Where should I hang my treestands?
Filed under: Bow Hunting
The red line is the piece of land. The yellow lines are cleared ATV trails. The blue circles are where I can park, and the orange circles are where I have put stands. The western orange circle has only had a stand there once the other ones I have visited more frequently.
Depending on how wet/dry it is at the time I am able to walk fairly close to the river (within about 30 yards of the bank) without sinking too bad. The shorter trail more to the west of the property is on a ridge, if you look at it on google earth you will see quite a difference in elevation.
There are also a couple of corn fields in the south western portion in the property. Corn is also available north west of the property on the other side of the road.
Thank you for any advice you can give me, this year has been the absolute definition of Murphy’s Law and I’m starting to go crazy.
For more information, I have a Summit climbing stand and 3 climbing sticks with a hang on stand. The property is just east of Stacy, MN if you want to look at it on google earth.
Thanks again!
Jeremy,
Thanks for posting your question, this will allow other folks to look through the question and response and learn from it!
This looks like a great piece of property, right off the bat, I can tell that there is no shortage of bedding cover. You have some great access points to enter your stands quietly as well. There are certainly many places where deer can bed and escape danger, so intercepting deer can be tough as they travel the majority of there way to feeding areas in thick brush. With that being said, there are still a few locations on your map that would bottleneck or pinch deer down. As we approach the rut, having stands in these locations will be critical to catching bucks on their feet in daylight hours.
I have three locations that come to mind. In the Southwest corner of the property, there are two wooded lots, appear to be larger timber separated by a smaller opening. I would have stand in the opening. Perhaps on the eastern side to hunt with a west wind. If there is corn on that section of the farm, deer will likely use this opening as they travel to and from bedding accessing the food source. Deer will take the least path of resistance and it appears to be one of them. This would be an evening set, if you accessed from the southwest border hunting with a northwest wind, if you took the long way around from the northeast corner, then you would be able to hunt this spot in the morning, you would not be spooking deer from the corn fields.
Another location that I would be interested in scouting out would be the pinch to the east of the set mentioned above, where the creek and timber nearly touch. Deer are creatures of the edge and will walk that southern timber line and becoming pinched very tightly to the timber due to the creek. I would check first for track and sign, but this could be a good location hunting a natural pinch.
The last stand that I would sincerely inspect would be the small wood lot in the dead center of the property. This stand would only be able to be hunted at the peak of the chase/seek phase, just based on access into the location. This wood lot among very thick timber will give deer a slight reprieve from the thick cover. I would imagine this would be a very good stand when the chase or seeking phase is in full swing. It is a gamble with the wind because deer could come from every direction, but from whichever direction you access from, I would blow my wind there. Typically I would not hunt a stand like this, but if conditions are right, it is worth the gamble to get in tight to bedding where does can seek refuge from being chased. With you stand being in close proximity to this thick cover its an all or nothing type hunt.
I hope this helps you harvest some deer this season. Patterns will change as season progresses, but most importantly, when you hunt you need to enter, hunt, and exit the woods without spooking deer, keep the wind in your favor.
Growing deer together,
Matt
