 Last
year I talked to several hundred hunters from across the U.S. and Canada
because of inquiries about the Treesuit. Many of these hunters had indicated
they wanted to spend the entire day in the tree without getting down and
questioned the comfort. The treesuit definitely fits the bill this way
however, my major concern was the waste of productive time of using one
stand placement for an entire day when they could be much more productive
by following a deer through their daily habits.
In other words it makes no sense to spend an entire day watching an edge if it will only see action in the morning and evening -- and probably never if its windy. I could write a full page book on my experiences of wasting my valuable time watching edges for an entire day only to get frostbite and burnout or getting bored to death from a day of hunting a bedding area. Below, I am going to list the type of cover I like to hunt on different
times of the day that I have found most productive.
Ridges
Being lower is a huge advantage because I stay below the canopy letting me see great distances and get further shooting ability to both sides at a better angle. The trick is to be directly in the wind so that your scent gets blown away instead of being sheltered below the ridge and having the wind roll into you and swirl down the hill. This kind of hunting allows for an infinite amount of easy stand sites that require little preparation. Funnels
Generally speaking ... I like to hunt edges in the morning and evening and bigger timbered ridges and funnels after the first 2 hours of light until 2 hours before dark during the rut. I find it very rewarding to end my day with the experience of being in 3 or 4 different trees and have more information about where the deer are on a given time. You always have to ask yourself whether you are in the most productive spot for the time of day. The next and last article will be how you put all of this together to make daily decisions of which stand to hunt based on the rut phase and weather. Your homework from now to then is to locate as many potential stand sites on the property you intend to hunt and posting them as a red x on your aerial photograph copies. You need to be sure that you have locations in the different areas (edges, funnels and etc.) for every wind direction.
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