A deer hunting thread in August...

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Well its the time of year for lots of "how to shoot X arrow out of Y bow" threads....tuning and fiddling around.  Thought I'd put a deer hunting preparation thread up for the folks like myself counting the days 'till the first frost.

I read once in the back of TBM that the fellow doing the "philosophization" about whatever was his current hot topic had never met a guy that said he enjoyed hanging treestands.  Well, I guess that could be true because that guy and I have never crossed paths.  I can say I LOVE putting up treestands.  To me the essence of hunting mature whitetails is the mental game, the chess board of changing situations, food sources, wind directions, sanctuary/bedding areas, and of course the rut.  My whitetail hunting is an overall low odds game...but sooner or later by applying learning and past experience to the current and changing situation I'm confident that I'll be in the right place at the right time...eventually.

The other day I made a foray into one part of the local habitat I spend a lot of time on each fall to start to get things ready for the upcoming season.  I actually packed a camera along, and  thought I'd share some thoughts/observations and some deer hunting pics for the whitetail junkies like myself.

I want to preface this all with this is how I do it - it may not be the RIGHT way to do it....                         your mileage may vary....

First things first - ticks don't bother me, but Lyme's disease does.  I've known a couple guys to come down with Lyme's, one pretty seriously before it was diagnosed, and it can really mess up your life.

The pump up sprayer is full of Permethrin (the 10% solution from TSC diluted per instructions for animal application).  I know you aren't supposed to get it on you, I spray down my clothes well and let them dry, but I'll take a little Permethrin exposure over Lyme's any day.

 

       


Then load up the Toyota and hit the road.  My good Bullpac is in the pile for packing for a hunt in Alaska next month so I'm using Dad's old Jansport frame that he used in Colorado hunting in the late '60's and early 70's.  Plan is to get 5 stands up this morning.


     

[BOHO]

looks like your well on your way !!!

[dhermon85]

It is August, but ok!

[Ryan Rothhaar]

This property is about 120 acres, with about 60 on the side of the road I'm working this morning, attached to several hundred more of cover and agricultural crops.  I have access to most, but focus on the 120 acre farm as I have pretty much sole access.  A little gun pressure, but I'm the only one that bowhunts it.

No ATV out of respect for the landowner and wanting to keep it that way    - if I walk in he makes everyone else walk in..

So I threw on the pack, and put a couple other stands and the pruner under my arms and up the hill to the first set.....

The first stand is on the convergence of 2 old (like 30 yr old) logging roads - the roads are the heaviest cover as they are grown up in viburnum.  The deer use this heavy cover to travel between bedding and feeding that are about 1/2 mile apart.  Good on a NW wind, and hung in a black oak hiding in behind a leg-thick beech tree.  I climb the beech and step over to the stand - a hang-on in this case that I modified with chains rather than cables - chains don't rust!

Deer's eye view: - you'll note I like to hide.  I rarely go over 15 feet, and virtually NEVER over 20, but I hide.  Cover trumps height every time as far as I'm concerned.

 

And this buck in 2010 was killed on this same travel pattern in December, about 200 yards away from this stand:

 

Had a picture of this guy on a salt lick about 500 yards away that July.  Only buck in Indiana I've killed that I had a picture of before.


 

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Good point dhermon!  


The second spot was one in the back of the property - in a monster tulip poplar guarding the head of a draw.  This stand was up for 3 consecutive years, and I sat it once.  Left it down for 2...but I guess I'm a sucker for a good trail...


 

This is a great rut spot.  Farther in than I'd want to shoot a doe early, too much fuss getting her out and messing up the bedroom.  It always seems there is too much going on in other places for the rut.  We'll see if it gets hunted this year or not.  Typically around 25% of the stands I put up each year don't get hunted for one reason or another.

Again, going up the small hard maple and stepping into the stand.  I don't like climbers on tulip trees, they feel too soft and I worry about a step pulling out.

Some of these stands will end up with climbing rope/prussic knot setups, but not this early - too many squirrels...

 

[jcar315]

[Ryan Rothhaar]

The third spot has some history.  I call this "Leonard's Stand".  Back when I first got onto this property in '99 this was one of the first trees I picked out.  It is on another old logging road, but is also an inside edge between open hardwoods and an old pasture (maybe 20-30 yr growth) that is in mid successional growth, around 60 yards wide and thick cover, that borders open ag ground.  There is a classic buck rut trail on the inside edge of the heavy cover where it meets the open timber, as well as 2 perpendicular trails that cross the grown over area to the ag field, both of which I can shoot from the tree.

Sounds so good you'd wonder why it took me until like 2007 to put a stand up there.  Never hunted it that fall, and put my buddy in for one evening in early January and he shot a doe with his Shrew longbow....Leonard's doe....

   

Hence "Leonard's Stand".

I have hung the stand every year since, but did not hunt it at all in 2008.  In 2009 with no where else to go one morning around the 9th of Nov, if I recall correctly, I hunted that stand for the first time since Leonard's deer.  15 minutes later this guy came in.....


   

He was pretty impressive looking that morning - and had a cornstalk complete with small ear of corn wound up in his horns.


The view from the stand to where that buck was standing when shot....about 5 yards..


 


The trail he was on - perennial heavily used both summer and fall.


 

Deer's eye view - this one is in a hard maple next to a big ash tree.  Higher than normal - about 17 ft.


 

I LIKE this stand!!

[Benjy]

I will be deer hunting in 12 days! The season opens here in SC on August the 15th, so I am ready for this!

Great info! I totally agree about cover being the priority over height!

[skychief]

Feel like I am right there with you Ryan.   Thanks for posting this.   I'm one of the few that loves to locate and hang sets too!

[Hopewell Tom]

Just made a list with this mornings coffee of hunt things to get started on. Hang stands, build ground blinds and funneling brush piles. Bear baits out soon.
I'll start with my camera too, this is fun to tag along on.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

A couple of things are different than normal for this day of hanging stands for me....first, these trees have all had stands in them before, so minimal pruning for shooting lanes was needed.  If I'm setting a stand on a virgin location it takes me 3-4X longer to prune and get shooting lanes ready than these old sets - 2 stands is generally a good morning's work.  I don't clear the woods, and use a long handled pruner to make adequate, but no crazy big, shooting lanes.  I finally wore out my 20 yr old pruner, so this year I bought a 40V pole chainsaw with an 8 inch bar.  Quiet since it is battery, not gas, and the battery lasts longer than I do on a charge.

Another thing that isn't normal for my is that on these stands I used 3 hang-ons and 2 Climax stands.  Usually I'm 3/1 in favor of Climax stands since normally I do not have straight enough trees for hang-ons.  This place is a bit different in that regard.  I put up the hang-ons with a new "good" ratchet strap, and will add another ratchet strap the first time I hunt them for insurance.  The Climax stands are chain-on and you could hang a car from them without breaking (remember Paul's old screaming eagle ad?        ).

The 4th set is on the ag field edge in a big scraggly pin oak.  I love pin oaks once I'm in them but they are a bear the first time with all of the HARD dead branches and brushy limbs.  I've come close to serious eye damage at least twice in pin oaks.

This stand covers 2 giant pin oaks that are hit really hard by deer on years they drop acorns (left center of picture) - these are big guys, bigger than they look.  Also can shoot 2 trails going to the field (one is in the right side of the pic).  Again about 12-14 feet up, and hiding behind a smaller oak tree.  This stand has been up for 10 years on and off, and I've hunted it a handful of times.  Passed up a lot of does here - I go out with big plans to shoot a doe early season then can't bring myself to do it when she shows up with the fawns in tow.  Big softy.

View from the stand:

     


Deer's eye view:


     


All of the stands on this property (I'll end up with between 15 and 20 going into the season) except one will be accessed by screw in climbers.  The other is in a big oak and I have ladder sticks setup.

I have mixed emotions about screw in steps, but I use good quality ones, and on this property I have some worry about other hunters in the stands or stealing them.  I take out all the climbers this early, and during hunting season take the bottom 4 out for sure.

The stands all get locks and so far (knock on wood) never had one stolen.

[culleng]

getting ready to hang some stands myself. our season starts October 1st

[Ryan Rothhaar]

The final stand I'm pretty excited about this year.  Its funny how you can hunt a place for a long time (15 yrs on this property) and get hit on the head with something obvious you missed over and over again.  This setup is on the ag field edge also, but on an old, old farm gate.  The gate and most of the fence are rotted and gone, but the legacy of multiflora rose on the fence remains and this spot is more open.  In addition the field floods out here and leaves about a 100 yard long by 30 yard wide weedy spot along the woods edge pretty much every year.

Again in a multi trunk pin oak.  I sat this last year early rut and the weedy spot was torn up with buck sign.  A nice little 2 1/2 yr old 8 pt came in to me here from up the hill in the thicket (part of the grown over pasture I mentioned before) and tore up the scrapes and trees for 20 minutes or so.  Right underneath me most of the time.  I will try to post a couple video clips  - hopefully they work.  It shows some neat scraping behavior.  Also I figured that as wound up as he was there was another buck nearby. Unfortunately when one of this size thinks he is "king of the hill" it doesn't bode well for seeing a mature buck that day.  10 minutes after the 2 1/2 yr old left the smaller buck came down the hill and under me (vid clip 3).

This winter I went to checkout the area they came from and found a beautiful classic buck bedding area...small finger ridge out of the heavy heavy rose bushes, with a half dozen 4-8 inch diameter cedars on it  (rubbed by the way) with open enough cover to see downwind and heavy cover behind (upwind).  Don't know how I walked past this for 15 years   :(  

View to the fence crossing:


   


Deer's eye view - good cover here!!


   


Video 1 : 2 1/2 yr old scraping


   


Video 2 : 2 1/2 yr old again - he was here about 15 min and I could have shot him in this scrape at 5 yards several times.

   


Video 3 : the buck he was showing off for - this one figured out something was up - could have shot him first, though    


   

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Anyhow, that's the "stand - along" for today! I like 'em low and close - typically 12-14 ft up and 10-15 yard primary shot distance.  The keys I look for are (of course after the right place to be) 1. wind to hunt it on 2. access without interfering with the deer and 3. cover in the tree.  I've never used a climbing stand, and I don't think most of the trees I use would work (too much cover/limbs).  I also like to set up early and then slip in quietly when its time to hunt.  Several of the mature bucks I've killed over the years I'm convinced were within 100 yards of the stand when I went in to hunt it.  Silence is imperative when getting that close.

I have found so many "can't miss, sure shot" setups over the years that panned out to nothing that I treat my really proven setups like gold.  Really in the 5 stands I've shown I would only categorize the 3rd (Leonards) and the last as proven.  And the last is on probation.


So that's it...did this 2 days ago and I'm still feeling a twinge here and there - but a little hard work never hurt anyone  

The Fat Guy at the end of the morning:


 


R

[Jake Scott]

Thanks a lot, I won't be able to sleep tonight!!!!    

That really gets my excited, great thread!!!

Jake

[Steve O]

Nice "purse" bro...

That is a very nice start; looking forward to see you reaping the benefits later.

Thanks for taking us along.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Thanks  Ryan for this post. Always glad to see another's perspective of stand location selection.

I've ben out and about all summer setting and tweaking my 30 or so spots. Like yours some will not get hunted , but the option to hunt if conditions are correct are there.  

I'm also glad to see that there are other softies  out there besides me.  

I will look forward to hunting posts this season.

[Jayrod]

Very nice tutorial Ryan I also will be watching for your success story's this yr..GOODLUCK!

[monkeyball]

Ryan,
         Very nice walk along. You get into some really nice buck.

   That first photo of you and that buck,is that a Staghorn or Jack Howard recurve?

                                                       Good Shooting,
                                                                        Craig

[J-dog]

Very nice, videos too. Cannot wait for fall