What do you do in the stand?

[the blur]

My buddy got one with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

[sixgun67]

Where I hunt, I'm within a hundred or so yards of homes bordering our property. From my stand, I hear the neighbors heat pump kick in, and would kindly like to mention to him that his fan motor needs lubricated! I also hear the parents griping at their kids and the kids blowing dad's car horn. But, the deer pay absolutely no attention to humans around my stand. I'm near my stand at least every other weekend thruout the year, with food plots and keeping my feeder going, and distributing rock salt. The deer know my scent, so I'm no surprise to them. Saturday evening, I quit hunting about 15 minutes early and rode my 4 wheeler to another spot just to 'nose around' a bit, and after shutting off my engine, walked 30 feet and jumped a deer. So much for being afraid of 4 wheelers, also.
sixgun

[the blur]

NYS,
No food plots.
No salt licks.

hard core hunting only.

[Scout]

Mogoroth, I have a 16 foot ladder and a tree lounge climber that I may take up 20 feet or so.

[thunderbird101]

I like to use the "boring" moments in a deer stand (99% of the time in the stand?) to get away from the world and to escape to tranquility! It is more or less a time for me to get away from the stresses and burdens of the world and to experience nature! IMO ipods, cell phones, etc. take away from the solace of nature, however....... I must admit there are times in order to stay sane in the long hours spent in the woods alone, an ipod can be your best friend!

IMO today's society is all too hustle bustle and it is too easy to forget to stop and breathe occasionally!

[Doodlebugger45]

Interesting stuff in this thread. Around here we don't use stands, or at least I haven't heard of it. We mostly walk around and look for deer and elk. Sometimes I will sit for a spell and listen though. It sounds like it could be kind of relaxing sitting in a stand. But then it sounds like it would be pretty boring too. Kinda like fishing. And I hate fishing. I reckon I'll just keep walking and sit when I'm tired.

[Mike Irwin]

I tend to sing opera. I find that the deer around here really love Rigoletto, and come right in.

[sc outdoorsman]

I usually sit, watch and enjoy being alone, just relax. When I am with my son I usually get to enjoy the serenity. When my son can't go he texts me twice or thrice to see what's going on. I do the same with him though so I can't complain. It's not envy between us . It's more that we hope the trip is eventful.

[sc928porsche]

The closest thing I use to a "stand" is rock outcropping and cliff edges.

[Countertop]

I spent today perched 35 feet above the ground in a climbing stand.

As someone else said, I read alot. I also look around - watch the squirrels and hawks, and all the other creatures in the forest. With the advent of iphones, I even surfed the web - and I got a lot of work done. Sent 50 emails and dialed in to a conference call (I didn't speak, just listened). Played some scrabble. Had some coffee. Read a report from one of our economists.

Of yeah, and took a shot at a 10 point buck (and missed!!!!) Dam tree branch I never saw.

[Littlehoov]

In my experience the warmer and more comfortable you are, the easier it is to sit still.

I like to dress as warm as I absolutely can and still shoot well and easily. Then once Ive shot a deer I usually strip off a few layers so I can deal with it easier.

Same thing with your actual stand being comfortable, my stand is a homemade ladder stand build from treated lumber, with only a 2x12 for a seat but its extrememly comfortable to me. It has armrests and I can lean back and practically fall asleep, makes it super easy to sit still. Not so easy to sit still with part of that tree in the small of your back, or your stand seat making your butt go numb,etc, etc...so try to make your stand as comfortable as you can to sit in, and as warm as you can. An investment Ive always thought about making is in a large blanket of some kind, preferably camo or dark colored. Would help you stay warm, especially your legs and feet.

I used to read also when I first started out, I found small pocket sized books to be best, fumbling with large pages of a magazine or something like that can really add a lot of unnecessary movement.

Like has already been mentioned, slow deliberate movements are much better than quick ones. I move my head deliberately slow (im thinking about moving it slow as Im moving it) and then I use my eyes to scan back and forth wherever my head is pointing....deer are good, but I really dont think they can detect eye movement at 100 yds away.

anymore I dont like the thought of keeping either my ears or eyes occupied with anything other than the woods around me. Sometimes it only takes seconds for a deer to appear, present a shot, and then disappear....if youre using these seconds to dig into your favorite Twilight novel...youll go home empty handed.

With the ears, if you can hear a deer walking it usually very close by and you need to be very cautious. They make other sounds too, which can be beneficial to hear, grunting, fighting, snorting alarms, etc....all of this you miss out on by having your Ipod cranked up. Not too mention the other sounds you miss out on.

As for smoking I had a late uncle that constantly had a cigarette in his mouth, hunted on the ground, and I dont think ever had an unsuccessful hunt.

In recap, for me personally the biggest elements of being able to sit still are being warm and comfortable, if either of those is unfulfilled I really have issues sitting still.

[shortwave]

for success in deer hunting.

Want to be continuosly be successful in at least seeing deer, you have to place your stand close to the travel rts between bedding and feeding areas of the deer. Preferrably, no always downwind(or at least crosswinded) of the trail,foodplot you set up on.

Also, if your hunting from a ground blind, your blind should be set up well in advance of hunting season so the deer will get well acquanted to the blind being there. Gotta remember that those woods your hunting are those deer homes. Any changes and they know. They will tend to shy away from the change until they get used to it.



Its not just good enough to know deer are in an area when placing a stand but you should spend enough time scouting in the area your going to hunt to learn the deers habits(bedding areas, food plots, watering holes and the travel rts between all of them.

[hooligan1]

Up until this season there were always abunch of roundbales to hide in and amongst, so this year we just stood in front of some smallisk oak trees at the edge of a pasture. As far as what I do, I like to remeber past hunts, and try to replay them in my mind,( it pisses my kids off when I start laughing out loud) it bides my time. I used to smoke and never did I once care how it affected the outcome of my hunt, I always seemed to have success one way or another, but I have never killed a booner though,, I'm sure if I would of been more religous about smoking discipline, I may have by now. Hell just watching wildlife is worth it all to me. 2 years back, I had my youngest up at the area where we hunt and we got to watch a momma bobcat and three little one interact for three or so hours, she climbed up on a roundbale and sunned herself as the three stooges played when they got too close to her or they woke her up, she'd bat them off the bales. That was a memory I will cherish...

[shortwave]

Thats some funny stuff hooligan.

I once watched an old boar raccoon come up to a cornpile and run a small fourpoint buck away.

It was one of the funniest things you ever saw. The young buck didn't know what to do as the ole coon rose up on his back legs like some kind of grizzley growling at the him. The buck slowly sauntered off looking back over his shoulder at the big bully.

As far as the smoking thing goes, you'll likely never see a Boone and Crocket buck shot by a bowhunter while smoking in the stand. Maybe some taken way out there by a rifle though.

[TX Hunter]

When Im in a deer stand, I just sit quietly with my Rifle in my hands ready to be quietly shouldered and fired, watch the area I am hunting, watching for movement, ocasionaly I pick up my binoculars If im not sure what it is.
When I see a Deer, I pick up the rifle, and watch through the scope, It works for me, I have filled both my doe tags, and let some smaller bucks go.

[Lemmon]

Read Paperback Westerns and Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Amazing how fast time will pass being quiet and then look up and find the biggest buck alive standing is perfect profile for a good shot. Lemmon

[sserdlihc]

I sit and watch all of the different wildlife that comes my way. Make notes on temp and hunting conditions(wind,barometer readings, moon phase). Also make notes on what deer I see, how many, which direction they were walking.

After that I peruse TFL!!

[sixgun67]

About half the time I'm sitting in my stand wondering what kind of damned squirrel convention is going on under me. Saturday morning I swear I had 30 squirrels within sight---some so fat you'd have trouble fitting them into a pot, others this years little ones. Not deer hunting this week, I'm SQUIRREL hunting this week. Take care all, Happy Thanksgiving!
Sixgun

[dnr1128]

After a while of sitting and getting used to the sounds and sights around me, I sit and play on my phone.

+1 on the squirrels! Saturday afternoon after two hours of sitting and not seeing any deer, I had a squirrel in my crosshairs and almost pulled it just to see what a 30-30 would do to it, but I didn't want to scare off any deer that might be around.

[James H]

I grew up hunting in NW Wisconsin in often sub-zero conditions. When I was young I drank enough hot chocolate to make me pee every hour up until noon. Now I drink enough coffee when I hunt there on stand to keep me warm and alert that I need to pee every 30 mins, or at least until it all runs out of me by 9am, which is when I normally get out of my stand and start still hunting. Generally the still hunt leads toward the cabin where there is more coffee by 11am or so. At the least the coffee keeps me alert, even if it is smelly.

Some people I've met in the West have given me crap about sitting in a treestand for deer hunting, but I just challenge them to stay still for 10 hours 25 ft above the ground in -10 temps. It's certainly not easy. "Hang" in there.

[sixgun67]

Treestands are all I hunt from. I'm no stillhunter. Besides, where I live/hunt, the hunter population is so high that I'd be walking in on another hunter at least every three hundred yards or so. That's just the way it's done around this area. Nice comfy stand, sittin' all day, sure sounds easy, but like James H said, try sitting in the tree, high off the ground in the wind/weather in December. That part kinda takes the 'easy' out of it REAL quick. The work is done all year long with the scouting and in my case, the food plots on our land.

When we first leased our land, there were literally no deer on it. It took us several years of food plots and feeders and getting a farmer to plant some of our small fields with corn and such, to get them back on the land. Now, we see lots of deer.

I do almost nothing in my stand, I don't play with my phone, ipod, read. Yes the boredom can be overwhelming, but I don't want any noise/movement from me to be the reason a deer didn't come my way. A buddy of mine from a few years back used to listen to a portable radio with earphones while in his stand. He didn't realize his hearing isn't what it used to be, and you could hear his radio over 50 yards away in a quiet woods.
sixgun

[mtnbkr]

I hunt public land almost exclusively, either the National Forest or local WMAs.

I typically read in the treestand. I'm far too high strung and fidgety to sit there staring at the forest (though I do take frequent breaks to do so). If I could get a signal, I'd probably txt message or surf the web. I set my stand between 5' and 10' off the ground depending on the surrounding terrain and other trees (higher on flat ground with few trees right by me). I've been as low as 5' and had deer milling around the stand (does on a buck-only day natch).

As for noise, scent, etc, I too have noticed they have to get you with at least two senses before anything happens. By the end of my yearly deer camp, I smell like a smokey goat, but it doesn't seem to scare them off. When I have deer nearby that I can't shoot, I frequently do things to try and gauge how sensitive they are to my presence. I tap the stand, move around, cough, etc. If they get antsy at all, it's only for a little bit before they settle back down.

The guys I frequently hunt with all smoke, drink, sit around the campfire, etc. They wear the same clothes to hunt each day and don't worry about scent control. It isn't uncommon for us to have 2-4 deer hanging on trees by the end of camp.

Funny story, one year, we had a new guy come to camp. He was a hardcore bow hunter, but only hunted private property. He was super serious about scent control and such. After a few days of not getting and even not seeing anything, the other guys got him liquored up and hanging about the campfire all night. The next morning, hungover and smelling of wood smoke, he crawled out of bed and went hunting. He got a deer.

Chris

[Mr Dish]

mmmmm daydreaming is my fav thing to do while waiting...mostly I dream of that 80 acre piece in Northern Michigan my wife said I could buy if I can come up with the money. Unfortunately she said I was NOT allowed to stop paying the bills or her allowance in order to come up with that money LOL.

This daydream started as a result of wasting 6 hours on the 2nd day of firearm season watching 12 other orange guys tramping thru my field of fire/vision, 4 trucks driving out thru the woods, and the local tree service choosing that day to work on trimming the trees back along the road (6 trucks and a million chainsaws). State Land is not the best place to hunt, but your friends hardly ever share their land during the first few days of the season so the DREAM has begun!
I took 4 - 12+ pointers off that 80 acre section during the first day of the dream LOL.

But an MP3 player playing in one ear also helps pass the time.

[72gator]

What do you do in the stand?

I sit still as much possible and watch for deer. I watch mostly for movement of any kind, moving only eyes as much as possible. Move slowly when even just turning your head. Look for out of place lines and stay alert as long as you can. Where I hunt, it is critical to stay put from morning till dark, especially on opening day and the day after. Have fun and don't let killing something be your only goal. I promise you WILL take something awesome with you every time you go to the woods if you have the right frame of mind. Good luck and have a blast!

Joe

[the blur]

I have ADHD.
I have to move around, make noise, crunch leaves, text, snap twigs, use my calls every 2 minutes, zipper and unzip my jacket every 5 minutes.