bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Recently got two ladder stands as birthday gifts and now mulling over where to put them. Appreciating pics aren't quite the same as boots on the ground, still love to hear thoughts from others on where you'd stick them.
So here's a zoomed out aerial of my place ringed in red and lined by a large quail plantation immediately to the west and north west.
Not the best at instantly "reading" topos, but for those who do like them here's one that somewhat mirrors the zoomed out area above. Between roads and ponds hope they can be easily compared. Basically my home sits on a small gently sloping hill (by Florida standards!) with it sloping downward to a pond in our back yard (back yard is actually north of the house).
Picture below uses stars to show where I have two ladder stands up today... I use them to hunt plots that butt up against the hardwood stand that rings our pond. As the text labels in the picture show, the deer seem most comfortable making daylight travel closest to the pond traveling along corridors in the hardwoods. At dusk and dawn they do come into the plots, but as many will appreciate 2 1/2 year old bucks don't hesitate to come in, 3 1/2 slip up enough to be taken if / when I haven't been able to resist, but 4 1/2 and older MAYBE slip up a solitary time or two a year and that's usually on camera / not when I'm in the stand and I do my best to keep pressure light / hunt only with good winds / cooler days / wait until dark to slip out.
On the other hand, the camera icons show where I have game cameras in the wooded areas. The three on the west I access without too much disruption due to two being just yards inward of the road that leads to my pond, and the other I access when I fish and take the canoe over to the southwest edge to check the camera. Don't check the one deeper in the woods on the east side as often and when I do don't even try to be stealthy but instead drive my mule to the area and act like I'm working / whistle / sing to give the deer ample opportunity to move without feeling "hunted". All that said, ALL the camera spots capture a GOOD number of mature bucks traveling through the area, with quite a few being ones that I NEVER get on cameras closer to the plots / never see from my existing stands. Yellow lines mark travel corridors they travel along the pond edge as well as crossing the road just south of the pond when moving between oak stands (swamp chestnut white oak stands on both sides).
So all the detailed info shared above, where would you place 2 additional ladder stands based on the info I've shared? Welcome any / all thoughts and won't even be sensitive to any criticism of where I put the first two. Last but not least, appreciate a stand placed in the MOST NORTHERN pines ACROSS the pond could be ideal for a number of reasons (north winds pushed over the pond, natural edge travel corridor, etc) but at least for moment I don't want to crowd my neighbor on that side by hunting the border so aggressively. Land changes ownership somewhere down the road I might feel differently but he's a good one, does his own fair share of land management work, lets younger bucks walk, and I just feel I should be able to get 'er done on the rest of my property.
So here's a zoomed out aerial of my place ringed in red and lined by a large quail plantation immediately to the west and north west.
Not the best at instantly "reading" topos, but for those who do like them here's one that somewhat mirrors the zoomed out area above. Between roads and ponds hope they can be easily compared. Basically my home sits on a small gently sloping hill (by Florida standards!) with it sloping downward to a pond in our back yard (back yard is actually north of the house).
Picture below uses stars to show where I have two ladder stands up today... I use them to hunt plots that butt up against the hardwood stand that rings our pond. As the text labels in the picture show, the deer seem most comfortable making daylight travel closest to the pond traveling along corridors in the hardwoods. At dusk and dawn they do come into the plots, but as many will appreciate 2 1/2 year old bucks don't hesitate to come in, 3 1/2 slip up enough to be taken if / when I haven't been able to resist, but 4 1/2 and older MAYBE slip up a solitary time or two a year and that's usually on camera / not when I'm in the stand and I do my best to keep pressure light / hunt only with good winds / cooler days / wait until dark to slip out.
On the other hand, the camera icons show where I have game cameras in the wooded areas. The three on the west I access without too much disruption due to two being just yards inward of the road that leads to my pond, and the other I access when I fish and take the canoe over to the southwest edge to check the camera. Don't check the one deeper in the woods on the east side as often and when I do don't even try to be stealthy but instead drive my mule to the area and act like I'm working / whistle / sing to give the deer ample opportunity to move without feeling "hunted". All that said, ALL the camera spots capture a GOOD number of mature bucks traveling through the area, with quite a few being ones that I NEVER get on cameras closer to the plots / never see from my existing stands. Yellow lines mark travel corridors they travel along the pond edge as well as crossing the road just south of the pond when moving between oak stands (swamp chestnut white oak stands on both sides).
So all the detailed info shared above, where would you place 2 additional ladder stands based on the info I've shared? Welcome any / all thoughts and won't even be sensitive to any criticism of where I put the first two. Last but not least, appreciate a stand placed in the MOST NORTHERN pines ACROSS the pond could be ideal for a number of reasons (north winds pushed over the pond, natural edge travel corridor, etc) but at least for moment I don't want to crowd my neighbor on that side by hunting the border so aggressively. Land changes ownership somewhere down the road I might feel differently but he's a good one, does his own fair share of land management work, lets younger bucks walk, and I just feel I should be able to get 'er done on the rest of my property.
