Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Getting to your stand

Do you have a stand location that is just difficult to access?

I've got a new spot that looks real promising but it will require me to cross some active deer trails or wait on a very very specific wind direction.

I wish Scotty could just beam me to the stand!

I know some hunters feel like accessing a stand is the most important factor in its success.

I got one that is behind my house.

Either cross open fields, or circle around but be up wind.

I left some rows of brush when I bush hogged just to give myself some cover, but I got busted last year despite that.

Been considering rigging up a zip line.

I'd go in when it's light enough to flame stuff. Why waste that time fumbling in the dark when you can hunt your way in.

If it's a tricky wind spot you'll be much better off to hunt elsewhere until you get a good wind. If that's your only spot, hunt your way to it as Scott suggested.

The prevailing wind at my old lease ( only 50 ac )blew straight to the back side from my access point. Best i could do was skirt the edge, but always knew i'd probably pushed the bigger deer off in the process. Biggest deer i've seen there were always from the vehicle if i drove one it for one reason or another. Like i said it was only 50 ac's, but it was 50 ac's of cover. LOTS OF DEER...

One nice thing about Pa is that most of our Deer are fairly used to crossing paths with people, hearing trucks, farm equipment, etc. For the most part it doesn't send them into a panic attack.

Wind here with our hills and valleys is constantly shifting for the most part. Go around one side of a hill and it changes from the other. I usually just hunt and ignore it.

Walked up on enough Deer while Bird hunting with Dogs and the wind blowing wrong that I think we worry about wind way to much.

I couldn't agree more. Shot a mature buck with my bow 10 out of the last 11 years and I quit paying attention to the wind direction a long time ago. It almost never blows in a consistent direction anyway. I figure if you can't control it you may as well not worry about it.

Bingo! Works for me more often than not. If I gotta be that critical about wind, I wont hunt that til I can see.

Same here in MO and I've had deer walk right underneath me only 15 min after I got to my stand.

This is a really good question, and one that I struggle with at times. Over the years I have tried different stratigies, and by NO means do I feel I have unlocked some secret; or found the holy grail of getting to my stand undetected.

What I have come to realize is that on some smaller lots that I hunt, there are only so many options for getting in..sometimes 1 option. My observations are this: I have come to believe that getting busted, or pushing a buck out on any given day is NOT the end of the world. EDUCATING that buck too much IS. We educate deer everytime we walk into the woods, but like any student, some are dumber than others. It's kinda of a gamble, how much is Too much??

In other words if I want to hunt a stand and the wind, or even the terrain is not coopertating. I just do what "I can do", to mitigate my presence; IE: scent, pace, sound, being there before the deer start to move, etc. You can only "control" so much.

I find it kinda Satisfying when I can get on deer, knowing they had the upper hand...especially during bow season.

Case in point.. the 10pt in my Avatar (A deer aged by game officals at 6.5 years old). I drove by where that buck was bedded within a couple hundred yards. I set up, and an hour later started grunting every 20 mins or so. He snuck out of his bed about 250 yards infront of my stand.. west wind between us. I could hear him working rubs and faint grunts east of my position, off and on for the next 2 hours. He circled around me, and at some point had to have crossed my scent blowing toward him. He came in from behind me, and walked 30 or so yards from my stand to the left. I nailed him with the bow, and he ran about 40-50 yards toward his bedding area, and piled up. He had EVERY advantage. He HAD to have heard me, he Should have caught my scent (twice).
How did I beat him? #1 luck. #2 I knew he was there from scouting, and from seeing him nearby just off the road at night., and my ace in the hole was #3. That was the FIRST, and only time I ever hunted that tree, or even that general area, that year. Had I not got him, I would not have kept going back, and going back, and going back, like a lot of guys do.

We are going to educate them some, knowing when and how to get away with it, is what keeps Me going back to the woods every year since I was 12!

MarkG: great post

>.my ace in the hole was #3. That was the FIRST, and only time I ever hunted that tree,<<


#3 is the holy grail of treestand hunting

I've educated so many deer that I get graduation announcements. One old doe has a PhD. She knew when my truck was parked!

tff

Here in CT, when hunting private land the parcels are usually small and when you push deer, can be out of reach legally. Years ago, I worried and would get into my stand and hour plus before first light, didn't seem to help.

Now I'm with Steely, I go in at 1st light and hunt my way to the stand.

My normal deer kills are deer moving between feeding and bedding ground, not the deer in the area when I arrive. I wear rubber boots and have watched deer cross where I have walked without a clue that I came through. miles

My best stand is kind of a pain to get to. It's only about 3/4mi from where we park our trucks, but 20mins is wading through water with a slick bottom. Then you have to walk through a trail in a bedding area. Sure have gotten in on some exciting chases during the rut while walking in. When they are chasing in the water it's a real blast. Could have shot a 150ish buck following two nice bucks chasing a doe in that water a couple years back, but it wasn't legal time to shoot.

I don't buy into the forget the wind theory. I know with most of the terrain in pa wind changes alot, but to think human scent doesn't bother/worry deer makes no sense to me. Sure deer sit tight sometimes to see what your next move is.

I think there's merit in both camps, forget the wind and take heed to the wind.

I think a lot depends on the type hunting area. One place I hunt is a 6,000 acre farm with 2,000 acres in crops, the rest in woods with shooting lanes, bayous and CRP.

When deer are constantly around tractors, people and vehicles, I don't think they're that spooked by another vehicle or person. In more isolated areas, I can see how that would be more critical.

IMHO,

DF

You are still hunting a ridge with the wind in your face. Half hour later it changes for a variety of reasons. You going to turn around?

My experiences with Deer and scent:

Sometimes they ignore me.

Sometimes they do the head bob/foot stomp.

Sometimes they look and just stand around on alert.

Sometimes they walk off.

Rarely do they run, just on scent alone. Spook/surprise them up close and out they often go. Buuuut not always.

On top of that Whitetails in Pa don't takeoff and run for miles. Usually it's under a hundred yards if they have cover. Grouse hunting last year I got close to the same nice Buck four times within 30-45minutes. I would look up and there he would be either looking at me or slowly walking away.

If I could move thru the wood like a haint I would care less about scent. The wrong sound and movement at the wrong time imo spooks them more than scent.

If I can fool 2 of the 3 (sight, hearing, smell), all is golden. Seems when they get confirmation of any one of those by another, then things get weird.

Your posts about using a bleat call in AK got me using one in Pa.

The one I got last year came in obviously looking for the Doe. He looked right at me, should have seen me move to put the binocs on him, mount the rifle and change position as he moved down the hill and maybe smelled me. He didn't care, his mind was elsewhere.

All within 30 yards and less. From what I read here I should have used a bow. It would have been more exciting.