What keeps you in the stand or blind?

[ishiwannabe]

What do you think about?

Im constantly scanning for that buck that is watching me, and I know there is one out there somewhere. Im always expecting a deer to materialize out of thin air.

Between that and the fact that I know there are some big bucks out there locally, atleast.

Or maybe it is the fact that I love interacting and observing nature.

My wife asked me, and I had never really thought about it before that. She actually thought I was bored the whole time I was on stand! She was surprised when I startled rattling reasons off like I had rehearsed it. Maybe I did, once upon a stand...  :D

[lpcjon2]

I don't wanna go home...LOL I want that buck that I think about.

[adkmountainken]

not work or a time clock THAT keeps me there for HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[trashwood]

I have thought about this from MY veiw point.  I am not killing as much stuff as I used to but still going to the stand......and the answer is...

at 66 it is clear that my biological clock has slowed. the world clock has stayed the same speed. minutes, hours, day, months just fly by. I am in the stand and a deer is coming my way. since my clock has slowed down, i can now drink in more of the scene before me. it just seems out of place to break the moment spending time to put him in the freezer. The few minutes I get to spend with the deer is a flash of time. I may have my bow in position. I maybe physical ready for the shot but my mind is not ready. it is still awed by the scene, drinking it in, maybe feeling more at the slower biological clock time.

I'll still shoot one when the right one comes in. I'll know when the time is. In the mean time I am not worring about it. Maybe I am enjoying the moments more at the getting older speed of time. maybe I have just gotten smarter. maybe I just understand more.......maybe I got dementia . what ever it is I like this phase of life.

rusty

[Shaun]

Meditation can be found in many ways, but there is nothing like sitting still. I love the fall when I sit in trees for hours. At first my brain races through a litany of worldly clamor, then it runs out of BS and settles into the present. What a treat!

[horatio1226]

I love the woods.Always have. Goes back to my Boy Scout days. The quiet (I have 3 kids). The smell.The views. The walking in the leaves. The deer encounters are a bonus. They let me know that I'm doing it right.

[GingivitisKahn]

You just never know what you're going to see out there.  Today I had an old doe within 20 yards (no shot opportunity) and a goofy little mouse running around under the leaves at my feet.

Beats the heck out of TV, doesn't it?

[elkken]

A little breeze in my face, a squirrel chattering, a doe feeding by, the sun coming up and the moon going down, the glimmer of sunrise on newly fallen snow, the faint smell of the cabin fire in the air .... remembering when I was a young boy in the woods so many years ago enjoying the care free days of summer. That is what I enjoy from my tree stand. And occasionally a buck will come by getting my pulse up and bringing me back to the moment, letting an arrow fly true ... and thinking hopefully that I will be back in my tree stand next year ...

[vermonster13]

It poured on me all day today. I spend all year being ready for the season, staying in the woods isn't the problem, it's having to leave!

[Gehrke145]

Same as vermonster13 I spend 100s of hours scouting and glassing.  Sitting or hiking in is easy!

[twitchstick]

Not much,there is to much going on to think.

[Mr.Vic]

“Nature brings you back into spirit, it has no dogma, nothing to believe in. It teaches without words, speaking to the body instead of the mind. Nature gracefully includes seeming opposites like creation and evolution without even pausing to consider any contradiction. Nature demands of us no rituals, and damns no disbelievers. It silently teaches us by example, never through sermons." someone else wrote this and that is why i sit out there.

[vtmtnman]

Originally posted by adkmountainken:
not work or a time clock THAT keeps me there for HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ken said it best.

[wapitimike1]

I'm always looking and listening. If you stay alert the action is 360. You nerver know when a deer, coyote, bobcat or bear for that matter will pop into view. I'm not one for looking at my watch all the time (unless I shoot a deer). All day sits are tough no matter how you slice it up. I find them much easyer in the midwest, there's more action all day long.

[ISP 5353]

Because I am a Hunter, and that is where I feel most alive.

[Gray Buffalo]

It's one of the few things I do because I want to and not because I have to. There is always something going on out there to put a smile on your face and The good Lord built a 360* movie screen for us to watch.

 

[Bill Kissner]

My mind never wanders from the job at hand, that being, looking for that big buck that is surely getting ready to walk by. I am like Trashwood though, the world is moving a lot faster than me!    I'll be 68 next month and killing is not nearly as important as it used to be. I sometimes go to the stand ready to really kill something and end up watching them walk by without taking the bow off the hook.

[Sam McMichael]

I stay just enjoying the woods. I see a lot of deer, even though I don't shoot many. But I also like the other wildlife, especially "my hawk". There is a large hawk that I see quite often. She seems to realy enjoy fighting the crows. Many mornings I hear her overhead screaming out her challenge, initiating the action. The crows seem to materialize out of thin air, and the contest begins. I have had a fox bed down under the tree next to my ladder stand. I have had birds land on my arrow shaft. I have had squirrels come up do me - one even jumped into my lap once. It scared him pretty bad. I also had a big squirrel pee all over me from an overhead branch.  There are just so many neat things to see besides the deer. Also, there is just a special smell to the woods in the fall that is very relaxing.

[jerseyboy]

Lets talk about the meditation part. The other day i was in the stand and not seeing anything as usual and my mind started to wander. i started composing this really cool short story or poem as it were about the autumn woods and the frost and colored leaves and the like.I was really impressed with my newfound skill. Now if i could only remember what the heck i was thinking so i could write it down. Oh well i guess i will have to go back out there and sit some more!!! LOL

[bawana bowman]

I really have no problem sitting from dawn to dusk.
The seasons seem so short to me that when I'm out there I would just as soon stay there.

Seems like every year at the lodge others are always planning their hunt around lunch and dinner.
I can't do that, if your getting down to go eat lunch, I'm sitting still because you'll be pushing deer. Can't tell you how many times I've got back to the lodge after dark and everyone else is already cleaned up and having a drink waiting on dinner.

I feel more alive in the woods than I do at any other time of the year, I just sit, let my mind go blank,(Wife says I'm unusually good at this!) look and listen. Can do it daylight to dark and be completely aware of everything going on around me.
And when a kill is involved, that just makes me want to get out the next day and do it all over again, makes time seem to go even quicker.