How many stands per acre?

17 stands on 122 acres
 
8 on 160

Dad started this project with a blank slate of cropground over 25 years ago.
Just don't have many options for trees to choose from.

Have to get creative at this point.
Plan to do some scouting this spring, add 2, an move one a tad.

Thinking of going the saddle route, may open a few more avenues due to tree width restrictions.
 
8 on 160

Dad started this project with a blank slate of cropground over 25 years ago.
Just don't have many options for trees to choose from.

Have to get creative at this point.
Plan to do some scouting this spring, add 2, an move one a tad.

Thinking of going the saddle route, may open a few more avenues due to tree width restrictions.

Going to a saddle is one of the best things I've done.
Not only did it open up a whole bunch of new stand possibilities, saddles have also re-energized me and my attitude toward hunting.
For the last 30+ seasons, I've hunted pretty much the same way...strictly bow hunt from pre-hung, lock-on style stands and screw-in steps.
Frankly, even though I've been successful doing it that way, and shot some pretty good bucks, it was getting repetitious and even a little boring. Being in a tree was becoming the same old, same old.
I got a Kestrel saddle, Predator mini stand, and tree bolts to replace the Americrap screw-in steps. Being in a tree is once again exciting. 60 years old and 48 seasons and I almost feel like a kid again. Not to mention, hunting from saddles is a lot safer than climbing into dozens of rusting, lock on stands that have hung for years in the elements.
 
Probably a good addition to posts would be how often are your stands hunted? Do you beat them to death or do you have lots of stands that rarely get used because of of wind conditions or other factors?
 
I'll bite

Out of 8 stands, only sat in 4,
Hunted the property 6 times
No more than 2 sits in a stand.
Limted a bit wind wise, have no locations to hunt on a north wind. Only one on a NW and it is not a high odds location.
Tried a new approach this year, worked out ok, learned a few things.

One thing of note I thought was interesting.
Sat a first sit stand on the north edge of the property on a south wind. Mid Sept I believe on the first major cold front overlooking a old crabapple tree, fresh rubs visable.
No bucks seen, couple does.
Fast forward to Oct 23, same stand second sit, about perfect weather scenario coming off a cold front, high pressure, low wind, bluebird.
I was making my way to the stand through a quarter of corn to the north. Making my final 100 yard approach when I busted out my target buck bedded in the corn field.

Thing is he was bedded 70 yards from my treestand. Pinpoint down wind.

Coincidence?

Or did he cut my ground scent trail after hunting the stand earlier in sept, an knew the stand was there. An from then on bedded dead down wind anytime there was a south wind?

If that's the case, I need to fine tune things further an make sure I kill them on the first sit. Which I'm not sure is always possible.

Just how dang smart are these buggers?
Guess I still have alot to learn.
 
I have 150 total acres (only about 50 acres of actual cover). I have 2 shooting houses, 3 ladder stands, 4 hang-on type and a climber and a "magic bucket" (for winging it). So actual stand set-ups is 9. I have 3 main parcels and what I do is try to set each parcel up for a single hunter to have options for each of the 4 major wind directions IF possible. Sometimes a stand location will work for multiple wind directions, sometimes a wind direction simply makes a particular parcel impossible to hunt.
 
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