smaller too. In addition you run out of background cover and risk to be highlighted against the sky.

Setting treestands up:
It’s like with everything else, you need to practice. Most times I use a climbing treestand. It takes me all of three minutes to set the stand up, climb quietly up a tree with it and be ready to hunt. I use hang on stands on places that I have scouted very well in advance. I hang the stands a month or so before the hunting season opens on spots where I know the deer will show up. I place hang on stands for the early season, pre-rut, rut and the late season all long before the deer are in a given area. When I lived in Illinois I use to hang up to 25 stands and prepared at least another 15 stand sites for my climber in August ready to be used in October, November, December and January.

Proper scouting is imperative to stand hunting otherwise it becomes a boring and utterly useless endeavor. Done right, stand hunting is the most successful tactic to hunt deer. I have never sat for longer in my stands than 3 to four hours, either I killed a deer or the deer did not move trough the area for whatever reason. During the rut I may hunt as many as six different pre scouted stand locations per day, as the bucks move around so do I. Each part of the hunting season requires a different treestand hunting strategy and scouting will reveal what strategy is required.


P.S.
And what kind of shot do you take on a deer directly beneath you? How far from the game trail do you set up the stand?

Try to hang the stand that the deer do not end up direct under your stand. A straight down shoot is very difficult to do, unless you practiced it well before. However far you feel comfortable shooting. My shooting distances are all between 10, 15 to 20 yards from the treestand. Here is a little trick I use. I hang a little rag soaked with doe pee on trees and branches, about four feet of the ground, where I want the deer to stop for a shot. This keeps them occupied while I draw and aim my bow.



Hope this info will help you.

J_T
12-22-2006, 09:01 AM
And what kind of shot do you take on a deer directly beneath you? How far from the game trail do you set up the stand?

That's a low percentage shot. It has been done, but shooting straight down there is risk of a clean pass through without hitting any vitals. Best option there is to jump out, land on him and take him down. Make sure you're not wearing a safety harness before you jump.:lol:

Normally I set up about 10 yards from a trail. But, I shoot a recurve and my effective range is not what a compound or crossbow is.

JT

Awishanew
12-22-2006, 10:50 AM
As JT said a straight down shot is very low percentage with a bow. You would be better served hauling up a 44# cement block. I suggest you and others that have not taken the IBEP course to do so if they bowhunt. Incidintly we are running the course in Nanaimo on Feb 10 & 11.teach Pm me for details.

peterrum3
08-13-2007, 02:37 PM
I have ground hunted for years and thought about 5 years ago that I wanted to try some stand hunting. I have not regretted it a bit. This is not the only way I hunt though, I still like getting on the ground for the muleys but stands for sure with the whitetail. I have one stand that is in a great spot. I've taken three whitetail from that stand in 4 years. Couldnt get to it the other year and i have not done any hunting for the last two seasons, but that is another story. It is in the perfect spot and I have not sat in it for more than 4 hours a year. I just leave it up there and check it in the summer and its still great. By the way, its a homemade stand that me and a buddy designed. We took three designs we found on the internet, sat down one spring night with some good rum and after a few hours of tweaking we had designed our own hanging stand. A couple of weeks later, we spent an afternoon in the shop and turned out 8 stands, 4 for each of us at a cost of $40 each. We tested one out on one of my trees, a foot off the ground and it held both of us, a total of just over 400 lbs.
I like the perspective you get of the forest from 14 ft. up. It sure is different than being on the ground and its just something different to do, just like switching from a rifle to a bow, something different. I agree its not for everyone, a friend of mine can't sit still. He is like a cat on a hot tin roof when he hunts. Your gear has to be a little heavier for sitting in one spot for many hours and when the temperature drops I love those tiny hotpacks in my boots. As long as my toes are warm, I'm fine. Give it a shot, I did and I really enjoy it.

5/10/85
08-14-2007, 08:09 PM
that question about shooting directly beneath you was a tongue in cheek question - I didn't think it was very practical - I just wanted to know where to set up the stand relative to the game trails and all that info you all gave is excellent. thx