A good tree for a stand?
A good tree for a stand?. KOMU News
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Every year I vow that this will be the hunting season I wise up and do things differently. I will scout and set up my stands-or at least figure out where I’m going to use my climber–well before the season starts. Then I will kill–I’m primarily a meat hunter-even if it’s 85 degrees outside and they’re still in their summer coats. Because what usually happens is, at the moment of truth, I can’t bring myself to shoot a deer in its summer clothing. It doesn’t feel right for some reason. As if, since hunting is primarily a fall activity, the deer and I both should be dressed for it. This is irrational, I know. Doesn’t mean I don’t think it.

What usually happens is that I wait until the time and weather feel right, by which time the deer have wised up considerably and are scarce.

Every year, I make these resolutions. And then I break them. This year is going just like the ones before it. Legal hunting has been open since September 9 in Maryland, and I have yet to go once. I do have a ground blind up, but it’s not well placed. The fields on the farm where I have it are still nearly shoulder-high in flowers and weeds and will be until the first frost. So I ended up putting it a few yards off the junction of two four-wheeler trails. Deer are just like us. They’d rather take a path than bushwhack, as long as they think they’re safe. Thing is, I wasn’t paying close attention when I set it up and just realized when I went back to see about moving a ladder stand that the setting sun lights up the inside of the blind like a 100-watt bulb. So that’s now exclusively a morning setup unless it’s a really overcast day.

I did manage to pull down the big two-man ladder stand I erected in a spot that looked great until I realized there was no way to get into it for afternoon hunts without alerting all the deer bedded on a heavily forested but facing hillside. I never did see a deer from that stand. When I pondered where to move it, however, no place felt right. Every tree I considered was either covered in poison ivy, too exposed, or too far back in the woods to be much good. For now, it’s in pieces lying by the side of the four-wheeler path until I do find a place.

On the other hand, I found an ancient ladder stand someone had forgotten years ago. The retaining straps had rotted away and the thing was pretty rickety. I climbed it gingerly and tied one side of it to a tree so it wouldn’t fall over while I was in it. The whole thing was leaning pretty hard. I managed to set it straighter and got a ratchet strap around it. With a cushion, it might not be a bad stand, although I’ll need rubber boots to get through the mud, and I still can’t decide how to get in with the least amount of disturbance.

So there it is. I’ve been hunting deer for twenty years or more and know about as much as when I started. But even when I’m not out there, I’m turning scenarios over in my head–what might be a better spot, which kind of stand to use there, and which winds favor it. That part hasn’t changed either.