Your deer stand... Is it in the THICK STUFF where visibility is limited?

How THICK is the bush you place your treestand(s) in?

  • Wide open, I can see for miles!

    Votes: 4 5.1%

  • Not open, not too thick. I can see a decent distance & taking a shot is not a problem.

    Votes: 30 38.5%

  • Getting thicker, you have to pick your shot through the bush.

    Votes: 36 46.2%

  • THICK, the deer has to pass close by to get a shot.

    Votes: 8 10.3%
  • Total voters
    78
Jay

Jay

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Hey Guys;

I'm curious how many of you guys put your stands into the thicker stuff to get deer that are hanging up inside the edge till dark & then coming out into the open...

So, this year we have three stands on the farm we are hunting.

Stand one is in the THICK stuff, where visibility is limited. You definitely have to pick your shot BUT there are signs that deer cut through this thick stuff & avoid the open fields until darkness...

Stand two is about 100 m into the woods, on the edge of a pine stand & in mixed hardwoods. Visibilty is good, with a couple deer trails coming together & heading into the pines towards the open fields.

Stand three is in line with stand two, about 150 meters further into the hardwoods & seperated by a ridge. Visibility is not quite as good as stand two, but better than stand one. This also sits on an edge, with thick stuff on the right of the stand.

What do you guys do wrt stand placement?

Cheers
Jay
 
We hardly hunt field edges and prefer to whack deer buck in the swamp. Most of our stands/blinds have visibility of less than 50 yards. In most places we can't use tree stands because once you get up 12-15 feet you see less than if you were on the ground. One of my favorite spots only has about 20 yards of visibility down in the cedar swamp but the deer funnel down this one path to avoid the water so it can be quite productive. The real trick is you have to be ready because by the time you see the deer they are right on top of you so any kind of movement will get you busted.
 
I don't normally hunt out of a stand. I still hunt, starting and ending legal light at my vehicle. I hunt the fields on the way in and out, hunt the bush in between. I may pick spot and sit for a couple of hours - but any longer than that and I start to go batty.

On more than one occasion when I used to stand hunt, walking in at half past cat-fart, I have bumped groups of deer that were browsing along my route. Because I was being quiet, they would break really late - so not only voiding my spot of deer, but scaring the crap out of me in the process.
 
My stand has power windows and seat belts and CD player.The mirror is an excellent rifle rest , the heater keeps the frost out and the 4 wheels make it extremely mobile , however it is difficult to get it into the bush so I keep it located on the roadway!
 
I used to always put my stands on the field edges and had some decent luck but mostly during the rut.. Over the last couple years I have moved them back into the bush and get alot more deer activity during daylight hours. I like the field edges because I can get the long eyes up and look around which makes the time go by nicer, but I have to say that I've had far better activity in the bush than on the edges.
 
I never did hunt in a tree stand.......................I perfer ground zero to make it more challenging.
 
its always a mix. i like having options for how i feel that day. i will use the thick swampy stands for an afternoon hunt and maybe the field edge for a morning or the one in between
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
My stand has power windows and seat belts and CD player.The mirror is an excellent rifle rest , the heater keeps the frost out and the 4 wheels make it extremely mobile , however it is difficult to get it into the bush so I keep it located on the roadway!
Click to expand...

That made me burst out laughing!!
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
My stand has power windows and seat belts and CD player.The mirror is an excellent rifle rest , the heater keeps the frost out and the 4 wheels make it extremely mobile , however it is difficult to get it into the bush so I keep it located on the roadway!
Click to expand...
so maybe this is for you?

red016.jpg
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
My stand has power windows and seat belts and CD player.The mirror is an excellent rifle rest , the heater keeps the frost out and the 4 wheels make it extremely mobile , however it is difficult to get it into the bush so I keep it located on the roadway!
Click to expand...

I have that exact same stand! But only on rainy days when my mobile blind cruises the roads on my land
 
Most of our stands are in Hardwoods areas where visibility is max 80 yards or so, but a few are in areas where you can see only 25 or so. I may put a portable up this year near the beaver meadow where I can see about 300 yards, in the open, and see maybe 50 yards the other way.

I've hunted ground blinds in areas where visibility was 50 feet or so. We've had success in all of them. I think you will have to judge how cover oriented the local deer are.

In the thick of the gun hunt, the heavy cover stands might pay off, but again it depends on a lot of different things. Hunting pressure, deer numbers, local deer trails, and opportunity to get a decent visibility stand, even how horny an individual buck might be.
 
I am so pumped after reading this thread. We have a mix of stand in the swamp, hardwoods, and on the field edges. I have had luck everywhere but most of all in the hardwoods by the swamp.
 
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