Criteria for stand placement

[Rit]

Just curious what you use to determine stand placement. I am always on the look out for new stand locations. I have stands that are as little as 35 yards apart. I found two new spots for the 2019 season and you can bet they will have stands placed before the opener.

I will probably never shoot another doe. I enjoy seeing deer much more than I like killing them anymore. I don’t have that urge to kill quite as much as I did when I was younger but still enjoy the cat and mouse of getting close to a mature deer.

My criteria is really pretty simple.

1. Entry and exit to the stand must be as close to perfect as I can get it. I need to be able to get into and out of that stand without bumping or alerting deer. This is by far my most important piece of the puzzle to me.

2. I want to hunt the travel corridors. It can be bed to food, food to bed, or between bedding areas. I don’t want to be in areas where deer hang out. I want to see them and have them through the area relatively quick.

3. It has to be an area where I think a mature buck will travel during shooting hours. Generally along the edge of thick cover, downwind of a doe bedding area, or a doe travel corridor. 50-60 yards inside of a destination field has also been good to me.

When I can find things like natural pinch points that meet the above criteria I know I have found a spot that has some serious potential.

 

[Catscratch]

I follow your #1 and 2 rules religiously!

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[swat1018]

I hunt my farms from the outside. I'm fortunate that my neighbors let me enter across them. I rarely have to walk through my farm to hunt. Although, when the time is right, sometimes I wade into the middle. My #1 is be on the fringes and never let them know you were there, and never hunt a stand if the wind isn't right. If the wind changes, I get down.

 

[SWIFFY]

Yep I live by #1. Dont make those deer ever feel pressured or let them know they're being hunted! Then good activity should never slow.

Ive condensed the stands on my land by about 50%, Ive found there are several places that look good, so I hung a stand, but I never sit them because I can kill the same deer from a different set i like better anyways.

Lastly, over time I think we learn to really effectively hunt our properties for deer or big deer in general... rather than hunting "a deer". I know spots where I could sit all season and kill a nice buck every year. Now, I often hunt a specific buck and they dont always show up in the high percentage places that the other bucks do. Sometimes they do, but often times they dont. So I will regularly plant a specific plot in a specific place to sit with a specific wind on a specific date for a specific deer. I do this almost every year now and it changes completely from one year to the next depending on what buck im going for and what I know that buck does.

So, my criteria is it cant just be a good spot. I want evidence that convinces me a particular buck will be there.

 

[Bill]

Yep #1 for me. I’m not afraid to hunt small plots on the way to a destination plot so long as I can get in and out. Sometimes that includes calling for a rescue in a side by side. Somehow on my place that doesn’t affect them like a man walking.

I like to make pinch points on bow stands. That could be as simple as mowing a trail to piling up brush or using a snow fence.

 

[j-bird]

I work with what I have. I use the wind direction and access mainly to guide my efforts, but it all really depends. If I'm after a doe, I'll sit more over food. If I'm after a buck I will try to hunt closer to the thicker cover. If I have one of the kids with me...We tend to use the shooting houses. As much as I would love to tell you about some "bullet proof" stand I have...I don't. I have a few that work better than others, I have some I have never killed a deer from. I do like to put up one stand in a different spot each year just to see what happens. Sometimes I just take a bucket to sit on and try to find me a nice view. My place doesn't hold mature bucks so when the time comes you just have to hope your in the right spot when they come looking. That is typically driven by the limited cover and terrain features...I try to put the wind in my face and see what happens.

 

[ksgobbler]

I am limited on trees that can support stands. My best stand is on a trail coming from a bedding area on no hunting property to a feeding area to my north. Other stand is a ladder stand in a cedar tree but I feel exposed in it.

 

[Catscratch]

I am limited on trees that can support stands. My best stand is on a trail coming from a bedding area on no hunting property to a feeding area to my north. Other stand is a ladder stand in a cedar tree but I feel exposed in it.

Same limitation. I hunt mostly from the ground now just so that I can follow 1.

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[j-bird]

Stands?!? We don't need no stinking STANDS!

Had some good hunts either sitting on a bucket or just on the ground....no blind, just use some elevation. Killed my first deer ever, with a bow while sitting on a stump about 1/2 way up a bank with the deer trail at the base. Sometimes the best "plan" is to just make something up as you go!

 

[FarmerDan]

A tree big enough to support a stand. Really.....

 

[ksgobbler]

Same limitation. I hunt mostly from the ground now just so that I can follow 1.

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Ive yet to get successfully drawn on a deer from a ground blind. I put it out a month before season. Its a scent free entry and exit. I leave the window facing the dorection I intend to shoot open and the others closed all the time. I wear all black as well. They just seem to be on edge when they approach the blind. Now with a rifle I have no issue getting it into a shooting position undetected.

 

[Catscratch]

I don't use blinds. I find natural hides and add some branches and cedar. Sometime I hang some netting with grass drapped on it. I've tried tent type blinds before and couldn't stand them. I make my blinds using similar methods I learned from duck hunting.

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[Rit]

My place doesn't hold mature bucks so when the time comes you just have to hope your in the right spot when they come looking.

Same as my place. I just don’t have the room or layout to consistently hold mature deer. Now I do get them on occasion throughout the season. The last two seasons I had a mature buck show up and stay on October 20th and October 21st. I think this makes my stand placement even more critical because I can’t be bumping the ladies. Back before I started this habitat journey I had plenty of November’s with no does and it wasn’t pretty.

 

[Rit]

I am limited on trees that can support stands. My best stand is on a trail coming from a bedding area on no hunting property to a feeding area to my north. Other stand is a ladder stand in a cedar tree but I feel exposed in it.

You ever try to brush in that stand? I do that a lot.

 

[Rit]

I don't use blinds. I find natural hides and add some branches and cedar. Sometime I hang some netting with grass drapped on it. I've tried tent type blinds before and couldn't stand them. I make my blinds using similar methods I learned from duck hunting.

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I am with you. I have used a couple grind blinds and I just can’t do it. Not sure if it’s the lack of view or fresh air but it’s miserable for me. I have made a few natural blinds and those are better but I still prefer a tree.

 

[Rit]

You ever try to brush in that stand? I do that a lot.

 

[j-bird]

I have pulled tree tops up into other trees to create especially "back cover". I hold in place with ratchet straps directly to the tree....NEVER to the stand. One of the best trees I ever hunted from was a maple that had the top busted out during a summer storm. The top held the leaves, but didn't break entirely free. I think I could have done jumping jacks on that stand and the deer would not have seen me! I put a whole lot more work into back cover than I do front cover...some is fine...but trying to keep from being skylined is far more important to me. I also like using beech trees or oaks as they hold their leaves well in the fall/winter.

 

[roymunson]

They're expensive, but we use a lot of elevated blinds. Have figured out how to make them scent proof and it's a game changer . Deer approach down wind and think they're safe, and they're not.

Late season doe hunting we hunt food a lot, like on the food sources, but during the rut, I prefer to be in the travel corridors too.

 

[j-bird]

Same as my place. I just don’t have the room or layout to consistently hold mature deer. Now I do get them on occasion throughout the season. The last two seasons I had a mature buck show up and stay on October 20th and October 21st. I think this makes my stand placement even more critical because I can’t be bumping the ladies. Back before I started this habitat journey I had plenty of November’s with no does and it wasn’t pretty.

I hear you. I changed things a few years back...I gave up on the "year round nutrition" and the "everything a deer could want" concepts. I simply didn't have the room. I don't have the depth or amount of cover needed to hold mature bucks. I don't have reason to worry about summer forage...the deer can eat the farmers beans or even live at the neighbors for all I care in the summer time.

Now I focus on keeping the ladies happy and trying to be in the right place at the right time when the boys come calling. I don't even hardly hunt at ALL until about Halloween (season opens here Oct 1). I found that all I was doing by hunting the early season was educating/pushing those does and the bucks I wanted where nowhere to be found then. Now I wait until the urges of the rut kick in... I also then try to have food for once the crops are harvested... I try to bring and hold the deer on my place in November and first 1/2 of December....the rest of the time...I have to tolerate them being someplace else. I am also trying to shift away from actual plots (and go to more natural food sources from trees and shrubs) that require my regular attention to try to lower my own disturbance on the place.

It isn't perfect, but it's what I have to work with.