Seconds and inches. Hunting boils down to just that. We don't think about it much when we find a massive rub line with scrapes mixed in every 50 yards or so. We find a tree in the middle of 2 of the hottest scrapes and we hang a stand.
Can't get any easier than this, we think to ourselves, as we envision massive antlers cruising through the woods.
You climb down and take one last look up at your handy work and smile. He's gonna meet his maker tomorrow. Come hell or high water, you will be sitting in that tree an hour before daylight, nothing will stop you. Game on.
Any of this sound familiar? Sure it does. We are hunters and dreamers. There isn't a more confident person on Mother Earth than a hunter who comes across tons of fresh sign in our stomping grounds. The confidence is a great attribute but we can't get the cart in front of the horse.
5 places that will turn dream hunts into nightmares:
Dead trees
Dead trees are a bad idea. We all know this. A lot of us have thrown caution to the wind and hang a stand in one anyway, myself included on more than one occasion. Very, very stupid. We have no idea when a gust of wind will bring that tree down but it's gonna happen. Being in the woods for over 150 days a year, I've seen my fair share of trees fall and have heard many more. In fact, I was standing by a dead tree just mere minutes before it blew over! Scary stuff.
Make sure the tree you pick to hang in is alive and well. Check for branches that are dead or “weakened.” If you have a gut feeling that a given tree might be an issue, get rid of it or pick a different tree. Trees in the perfect places are rare. Just because you find one doesn't mean you should hunt it. Safety should always be your main priority. If you wouldn't put your kid in it, you shouldn't be in it either. And if you would put your kid in a bad situation, maybe you should hang all your stands in dead trees. We don't need any more idiots in the world.
Property lines
Property lines are great places for game movement. Most game animals thrive on “edge” habitat. A good majority of property lines form some type of “edge” or habitat change, creating perfect travel corridors for all animals.
Why do I suggest not hanging on property lines? This primarily is out of pure respect to the neighbors. I don't want my neighbor sitting right on top of my property and he probably doesn't want me to do it either. Why cause any friction? Of course, hashing that out beforehand could result in a good stand location with a mature buck wearing your tag. But it could also result in your neighbor hanging a stand there as well and killing the same buck you were hunting. Pick your poison.
Blood trails leading onto neighboring properties from time to time usually turn out ok. But if it becomes a habit, (like your shooting them right on the line or even across it) there will be problems. The further you can hang from a property line the better. Every situation is different and a little common sense goes a long way.
In another's comfort zone
For years we have hunted and farmed a family member's property. There were 2-4 other people who hunted the farm through the years. They had their “spots” and we had ours. We would even offer up our stands to them and vice versa. It worked well. Fast forward several years to when three brothers of extended family got permission to hunt there. It didn't take them long to take over our stands and everyone else's. Arriving at one of my stands one evening and finding someone else in it caused me to finally speak my mind. They were sorry and they wouldn't hunt them again. Perfect! Wrong. They hung stands within 20 yards of ours! Who does that?
Find your own stand sites
It's perfectly ethical to find an old abandon stand in the woods and hang your own near it. It is not, in my opinion, to hang or hunt right on “top” of someone else. It's being lazy and downright wrong.
If the land you are hunting on has limited stand options, talk to the other people who also hunt there. Work out the stand issues with them or move on. You nor the other party involved is going to enjoy the hunt if you are constantly butting heads or staring at each other 20 feet above the ground only 20 yards apart.
A little common sense goes …..
Ravines, steep valleys and deep bowls all have one thing in common. Swirling winds.
Swirling winds or “bad” wind direction have saved more animals lives than anything else. I would give up wearing camo forever in exchange for a constant wind direction. It’ll never happen. That's why I recommend not hanging stands in the bottom of ravines, steep valleys or bowls. The winds will get you the majority of the time in there. Occasionally you may have success in such spots but more often than not, you will just be educating every animal in the immediate area.
Get up higher on the ridge tops. Winds are much more predictable towards the top. For more information on the value of understanding wind direction, check out my earlier article: The wind: Makes or breaks a hunt every time.
No concealed entry or exit route
Sometimes we find the perfect spot with the perfect tree. Sometimes we hang a set in the perfect spot, in the perfect tree and kill a giant within minutes of being there. More often than not it doesn't happen like that. We hang it, hunt it, then hunt it some more and get nothing but frustrated. The sign is there. What went wrong?
First thing to always consider is your wind direction. If the winds wrong, your perfect spot is not so perfect. If the wind isn't an issue, then chances are it might be your entry or exit route to and from your stand.
Getting to and from your stand undetected is just as important as when you're in the tree. If you are bumping deer as you come and go, you've got to do things differently. A different route or moving the stand are your options.
If you keep hunting it the same way, the only thing you will have is a perfect tree in a burned out area.
Conclusion
Hunting from the branches of a tree is still one of the best ways to kill a whitetail. We overthink the process just as much as we don't pay enough attention to detail. Either way can be detrimental to your hunt. Another piece I wrote on hunting and how it's all in your head would be a great read if your interested to learn more about how we tend to overthink things. The biggest thing to always remember is safety. Secondly, is respect for other hunters. The least important thing is actually the deer hunting itself. Failures and mistakes are part of it. It's what makes the successes that much better.
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