mobile hunting tree stands | Big Game Tree Stands

Going Mobile with Tree Stands this Fall

August 8, 2016/0 Comments/in Climbers, Fixed Position, Got Game Blog /by Big Game

Mobile Tree Stands and Tactics for Archery Hunting

Bowhunters have little room for error when it comes to tree stand setups. Unlike gun hunting for whitetails, archery hunting for deer is more complex. You can not just shoot through brush or reach out to a mature buck at 100+ yards. There is much more thought that goes into where to setup a tree stand for archery. Scouting is a big part of this decision but also archery hunters have to think about cover, the right tree, shot options and what obstructions may impact shot selection. You never exactly know where a buck is going to be standing when that time is right to shoot.

The main purpose of tree stands is to give you an advantage when hunting deer by allowing you to elevate yourself out of sight. Bow hunting tree stands allow you to spot deer from afar and keep you concealed long enough until that right buck gets into range. If a buck does see you, the game is up. The stand, however, gives you a significant advantage. Allowing you to prepare, draw and make the shot all without a buck ever knowing what happened.

If you are putting the time in, your scouting over the summer has provided you with several good spots for your tree stands for archery hunting. Unfortunately, many bow hunters do not have time to spend day after day either in the woods or going through camera pictures to position their hunting tree stands. So what usually happens is we head back to the same hunting spots over and over and year after year. These are mainly based on past success but not always. Sometimes traditional hunting spots are based on exactly that, tradition. Often archery hunters have the mentally of “I have been hunting here for years so I am going to hunt there again.” Well things change over time and even if you have had success at a certain spot before it does not relate to how successful that hunting spot will be going forward.

What is your alternative you may be asking if I do not have time to put into scouting new areas? The answer is to go mobile. Mobile archery hunting is not easy and it is even more challenging when deciding where to place a tree stand. But with the right mobile hunting tree stands and with the right mentallity, taking to the ground and getting mobile for archery hunting deer this fall can be vastly rewarding. Get mobile with your tree stands for archery hunting and focus on areas that commonly produce deer.

Qualities of Good Mobile Bow Hunting Tree Stands

First and foremost you need to have the right mobile stand. There are several qualities that make an archery stand mobile. The first is weight. A heavy stand has several problems when it comes to being mobile for archery hunting. A heavy and bulky bow hunting tree stand will not be very friendly to your back and cause you to sweat as you look through the woods for a hunting spot. Sweat puts any of your scent control in jeopardy and in cold weather can leave you chilled all day long. Next is ease of use. It should be a stand that you can drop off your back and throw up on a tree in minutes. Tree stands that take hours to hang are no good if you want to be mobile. Lastly, they should be comfortable. Weight and ease of use are important but comfort should not be sacarficed for these two qualities. You will most likely spend hours or a full day in your portable tree stands unless you are one of the lucky ones who hangs a stand and has a monster buck walk in front of you before your breathe settles.

You choices for tree stands are climbers and portable hang-ons. Climbing tree stands are the ultimate mobile archery stand, mostly because they are designed to be light, easy to setup and large enough for comfort. With climbers you have the stand and way to get up the tree in one package. This cuts down on the equipment needed to carry with you, including climbing systems like climbing sticks or steps. Portable tree stands do however have their own place in the mobile archery game. Hang-on stands are often lighter than climbers but require climbing sticks or steps. These need to be carried along with the stand in order to get up the tree. The advantage of a hang-on stand over a climber is that if you find a spot with deer sign, your portable stand is ready to hop in the next day or following weekend. Climbers can be left as well but the climb would have to be done again. Finally, climbers require certain skills to do so safely. Portable tree stands still need to be navigated safely but many hunters are more comfortable ascending climbing sticks or steps.

Tree Stand Placement Strategies When Mobile

With mobile archery hunting, you are moving from area to area without much prior knowledge to rely on. For that reason, it is important to consider basic areas that consistently hold deer. Focusing your bow hunting tree stands in these areas will significantly improve your chances of getting close to a shooter buck.

First and foremost, you want to look for deer sign. Deer sign like pellets, tracks and trails all relate to deer movement and use of an area. Look for both new and old sign, which indicates deer are not just passing through but are using the area frequently over time. In addition during the rut, you want to identify areas that have scrapes and rubs that are fresh. These signs hopefully give you confidence that a hot doe and ultimately a buck is close. Hanging hunting tree stands in these locations give you options. You can put down a mock scrape or do some rattling to try to entice a buck into range.

Look for habitat type changes and natural places that funnel deer. Topological features like saddles, benches and draws are all places that bucks use to move between feeding and cover areas. Identify these features prior to heading to the field. Focusing in on natural deer movement areas then adding a piece of cover, water or food source will put your stand in a pretty good spot for seeing some deer. Archery hunters choosing mobile tree stand setups should consider these three tree stand placement strategies for mobile archery hunting for deer.

Food sources are important. Fall mast areas like oak flats or areas near agricultural lands are all good choices to move in with a mobile tree stand setup. Focus on worn trails leading to and from these food sources to try to cut bucks off as they approach.

Deer, like hunters, need water to survive. Small, secluded water sources are ideal as these areas attract deer from long distances in areas where water may be limited. Work river bottoms until you find heavily used crossings to put up your archery stand.

Cover is the third part of a deer’s needs in its habitat. Bucks use cover for bedding and escaping during the fall. Target thickets of cedars, laurel, briar patches and old clear-cuts to pop in with a climbing tree stand.

Although not a detailed list of places to hang your tree stand, focusing on food, water and cover are good places to start when you are going into an area that has not been scouted. Furthermore, even archery hunters going mobile have to keep in mind the basic principles of where to place a tree stand. First, make sure your tree stand is downwind of where you believe a buck will approach from. Even with good scent management, the last thing you want is to have the wind blowing right up a buck’s nose as he is approaching towards you. Next, you have to consider the type of tree for your stand. Choose multi-stem deciduous trees to cover any slight movements like checking ranges or drawing your bow. Finally, consider visibility when choosing a tree stand location. You want a concealed location but not too concealed that the fall leaves and other trees prevent you from seeing incoming bucks. With mobile archery hunting, there is limited time to manicure trees and surrounding brush when you do find a good hunting spot. Add a small set of clippers to your pack to quickly trim stand trees and make shooting lanes from your stand.

Challenges with Mobile Tree Stand Setups

Being mobile in archery seasons comes with its challenges. Bouncing from spot to spot can help you cover ground, but each new stand setup tests your archery abilities. The placement of hunting tree stands has to be thought out so that you put yourself in the best possible areas to see deer. Seeing deer is half the battle because frequently your shooting ability will be challenged with difficult shots in tough conditions. You need to prepare for shots at awkward angles and in tight windows as mobile setups rarely offer perfect bow shots. Also being mobile means your equipment changes. Select quality stands that are lightweight and easy to setup since you will be carrying in climbing tree stands and climbing systems with fixed position stands. The last thing you want is something heavy to lug around looking for a spot and then struggle with getting a stand into position.

Benefits of Being Mobile for Archery Hunting

If your scouting time is limited, mobile setups are for you. This archery hunting technique gives you freedom to move to new areas with relative ease all season long. This tactic is your scouting and may even uncover areas that are worth putting in more time. Having hunting tree stands that are mobile let you move quickly based on changing conditions, especially important during the rut as deer activity changes rapidly. Bucks are unpredictable even with the best scouting so it is important to be confident in your ability to change archery stands to improve your odds of getting a shot at a buck.

Conclusion

It takes time each year to scout for archery hunting. However, you can still be successful even if you have limited time to put in pre-season. Consider going mobile with your tree stands. Grab a good mobile bow hunting tree stand and work with the basics of tree stand placement strategies to break free from the traditional archery tactics this bow season.

hanging tree stands trim sooting lanes | Big Game Tree Stands

Hanging Tree Stands | How to Trim and Hunt Shooting Lanes

August 3, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog, Ladder Stand /by Big Game

Cutting Shooting Lanes While Hanging Tree Stands

If you’re used to hanging tree stands in thick woods, you know the value of shooting lanes. Without them, you might be able to see a mature whitetail buck moving below you, but you could not ethically take a shot at it; this is especially true if you’re bow hunting. While natural openings work well enough in some forested settings, some are not well-suited for this. Some examples could include young aspen or conifer forests, which grow too densely together or have too many lower branches to effectively take a shot through them.

Conventional wisdom is to wait until the week before deer season opens before hanging tree stands and clearing new shooting lanes or cleaning up existing ones. This can be a problematic situation. Deer are far more familiar with their environment than many realize. Imagine if someone knocked down one of the walls in your house or cut down one of the trees in your yard. You’d realize it pretty quickly, right? Deer know their surroundings very well and can notice when something looks different. They can also smell the freshly-cut trees lying around with whatever other scent you leave behind. Depending on where you live, this might not bother them all that much or it might put them on high alert. For example, suburban deer might not hesitate to move through a disturbed area like this, but big woods bucks would certainly be suspicious of the area for several days, if not longer.

A better strategy is to go out in the mid-summer months to cut new shooting lanes and clean up old ones. If you hunt on private land, this is also a good time for hanging tree stands. Then, a week or two before the season opens, you can simply go check everything to make sure the lanes are still open and in good condition. Unless a tree falls within them, they should only require minimum work (and thus disturbance) to finish them. But first, let’s take a step back.

Planning Your Shooting Lanes

Before the chainsaw or pole saw comes out into the woods with you, you need to do some quick thinking. For help visualizing how the shooting lanes will fit into the surrounding area, use some desktop scouting software to map it out before you cut anything. Ideally, you should also climb into your tree stand and picture the best direction for a shooting lane to go. Which way would be the most advantageous for a quick shot? Also, how many do you plan to cut? You want to walk the fine line between not seeing enough ground and having too many lanes. Though each tree stand location will vary in its shooting lane requirements, a good rule of thumb to start with would be at least 2 to 3 lanes per stand. This way, you can cover three different directions to accommodate different deer travel patterns. Be sure to remember this every time you are hanging tree stands.

The ultimate design or layout isn’t really important – it just depends on what you’re willing to do and how much the deer would be disturbed. If you’re going to cut a series of larger or longer shooting lanes, it’s best to do it now so whitetails have time to settle down and get used to the new openings. The simplest option is a basic V-shape extending out from your tree stands, so you can see in two different directions. Theoretically, if a deer walks in front of your stand, you should get one opportunity to spot the deer and one to shoot it with a quartering away shot. However, another popular option is the hub and spoke design, where there are several shooting lanes radiating out in every direction from the tree stand. This allows a hunter to intercept deer along any of these paths.

The ultimate length of each shooting lane will depend on your goals for that location too. For example, if you plan to only bow hunt from a given area, you really only need lanes that are at your maximum ethical shot distance. For most, that would be 40 to 50 yards in length. This helps you gauge distance without a range finger, and eliminates any temptation to take a longer shot. But if you plan on hunting with a rifle, you could easily have 200 yard lanes in front of you.

Trimming While Hanging Tree Stands

As we mentioned, the best time to cut these lanes with the least impact is when you’re hanging tree stands. It doesn’t really matter which type of hunting tree stands you’re setting up. But if you’re going to go through the effort of cutting shooting lanes, it goes without saying that you should probably hunt it more than just once or twice out of climbing deer stands. The best tree stands for these lanes would be something more permanent, such as ladder stands. The Venture ladder stand has a wide, curved platform with a matching seat so you can watch several shooting lanes around you.

First, climb into your deer stand and locate the direction you chose earlier. Now pick a landmark tree off in the distance along your intended path. Stay between your tree stand and that landmark as you cut, which should produce a straight shooting lane. You can use a chainsaw for larger trees, but a simple hand saw and pair of pruning shears/loppers is usually all that’s needed for saplings and brush. Inevitably, there will be branches from larger trees extending into your shooting lanes that would interfere with a shot from up in your lock on stands. An extendable pole saw is invaluable for these situations.

How to Enhance Your Shooting Lanes While Hanging Tree Stands

Instead of simply piling the cut branches and brush off to the sides of each lane, consider using them to enhance your tree stand concealment. Wary whitetails often look down each side of a shooting lane before entering it. Your tree stands will really stick out if you don’t use some natural camouflage. Use zip ties or twine to attach some of the branches to your tree stands, which will break up your outline in the tree. Bring along a portable tree saw when you hunt, just in case something shifts in your stand. You can also prop cut trees up against your tree and attach them to the base so your single tree looks like a clump.

Additionally, deer will sometimes use shooting lanes as short-distance travel routes since they offer the path of least resistance. But sometimes they will bolt right across them since they have no real reason to stay in the open. There are a few hunting methods to counter this tendency. The first would be hanging a scent wick where you want them to stop within the lane, and applying your favorite deer odor to it. Another, where legal, is to use a mineral block near the end of the lane to catch early season bucks.

Planting small food plot strips along your lanes is also great to hold them still long enough for a shot, this is something you should keep in mind when hanging tree stands and trimming shooting lanes. Provided your lanes get enough sunlight, simply use some herbicide on the existing vegetation, being sure to use one that will kill cut tree stumps (e.g., triclopyr) as well as the herbaceous growth (e.g., glyphosate). After letting the herbicide work for a few weeks, go back in and expose the soil using a hard-tined rake, roughing up the surface a little in the process. Broadcast seed that can handle your local soil, sunlight, and water conditions. Perennial clover varieties should work great on shaded trails with less-than-perfect soils. Remember, you’re not trying to make these shooting lane food plots into lush, ultra-attractive plots. Instead, you simply want deer to pause for an opportunistic snack while they’re walking through. Therefore, you don’t need to spend a lot of time and money making them look like one on TV.

You probably didn’t think much about shooting lanes when hanging tree stands before, except that they might give you a better shot at a deer, if you were lucky. But if you use the tips above, you should be able to increase their effectiveness many times over to put luck on your side.

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Big Game Box Blinds For Bow Hunting and Deer Hunting

July 26, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog, Quad-Pods and Box Blinds /by Big Game

Box Blinds For Bow Hunting | Everything You Should Know

If you’ve ever looked into box blinds for bow hunting, you might have immediately thought, tightly enclosed space, just from there you probably know how the story goes. A deer comes in, finally presenting a great bow shot. As you maneuver to draw your bow back, it feels a bit cramped, but you think you can make it work by crouching down. As you release to let the arrow fly, you hear a loud clanging noise and feel the bow almost jump from your grip. You watch helplessly as your arrow sails off over the top of the deer you’ve been waiting for. What happened? Then you realize the bow limbs must have ricocheted off of the blind when you fired the bow, causing your arrow to fly off-course. Cue depressing music and lots of head shakes! Is this common in box blinds for bow hunting? Not always!

Whether this scenario has happened to you yet or not, it doesn’t have to be your destiny. There are ways you can make box blinds work for bow hunting. It might take a little more work, but the benefits of being in a box blind far outweigh that. For example, you can sit in an enclosed blind through almost any weather, with the exception of really bad storms. If a rogue rain shower shows up, you won’t get soaked. When you want to bow hunt late season whitetails, you can stay warm inside (especially if you bring along a small heater). Your scent typically stays contained better since you’re not exposed to the wind currents. And you can also get away with more movement since you’re fully concealed. Obviously that’s useful since it ultimately helps you avoid detection longer. But it also makes a box blind a great way to introduce kids to the outdoors, since they can fidget around and stay comfortable while you wait for the action to start. Finally, elevated bow hunting blinds are generally more effective than ground blinds for archery because of increased visibility and because the steeper shot angle produces better blood trails.

But there’s a big difference between rifle and bow box blinds. When you’re hunting with a firearm, you don’t need much vertical clearance, and you can get by with a pretty narrow shooting window. Bows on the other hand, need more vertical room for the limbs to flex and for your arms to extend when you draw it back. You’ll also need to position your box blind closer to where you expect deer to move when you’re bow hunting, since it requires closer shots than a firearm. So let’s jump right into the specifics when it comes to box blinds for bow hunting.

How to Position Box Blinds for Bow Hunting

After setting up a hunting blind, positioning will be critical to make it work for a bow hunt. Ideally, the blind windows should be perpendicular to (facing the) trail you expect deer to use, which will allow you to see as deer approach from either side and offer a broadside shot. Having multiple windows is useful since you can quickly adjust if the deer moves too far one way or the other.

The best location for deer hunting blinds will depend on when in the season you plan to hunt most often. Try to find a reliable travel corridor between feeding and bedding areas for the best chance of seeing a mature buck in the early season months. Bucks are still in a summer feeding pattern during this time of year and can be a little more predictable. While that location could also work throughout the season, spots near doe bedding areas may be better during the rut, since bucks will be scent-checking these spots frequently and chasing does every waking hour they have. But this approach requires strict attention to detail and discipline to pull it off (more about that below). If you’ll primarily hunt the cold late season months, food is the best place to be. At the end of the season, rut-weary bucks need to really put the calories down to build their bodies back up enough for winter. Set up a box blind for bow hunting on the edge of a standing agricultural field or food plot, and you’ll be amazed at the deer activity.

Invisible Box Blinds for Bow Hunting

For the locations discussed above to really work effectively, your box blind should be as hidden and discreet as possible. This is obviously true for all hunting stands and blinds, but it’s especially important with the solid blocky shape of an elevated hunting blind. Though deer can get used to seeing a large bulky shape in the sky, mature bucks usually don’t fully let their guard down. So if you’re hoping to connect with one of them, you should take any precaution you can by camouflaging your blind.

The Vertex box blind offers a great camouflage pattern as is, and comes with 12 large side windows and 1 roof opening to offer multiple shot angles. It has 61 inches of standing room and a 48-inch square platform, which allows you plenty enough room for a kneeling or seated bow shot. Before each shot, make sure to leave several inches of clearance in front of and above or below your bow limbs to make sure you don’t contact them. This combination makes it one of the best box blinds for bow hunting.

But if you want to take it a step further, add some more natural camouflage materials to hide it. Here are a few ideas if you’re wondering how to camouflage a hunting blind. First, locate your box blind among and around existing trees with lots of vertical and horizontal structure to break up the bow hunting blind outline against the background. Then use twine or zip ties to attach cut limbs and branches to the platform’s steel poles and rails. To make it look as natural as possible, step back often to see how well it blends in. While it should go without saying, use similar branches from the area so that it disappears with the surrounding vegetation. Ideally, you should attach branches all the way up to the blind, so it looks like a hedge or clump of trees. Though you can build your own wooden deer blinds and camouflage it with paint, homemade bow hunting blinds aren’t as reliable and safe as an engineered one.

Make sure to get all this work done well in advance of archery season, so the deer have time to get used to the new trees that mysteriously sprouted up overnight. Going through this work will keep you more concealed in your hunting blinds but it will also hide your ladder access, which is a good segue into the next topic.

Access Trails to Bow Hunt from a Box Blind

Assuming you’ve followed the deer hunting strategies above, you’re off to a good start. But you can quickly throw your luck and hard work out the window if you have a poor access trail. What exactly is a bad entry and exit route and how can you tell? Well, if you can’t get to your bow hunting box stands without alerting deer in bedding or feeding areas to your presence, then you’ve already failed. With more mobile tree stand options and deer hunting ground blinds, you can easily move when the deer bust you. But with all the effort that goes into installing box blinds for bow hunting, you need to be hyper-vigilant about each detail of your hunt so you can make that location last as long as you can. Thinking of them as permanent hunting blinds switches your frame of mind, so that you’ll take better care with hunting them until the conditions are perfect.

The key is to not let the deer pattern your behavior and movements. Make no mistake, if a whitetail starts to hear and smell a hunter going to the same location each morning, they will avoid that area pretty quickly. Try to plan your access trail to approach from a downwind location that doesn’t cross any major deer trails or go too close to a food plot, agricultural field, or known bedding area. Another part of hunting intelligently is to play the wind at all times. If your box blinds for bow hunting are upwind of a food plot one morning due to shifting conditions, just stay out of them. You’ll probably only spook deer, and you could make that particular box blind location useless for seeing big deer again during the season. It takes a lot of discipline to do this, but dedication is important.

Whether you are looking for a box blind for bow hunting or a tree stand for bow hunting, before you purchase, you need to have clear strategies in place. For example, if you’re hunting near a bedding area, make sure you approach very early before sunrise to allow deer to filter back in when the sun comes up. Or you can approach very quietly during daylight, moving at a stalking pace for the last 100 yards. Bedding areas can be hot spots, but you need to only hunt them when the situation is right. If you’re hunting near or on a food source, however, you need to enter it only during mid-day since deer should not be feeding during those hours. But this poses a problem, since deer will enter the feeding area again in the evening, just before you need to leave. If you were to just get down, they would spot and hear you and know to avoid that area in the future. A smarter method is to use a buddy system, where a friend or family member approaches the plot after sunset with a vehicle or ATV. This bumps the deer off the field, allowing you to get down, all while not educating deer to the location of your bow box blinds.

In summary, box blinds for bow hunting are really useful tools as part of an overall hunting plan. They allow you to stay warm, dry, and concealed from a deer’s senses, which means you can hunt longer and have a better chance at putting a mature buck on the ground. Using the tips listed above, you might just be successful this season.

tree stand umbrellas deer hunting foul weather | Big Game Treestands

Tree Stand Umbrellas | Deer Hunting In Foul Weather

July 20, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog /by Big Game

Deer Hunting in Bad Weather with Tree Stand Umbrellas

Year after year, whitetail hunters will endure many trials and tribulations throughout the season. Highs and lows, misses and hits, busted hunts and successful hunts. While these are normal for a whitetail hunter to endure nothing compares to the one thing hunters deal with on a daily basis….the weather. Deer hunting in foul weather is not fun. High winds, rain, sleet, snow, and/or hail is all weather that deer hunter’s battle. You know it is coming this deer season, there is no way to avoid it, so the best thing you can do it plan for it by grabbing tree stand umbrellas. When the tree is swaying, the rain is sideways, and you’re getting cold, tree stand umbrellas could be your saving grace.

Predicting the Weather

If you are a deer hunter, you most likely dislike, potentially swear at the weather man quite often. Predicating the weather is hard and yes nearly impossible from the inaccuracies of weather channels and the news channels. As whitetail hunters it is good to be prepared as much as we can, and as much as we hate it, it means relying on the most accurate information you can get. Most deer hunters in this case turn to Weather Underground. This can show a hunter everything he needs to know to plan and go hunting. This includes, temperatures, pressure, precipitation, wind speed, and most importantly wind direction. This allows hunters to not only look at the weather but plan hunts based off of patterns and opportunities like cold fronts. These can be noticed by a drop in temperature, rise in pressure which often give rise to deer activity and a harvest opportunity. These cold fronts are especially important to take advantage of during October.

While these patterns are key to focus on, nothing is for certain and more times than not predictions are wrong especially when hunters are relying on them to be extremely accurate. So when the day comes that there is a cold front but you see a high chance of rain, the question isn’t if it’s going to rain, but is it worth deer hunting in that foul weather?

Tree Stand Concealment

Is Deer Hunting in Foul Weather Worth It?

We can’t believe you just asked that question! When is deer hunting not worth it? To be fair, freezing temps, sleet, and a recipe for hypothermia might be a bad time to deer hunt. These problems can be solved with tree stand umbrellas, but is it even worth the trouble? Overall you will be dealing with 2 times of weather that you may not want to hunt in, rain and snow.

Deer Hunting In Rain

Rain, and rain accompanied by high winds is by far the most unfavorable hunting to do. It can be extremely frustrating for opening weekend to have solid rain in the forecast. As much as you hate the forecast your inner hunter pushes you to go out. The real question is simply “is it worth it”? The answer depends. Hunters often misunderstand deer activity, mostly missing that deer are an awful lot like us in regards to weather and activity. Absolute downpours and thunderstorms will have both you and deer hunkered down. However, deer get spooky with high winds and rain, meaning at any moment deer could be busted from their bed and taken advantage of. Mostly deer will hunker down, but there are always possibilities when deer hunting in foul weather.

Light rain and overcast/dreary weather conditions is an entirely different story. Deer hunting in foul weather like a soft light misting rain that can soak everything slowly, is actually a great time to hunt. The overcast and darker sky allows deer the comfort to stay out later in the morning and come out earlier in the evening.

Deer Hunting In Snow

Deer hunting in foul weather such as rain, wind, and pure nastiness is one thing, deer hunting in snow is entirely different. For anyone that has ever experienced it, deer hunting in late winter during a snow event is one of the most relaxing/majestic sights you will lay your eyes on while whitetail hunting. There is just something about the dead quiet snowfall and beauty of it that makes you completely zone out. Snow is quite different than rain, especially heavy snowfall. With heavy snow, deer become more prone to visiting standing crops like corn and beans. Theses food sources are above the snow and are easy pickings. Food plots and food sources like late season standing beans or corn can set the stage for hunts that have some of the highest likelihood for seeing mature bucks during daylight and getting a chance to harvest them.

It can be wonderful and can produce great results especially when hunting over the right areas, but only if you can keep the snow off of you and stay in the tree stand!

Tree Stand Umbrellas

So is deer hunting during foul weather conditions worth it? Absolutely, but only if you can stay out in the tree stand. For that you need special equipment and tree stand accessories, more specifically tree stand umbrellas.

The Pop-up Umbrella

-SIZE: 54” Wide x 49” Deep
-CONSTRUCTION: Hub-style design for quick set-up; durable, wear resistant fabric
-CARRY CASE: Included
-FOR USE WITH: Most Big Game Treestands
-FASTENERS: Six 39” snap-on tie-down strings

The Universal Umbrella

-SIZE: 48” Square
-CONSTRUCTION: Hub-style design for quick set-up; durable, wear resistant fabric
-CARRY CASE: Included
-FOR USE WITH: Most Big Game Treestands
-FASTENERS: 2 support straps

Deer Hunting In Foul Weather with Tree Stand Umbrellas

Many hunters might look at deer hunting with an umbrella as a risk as it adds more in the tree to potentially silhouette. While this might scare some deer hunters off, the facts stack in favor of having one of these handy. One, deer can and will be out even in foul weather conditions, in fact certain conditions make deer hunting more favorable. Finally the second fact is that staying dry while hunting during rain or snow will be a lot harder without a tree stand umbrella.

It is inevitable, you will end up hunting during the rain or during the snow at some point each and every season. It’s up to you weather you will be prepared enough to stick around and reap the benefits of deer hunting in foul weather.

tree stand blinds tree stand concealment | Big Game Treestands

Big Game Tree Stand Blinds | How to Create Tree Stand Concealment

June 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog, Ground Blinds, Ladder Stand /by Big Game

Camouflage Cover for Tree Stand Concealment | Tree Stand Blinds

Imagine sitting in your tree stand on opening morning. As the first rays of sunlight start shining through the autumn leaves, you hear a branch break. Just as you imagined, you spot a deer walking down the well-used trail you found earlier in the week. It’s a brand new stand site and the deer should have no clue you’re there. But as soon as it enters a slight clearing, its head shoots up and aims right at you. You didn’t make any noise and the wind is in your favor. But still, the deer turns and disappears faster than you can do anything to stop it. All because you didn’t take time to hide your tree stand with tree stand blinds. If you’ve hunted long enough, you’ve probably had an experience like this.

Whitetails are remarkable at spotting differences in their environment. Their eyes are amazingly adapted at finding things that stick out from their surroundings; a new tree stand, for example. In order to beat this amazing sense of theirs, you have to take a little more care to hide your tree stand when you hang a new stand. This often includes installing tree stand blinds. If you’re hunting unpressured private land deer, you can probably get away with less. But the steps below are almost a requirement for public land hunting these days.

It’s no doubt that ground blinds can be much more easily hidden than tree stands. They are low to the ground and can be covered with all manner of camouflage patterns and branches. But they can be more difficult to hunt deer out of sometimes. You don’t have the height advantage on your side, for one thing, which inhibits your prey detection and prevents any longer shots. But there are some things you can do with tree stand concealment to hide it just as effectively as a ground blind.

How to Hide Your Tree Stand

One of the first tips if you’re using a really old stand is to either get a new one or freshen it up. If there aren’t any safety concerns, then painting a tree stand or just installing tree stand blinds could do the trick to help it blend in better. Grab a couple cans of spray paint, in black and various shades of brown, green, and yellow. Next, collect some natural materials (e.g., grasses, weeds, branches, leaves, etc.) from the area you’re going to hunt. Spray a light background color, such as sage green, all over your stand. Then either sparsely lay some of the natural materials on top of the stand, or tie them down with some twine. Once they’re tight against the metal frame, spray a mustard yellow or brown paint over the top. Add some more materials over the top of these, and lightly spray a black color over what’s left. You can experiment with the colors and which sequence you spray them in, but focus on colors that match the season you’re hunting in. In other words, no bright green colors if you’ll be hunting in late autumn. You can quickly camouflage a deer stand with a couple cans of paint and a few hours.

One of the best deer stand concealment steps you can take is to simply take advantage of the natural cover around you. There are no synthetic materials that can beat the natural vegetation in an area in terms of camouflage value offered. That being said, some trees are better suited to hanging a new stand than others. For example, trees with multiple trunks or lots of branches work great since they offer so much natural camouflage and structure that you can hide in. Pines, cedars, and oaks come to mind as excellent choices since they generally have a dense branch structure and maintain their needles or leaves through most of the hunting season or year-round. These trees are excellent choices for hang on stands, since you can tuck them right into the branches. With a good set of camouflage clothing, you should stay pretty hidden.

Deciduous trees with bare trunks (e.g., aspens, maples, birch, etc.) are great for ladder stands, but you tend to stick out like a sore thumb without any ladder stand concealment. If you must hunt from a tree such as this, you should definitely use a tree stand blind kit or camouflage burlap. Wrapping the seat and platform of a ladder stand is a great way to at least hide your movements while in the tree. Using fabric with loose-cut leaves is even better since it adds a natural look and motion. These tree stand blinds are simple to carry with you while hanging stands, and do so much to hide your profile. Simply drape the fabric or ladder stand blind kit around the shooting rail and use twine or zip ties to secure it thoroughly. Leave a slit opening at the front so you can climb into the stand with all your bulky hunting clothing and gear. There’s nothing worse than trying to quietly slither through a narrow gap on opening morning, realizing that a knife is the only way you’re going to get into your stand.

While this definitely helps hide your movement from keen eyes, a large bulky shape in the sky among a bunch of bare trunks still sticks out to deer. Another way to really hide your tree stand involves a more three dimensional application. Real or fake branches are excellent to blend into the surrounding area. Using tree stand concealment branches can be done in two ways. The first is to collect some actual branches from near your stand, preferably live ones with leaves still on them for deciduous trees (oaks tend to hold onto their leaves longer than many others), or coniferous branches for a coniferous tree. The other is to stock up on fake Christmas tree branches when they go on sale at the end of the year. Obviously, these are more useful for coniferous trees. Either way, attach the branches to your stand with twine or zip ties, spreading them out evenly to hide your profile. You want enough branches so that it looks natural and blends in, but not so many that it sticks out (when’s the last time you saw a ball of branches extending every direction 20 feet up a tree?). And you definitely want to make sure to leave yourself ample shooting lanes for close-range bow shots. Too often, we don’t know when to stop and suddenly realize we can’t see the ground from a sitting position.

Height Matters

The final way to really hide your tree stand is not so much a mechanical add-on or fancy camouflage system of tree stand blinds. It simply involves hanging your tree stand higher. Climbing stands and lock-on stands makes this is easily doable. Well-educated public land deer have come to expect to see hunters at the typical 10 to 15 foot range off the ground. So if you can sneak up a little higher, say 20-25 feet, you’ll be further out of their peripheral vision. If you go much higher than that, your shot angle can be too severe to get a double lung pass-through. Make sure to stay safe while hunting higher and always use a hunting safety harness. And of course, pay attention to your state hunting regulations as some states have maximum allowable tree stand heights.

While you’re out deer scouting this summer, pay attention to the surrounding trees and think of ways that you could hide your tree stand better. Using all of the steps above whether it is natural cover or tree stand blinds, it should leave you pretty invisible to all but the wisest whitetails. You’ll need a little luck on your side to get close to them.

6 ways to bring deer closer to your tree stand | Big Game Tree Stands

Big Game Treestands | 6 Summer Projects That Bring Deer Closer To Your Tree Stand

June 27, 2016/0 Comments/in Fixed Position, Got Game Blog, Ladder Stand /by Big Game

6 Things to Do This Summer That Bring Deer Closer To Your Tree Stand

Summer is a busy time of year. From installing food plots to creating mineral stations, our time is valuable as deer hunters and managers. It’s hard enough to find the time to hang our tree stands or install food plots, surely finding time to start just one of these 6 summer projects is unrealistic? It is unless you realize that any or all of these projects will count towards what’s really important…they are ways to bring deer closer to your tree stand!

If you really think about everything that a deer hunter or manager might do during the summer, you realize a good portion of it most likely does not directly affect the hunting. In fact the food plots, mineral sites, and off season tasks are more a way to get out in the outdoors than actually things that will benefit hunting. These 6 summer projects are not those tasks, and unlike the other chores they do directly affect your hunting, in fact they steer and bring deer closer to your tree stand! Read this article on the 6 summer projects and figure out which one, if not all can apply to your deer hunting property and tree stand location.

Create a Watering Hole

Creating A Watering Hole For Deer

(Video) Spring is giving way into summer! Soon the rain will let up and the dry warm weather will hit, making water a great resource to have in the right location. Join Buck Advisors Weston Schrank as he explains how to create a watering hole for deer on your property.

When the word summer is brought up two things pop into your mind, the sun and the heat. Why? June is just the start of the long hot summer months, the heat will be relentless until fall arrives. This creates a perfect scenario for a watering hole for deer. Why put a watering hole on your property? Well the obvious reason is to supply water, especially when a property is lacking any water sources. But in the case of a way to bring deer closer to your tree stand, a watering hole, even in the presents of water source on your property, can be effective!

Installing a watering hole will create a big attraction for your tree stand location. If not a direct draw during the early season in September and October, than at least a great stopping point and potential shooting lane and shot opportunity. The great thing about a watering hole, besides being a way to bring deer closer to your tree stand, is it is extremely easy to install. With minimal digging, a $20-$50 dollar tank, and a little planning a watering hole can be installed and filled up to start attracting deer this summer.

Before putting out anything for deer that can be consumed, check your states regulation and baiting policies.

Summer Deer Mineral Site

Deer Mineral Station Placement and Strategy

(Video) – Putting out minerals for deer is critical to start in May! Join Weston Schrank as he explains exactly how many mineral stations for deer you need and where to place them on your deer hunting property.

Summer deer management would not be complete if it was not without mineral stations and sites. Fortunately these mineral stations, which need to be removed before the dee season to not be considered baiting, can bring deer closer to your tree stand location even when they are gone. How?! By creating a social area and travel route. Putting out a mineral or salt attraction is not only a great place to hang your trail cameras, but a way to attract deer to your tree stand location before the hunting season. Deer determine their movement by 3 criteria, ease, security, and social influence. The path or area they choose to travel through depends on whether or not it is safe, it is easy to move through, and other deer move through it. By putting a summer mineral station out around your tree stand and keeping pressure off the site, you are creating a hotspot for deer activity. While the minerals might be removed, the memory, social interaction, and influence of the mineral station will last, ultimately becoming a great way to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

Before putting out anything for deer that can be consumed, check your states regulation and baiting policies.

Creating A Micro Food Plot

What and How To Plant for Small Food Plot Success

(Video) – Small food plots (under an acre) are by far the most common food plot planted for wildlife. So what should you plant in small food plots to succeed? Here is our number one choice of species, the reasons why, and some other small food plot tips.

A lot of deer hunters and managers will be talking food plots this spring, summer and early fall. While most will worry about planting that 2-5 acre food plot or bigger, the small time food plotter will be planting a much more important and vital plot. This food plot is a micro plot and it acts as a kill plot if done correctly! These kill plots or micro plots are less than 1 acre, less than ½ acre even, and are usually an unbelievably effective ¼ or 1/8 of an acre big! They key is that small size. It creates a pit stop, staging area, and afternoon or morning snack that can turn into a prominent shot opportunity. The key with these plots are prepping the plot and planting the right species. White clover, small grains, and brassicas are usually the only crops that can last in a small food plot. They also give attraction in the early and late season.

Rake a Trail to your Tree Stand

One way bring deer closer to your tree stand is by steering them with a raked trail. Why would that work? Well deer are just like you when you hunt, they want to stay quiet, and take the path of least resistance. The only time you really hear a deer in the woods is the rut or through an oak flat searching for acorns, for the most part deer walk quietly and on deer runs. By taking a hard rake, or leaf blower you can essentially create an artificial deer run. While this is usually a tactic in creating silent tree stand access routes, it can work to steer deer by your tree stand, as long as it is in the general area they were already traveling towards.

We usually see it when we hunt, deer filtering out into a food plot or AG field from a logging road or four wheeler trail. The same principle here. If an easy route, such as a freshly raked trail, is available to travel on, it obviously is the easiest route to travel and will result in deer usage.

The Fence

How To Grow A Small Soybean Food Plot – Electric Fence

(Video) – Soybean food plots are the deer managers and hunters best friend no doubt about it. However, the one thing that limits soybeans is the size of the food plot. Make and Install your very own DIY dual perimeter electric fence to successfully grow a small soybean food plot.

An electric deer fence is a great and effective way to bring deer closer to your tree stand. This is especially true when talking about deer hunts involving youth hunters and bow hunters. It is common knowledge that soybeans are one of the greatest food plot species and this is where an electric food plot fence shines.

By fencing off one section of a soybean field, you can hold the beans off from being demolished by deer, and by the time fall rolls around put an extremely productive yield at the deer’s level. Soybean pods in the late season, November –January are one of the very best places to be in a stand. If you’re a bean plotter, look into a fence this summer as a productive way to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

Hinge Cutting a Funnel

Another popular summer project among deer hunters and habitat managers, is hinge cutting for deer. Usually this takes the form of creating bedding areas and thick sanctuaries for deer, but changing up the style of the cut can result in steering deer to your tree stand.

It’s called screening, or in this case funneling deer with hinge cutting. By hinge cutting small diameter non mast bearing trees like maples, poplars, hackberries, and elms you can make a natural and impenetrable fence that if done strategically can create a massive funnel. Just be sure to think out every cut, the funnel, and take all the necessary safety precautions.

Create a Mock Scrape

Later this summer into early fall, when bachelor groups begin to break up, communication will begin. In this case the communication is through mock scrapes as a social bulletin board for deer, creating an opportune moment to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

By finding or placing a licking branch, and pawing up a patch of dirt with a stick or your boot, you can create a stopping point or wall on a run that could potentially draw a buck into a shooting lane. Whether they are scent checking for does and happen to stop at the scrape or are specifically checking scrapes and stop, you will have an opportunity within range if place correctly.

This summer, while you are hanging your tree stands in order to prepare for the upcoming deer season, think about which project makes sense in that area. These 6 projects can bring deer closer to your tree stand, only if you can find the time this summer to complete one!

Early Season Bow Hunting Tree Stand Locations

June 21, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog /by Big Game

Hunting Spots for Bow Hunters | Early Season Bow Hunting Tree Stand Locations

Early season bow hunting is when our life starts, at least that is what it feels like after a long off season and summer. Bow season is when our anticipation is at its highest point during deer season. It’s a new and fresh start to a 4 month long quest to find success. While we are still in summer, now is the time to plan and prepare for the start of this quest in deer season. The first month or two of the season, from September – October is considered the early season. Really a deer hunter defines the early season as bow hunting before the rut and firearms season begins. In order to find success your time starts now to identify and prepare your early season bow hunting tree stand locations.

When it comes to early season bow hunting tree stand locations, it helps to break down the season into four phases. Understanding these phases ultimately can help you determine exactly where your early season bow hunting tree stand locations should be.

Phase 1: September 15- 24^th

Drury Outdoors THIRTEEN | Phase 1 A New Beginning

(Video) – The first phase of deer season is one of the toughest. It’s one of the hardest times for a bow hunter. Your anticipation is high, but daylight movement is low. You have to key in on you early season bow hunting tree stand locations, being cautious to put them between green food sources and bedding areas, but without bumping deer!

The first phase of deer season characterizes a great chance for bow hunters. This is the new beginnings phase, it is the start of deer season. If you are lucky enough to hunt in a state such as Kentucky, with a first weekend of September opener, you can score big, but it takes work!

The key for success in the first weeks of deer season is proper planning and preparation. The main thing this comes down to is velvet buck scouting and where you put your tree stands to intercept them. Early season bow hunting tree stand locations depend heavily on summer buck patterns and bachelor group movement. Bucks hit two areas, the bedding area and the food source. This usually means a secluded patch of hardwoods for the bedding area adjacent to the food source, which is usually alfalfa and clover fields, or soybeans.

Glassing and trail camera scouting during the final summer months leading up to deer season can reveal the movements of bucks. Careful planning around the pattern can help you select the perfect tree for interception. This will usually be a staging area before the food source between the bedding area and the food source or a tree on the edge of the food source within bow range of where the bucks will enter the field. One thing to remember during this time frame is access routes. You need to have an absolute bust proof tree stand access route in order to kill a bachelor group buck on a summer pattern.

When you pick the right early season bow hunting tree stand locations, success can happen within the first days of the season. Check out the hunt below to what success looks like in the first phase of deer season.

Velvet Buck Double in September!

(Video) – 2 Kentucky bluegrass velvet bucks are taken with bows, from the same stand, literally 5 minutes apart from each other! When it comes to getting early season bow hunting tree stand locations right, these guys were spot on!

Phase 2: September 25^th– October 12^th

Drury Outdoors THIRTEEN | Phase 2 Greener Pastures

(Video)- The second phase is all about 2 things, changing food sources and weather conditions. Soybeans are turning yellow, but food plots are just hitting the peak. A change in weather or a cold front could mean success when bow hunting.

The second phase of the early bow season is a time when a lot of hunters can find success. Soybeans and large crop fields especially in the Midwest are turning, and deer are moving to different food sources. The turning beans, harvesting of Ag crops, and date and temperature changes mean more daylight movement.

This phase can really be taken advantage of if you have a key resource, a green food plot! Once the Ag crops are vacated from the landscape, whitetails will start pouring into green food sources. But this is often times short lived opportunity, as the next phase can swoop in fast and disintegrate any chances of success.

Booner Buck In Early Bow Season!

(Video) – Brandon Jennings punches his Missouri archery tag on opening day with a giant buck! This early season bow hunting tree stand location turned out to be exactly where Brandon needed to be!

Phase 3: October 13-24^th

Drury Outdoors THIRTEEN | Phase 3 The October Lull

(Video) – Once deer finally start moving more during the greener pastures period, it suddenly shuts down. Summer home ranges have switched to fall home ranges and bucks are very active on scrapes and rubs but during the night. Food sources such as acorns are everywhere, meaning deer do not have to move very far! To find success you have to have a great early season bow hunting tree stand locations, and a cold front to get deer on their feet.

When the October lull rolls around deer movement and sightings seem to stop! This can be one of the most frustrating times for a bow hunter. While your early season bow hunting tree stand locations were proving to be in the right spots for the first weeks of the season, movement has now stopped. During this part of the early season, whitetails bed more, move less, and feed on a plentiful acorn crop.

During this part of the season it’s important to take advantage of anything you can. During the October lull this means cold fronts and scrapes! While the majority of scrape action has been shown to happen at night, when you have a major cold front move through, deer will be on their feet!

The best early season bow hunting tree stand locations for this period is in large white oak flats, and transition areas around bedding areas and food sources where bucks will be visible in daylight hours.

Phase 4: October 25^th – November 1st

Drury Outdoors THIRTEEN | Phase 4 Pre-Lock

(Video) This is the phase before firearms season opens, and bow hunters live for. Early season bow hunting tree stand locations should focus around doe hotspots. These include the food plots, bedding areas, and transition areas. Big deer are on their feet and it’s a bow hunter’s paradise.

The last phase of early archery season is the pre-lock or pre-rut period. This is what bow hunters live for. It is the period before the full out rut and chase phase kicks in, but still contains a lot of deer movement before firearms season comes into play.

Does are not in yet, but are close, unfortunately for bucks they have one thing on their mind making them vulnerable to a well-placed hunter in a tree stand and a well-placed arrow. The social hotspots, like food sources will be hotspots for doe and buck activity. Home ranges expand, posturing and sparring ensue, and your time in the stand will pan out to many encounters!

Early season bow hunting tree stand locations during this phase should focus on funnels, doe trails, outskirts of bedding areas and key food sources. Fortunately these will all be great tree stand locations for the upcoming phases of the mid-season and rut.

The early season and first months of deer season is when bow hunters should capitalize. Before firearms season and the rut ramps up, take advantage of these 4 phases by placing your early season bow hunting tree stand locations in the suggested spots. A well placed tree stand, and well placed arrow is all it takes to find success during the early season!

make plans to stay comfortable in your tree stand | Big Game Treestands

How Staying Warm in a Tree Stand Equals Big Buck Success

May 18, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog, Quad-Pods and Box Blinds /by Big Game

Make Plans to Stay Comfortable in Your Tree Stand

You’ve been sitting in the tree stand watching your shooting lanes for what seems like hours. Your back aches, your legs need a stretch, and you can’t feel your rear end except for the millions of pin pricks starting to work their way up your body. You stand up for a while to get some blood flowing again in the cold Midwestern firearm season weather. But after you sit down again, the shivering starts. Your body starts uncontrollably shaking, but unfortunately not because of buck fever. You can feel the warmth and life in your body draining out through the cold metal seat beneath you. It must be lunchtime (aka, an excuse to get down from the tree stand) by now, right? Thinking you can’t last much longer with your numb hands and vibrating body, you check your watch and flinch in disbelief. It’s only 9:30 in the morning!

If you’ve been deer hunting long enough, you’ve probably been in this situation at least a couple times. The sheer mental boredom and physical strain of sitting absolutely still for hours takes its toll, especially when you’re uncomfortable. If you’re warm and have a comfy seat on top of one of your best tree stands, though, the time can fly by faster than you realize. And when you’re trying to put a mature buck in the back of your truck, you sometimes need to spend a lot of time in tree stands.

Why You Should Stay Put in Your Tree Stand

Think about it this way: the more you enter and leave your tree stands, the more you expose yourself to a deer’s senses. You make more noise by walking over the crunchy leaves and breaking branches, you leave a scent trail that’s difficult to fully hide, and your moving silhouette is a surefire warning to any animal watching. But when you’re in a tree, you’re quiet, scent-free, and camouflaged by your tree stand blind – fully hidden from sound, smell, and sight. This is reason enough to not leave for a midday warm-up.

But if you want more proof, here are a few to chew on. Deer don’t spend their entire day lying down in one place. They rest for a while, get up and stretch, browse on nearby vegetation, eat mineral soil, drink water, and wander within or between bedding areas. Many believe they move a lot during what’s called the noontime stroll. If you can place your tree stands near one of these areas, you could watch a lot of deer activity throughout the day. During the rut, all bets on buck movement are off and you could theoretically see a deer at any moment.

All-Day Locations for Tree Stands

There are just some hunting situations and locations where you need to spend all day in a ladder stand or climbing stand. There’s no getting down for lunch to go warm up at the shack or the truck in these situations. It’s just you and the cold all day, so you need to be prepared. Here are a few locations or circumstances where your hunting stands and blinds might need to adopt the waiting game.

While hunting bedding areas is tricky business and has a high risk of educating deer, it’s also a great way to get close to a mature buck. For that reason, many hunters roll the dice occasionally for the opportunity to bag a buck in his bedroom. But since deer return to bedding areas in the early morning hours and will generally stay until almost nightfall, you have to be very dedicated to make this kind of tree stand location work. You’ll need to be settled into your stand at least 45 minutes before sunrise in most cases, more if you’re located close to a feeding area. You need to be quiet and fairly still from then until the sun goes down again. You could very likely see deer return in the morning hours, and they may even bed in front of you. In that case especially, being uncomfortable could kill your chances at staying still long enough to see a mature buck.

Similarly, maybe you’ll be hunting a popular public land area or you hunt a small private property surrounded by neighbors with an aggressive hunting approach. In these highly pressured systems, deer are going to be very skittish and extremely discerning about every little noise, movement, or scent they encounter. When a pressured deer catches you shifting around in or getting out of your tree stands, they will quickly drop a mental waypoint and avoid that area for a while. It may not be long-term, but it could be long enough to foul up your chance of seeing them again while you’re hunting.

Additionally, when you’re surrounded by other hunters, you can use that fact to your advantage. If you’re uncomfortable and cold, it’s likely that they are too. So if you can tough it out, they’ll likely get down from their stands and unknowingly chase deer right into your lap. One thing is for certain: you can’t kill a buck if you’re not there when he walks by your stand.

On the practical side, some stand locations may just be too remote to feasibly leave and warm up anyway. For example, let’s say you found a promising funnel location tucked way back in the forest using aerial scouting methods. If you have to hike back into the woods over a mile, you probably won’t want to get down in the middle of the day to return to the vehicle. In these cases, it’s better to pack a lunch and stay put all day. We’ll discuss more on the food side down below, since that is a critical piece of staying comfortable.

Staying Comfortable in a Tree Stand

As the popular saying goes, there is no bad weather, just bad clothes and preparation. You should be able to plan for almost any conditions while in the field so that you can stay comfortable all day long. It all starts with your deer hunting tree stands. The best deer hunting tree stands should offer enough room so that you don’t feel cramped. If you feel crunched for space with no room for your hunting backpack, you’re going to feel claustrophobic within a few hours, and your legs are far more likely to fall asleep. When you don’t feel like a stand is big enough, consider buying tree stands for big men, such as two person tree stand. Obviously the most comfortable options are fully concealed box hunting blinds, where you can seal out the weather conditions and hide your presence much better. Simply lounge back on your stadium chair, and you’ll be set for a day of hunting. This amazing tree stand accessory has multiple adjustments and folds down into an easily carried bundle.

Ideally, you should also have a few other critical tree stand accessories. No matter what kind of tree stands you’re in, you need to have a comfortable hunting seat to insulate your body from the cold and feel good to sit on. A portable hot seat is a great option to take with on any hunt since it is lightweight and does a great job at keeping your rear end cushioned throughout the long day. Another common issue with sitting in the woods all day is not having enough lower back support, which can quickly convince you to abandon your hunt before it’s time. The Big Game Tree Stands spring-back lumbar support provides just the right cushion where you need it, so you can stay upright and pain-free.

Clothing is one of the most important tree stand accessories around. If you don’t have the right clothing, you will be miserable and won’t last long, guaranteed. It doesn’t matter if you expect hot or cold conditions; wear a base layer of merino wool or synthetic moisture-wicking material, which will keep your skin as dry as possible. Wet cotton clothing next to the skin is a recipe for hypothermia in the cold. Also, wear several insulating layers so you can adjust it throughout the day. On the morning walk into your stand, wear only your base layers so you don’t get hot and sweaty. As your body cools, add more layers gradually. If the sun comes out and the weather improves, you can always remove a layer again. The key is to stay dry by not letting your body overheat.

Cold feet and hands are two of the most common reasons we might want to give up on a particularly chilly day. Avoid them by bringing high quality, insulated boots and gloves. For those situations where you need to have your hands available quickly, you can slip a hand/foot warmer into a hand muff and keep your fingers toasty without your gloves.

Finally, you need to have good nutrition if you’re going to sit in the woods all day. Pack a bigger lunch and more snacks than you think you might need, focusing on high protein and high fat foods. Protein and fat fire up our metabolisms and provide a steady energy dose. Carbohydrates like candy or donuts give us a quick sugar rush, but the resulting sugar slump is not worth the short term gain. Instead, bring a whole grain sandwich of your choice, nuts, cheese, jerky, sausage, and a few pieces of fruit. Whenever you start to feel tired, cold, or even mentally bored, eat a small snack. Also, make sure to drink your usual amount of water and bring along a hot beverage in a thermos to lift your spirits when you’re getting too cold.

Being comfortable in the woods isn’t like lounging on a couch. You don’t want to get so comfortable that you fall asleep and have to test out the strength of your tree stand harness. But comfort does mean being able to sit still long enough to see a buck you could shoot. Maybe that takes an hour, or maybe it doesn’t happen after a season of all-day sits. The point is that you can’t put venison in the freezer unless you put in the time to hunt. Setting your tree stands up for success means you have a far better chance than those that don’t take these steps.

Using Desktop Scouting to Position Your Tree Stand

May 3, 2016/0 Comments/in Fixed Position, Got Game Blog, Ladder Stand, Quad-Pods and Box Blinds, Tripods /by Big Game

Tree Stand Placement | How Aerial Deer Scouting Techniques Can Lead To Great Sets

Tell me if you’ve been here before. After wandering through the woods for hours carrying your tree stand, things get depressing. You still haven’t found the magic tree that you were hoping to find and you saw very little deer sign either. Finally, you give up the search and reluctantly hang your stand in a less than ideal location on the off chance that you’ll get lucky. What if we could magically change that outcome for you? Let us introduce aerial deer scouting.

Aerial scouting would be way easier if we could ethically go deer scouting with drones. But even with its slightly less exciting approach, it’s still a very effective method of finding high percentage spots to hunt. Simply open up your favorite online mapping program, and navigate to your hunting land. That’s where the fun begins. We’ll talk about that some more below, but first let’s define what we mean by aerial scouting.

What’s the Difference?

Traditional scouting means boots-on-the-ground walking of public or private land properties. It’s time- and labor-intensive and you may go through all of the effort to find nothing. But you can also learn a lot about a new property using that approach, so don’t completely throw it out the window. Aerial scouting consists of opening up a deer scouting software and doing a lot of that legwork before you even physically set foot there. You can do it from a library, in your home office, or even lounging on the couch. Once you locate some good-looking spots from the map, you can then field verify them using the traditional deer scouting techniques. It allows you to cover way more ground, but you do need to eventually physically investigate a site before you commit to hanging tree stands. Those are the primary benefits and drawbacks of each scouting approach. Now let’s discuss how you can start your aerial assault.

How to Use Aerial Deer Scouting

The best thing about aerial scouting is that it frees up your time by eliminating 90 percent of a property before you even arrive. That’s time not spent wandering through the woods getting poison ivy or battling mosquitoes, which is undeniably great. But since time is our most precious commodity, that time-saving aspect is worth its weight in gold.

Deer Hunting Strategies| Scouting A New Property With Aerials

(Video) – There is a wrong way and a right way to scout. This especially true when we are just months or even weeks out from deer hunting season. The key during this late summer period is minimal disturbance and scouting smart.

As we briefly mentioned, download and install any deer hunting mapping software you want to use. Alternatively, Google Earth is one of the easiest free deer scouting software programs to use and it’s very user-friendly for a wide audience. You can find dozens of different map features (layers) online that can help you for scouting whitetails. For example, many counties offer free layers with property ownership information, which is basically a plat book on steroids. Many governmental agencies provide wetland, topographic, soil, or land cover layers, which you can turn on and off to create your perfect map. To find these layers, simply use a search engine to look for terms like, “topographic map google earth.” After collecting the data sources, it’s time to start deer scouting the smart way.

If you’re simply looking for new spots to hang your tree stands on a property you already have access to hunt, jump ahead at this point. If you’re looking for a new property, turn on the plat map layer to find public lands near you or promising private lands that you could then ask the landowner to hunt. Once you find some spots that look good, you’re ready to continue.

Start by turning on the wetlands layer, and you’ll likely eliminate many spots right off the bat that look like forest on the aerial but are actually intense shrub swamps you wouldn’t want to venture into with a tree stand. Locate any likely feeding areas by looking for open meadows, agricultural fields, pastures, or recent clear cuts. Since whitetails are browsing generalists, you can bet that they feed just about anywhere there is vegetation, but these are the most likely spots to focus on. If you wish, use the mapping tools to draw a green colored polygon (or any other color you prefer) around each one so that they stand out as feeding areas. Once you’ve found those, now try to pick out possible bedding areas. These will be much more challenging since deer can bed anywhere. However, south facing ridge slopes, conifer clusters, upland islands surrounded by wetlands, prairie grass plantings, and regrown clear cuts are some good spots to look for. Now mark these spots with a different colored polygon (brown or your preference).

Now we’re getting somewhere! Many people wonder how to find deer trails. Using only these two types of locations, look for possible travel routes between them, and you’re set. This is where it’s helpful to turn on topographic layers. Deer are fairly lazy creatures, and prefer to travel parallel to contour lines instead of against them, meaning they would rather walk along a ridge than straight up and down it. They’ll obviously make exceptions if the elevation changes aren’t very severe or if they get spooked, but keep this in mind as you’re searching. Also look for areas that are connected by natural or manmade corridors (e.g., logging trail connecting two clear cuts, conifer hedgerow connecting two fields, etc.). In agricultural areas, these travel corridors should be obvious and will likely be shrubby hedgerows and overgrown fence lines. Basically, any kind of structure that crosses relatively open agricultural land or fields will be used. On heavily forested properties, however, these trails may just follow the edge between two different habitats. Deer have plenty of structure in a forest, so you’re just looking for where several habitat types come together.

Using those corridors, try to identify a location along them that really funnels them to a good hunting spot. We call these spots “pinch points” because they squeeze the deer activity into a tightly bound location. Some examples include a six row windbreak narrowing down into two rows, a beaver pond and river coming together to funnel deer movement between them, or the middle of an hourglass-shaped food plot. If you can identify a spot like this that is near some mature trees where you could set your tree stands up, then you can move on to the next step below. If not, keep scanning the aerials to find a decent ambush site.

Field Verification

Now that you’ve theoretically found a handful of good tree stand locations, it’s time to put some miles on the boots and make sure that your hunches are correct. Whether it’s the middle of the summer or you’re doing some post season deer scouting, print out a map with your polygons and stand sites labeled on the aerial and bring it with you to the field. It may also be helpful to download Google Earth or similar mapping software on a smartphone (there are several smartphone hunting apps) so you can see exactly where you’re at and tweak your stand location while you’re in the woods.

Whether you use paper maps or technology, navigate to your pre-selected spots and take a look around. Does it look like you had envisioned when you were sitting at the computer screen? If it’s clearly not where you want to hunt, move on to the next spot. If it has some potential, though, it’s time to investigate a little more thoroughly. Even if it takes some slight re-adjustments of the original location, at least you didn’t spend all day wandering the woods to find it.

Scan your surroundings for deer sign along the funnel areas. If you chose well, you should be able to find a deer trail, droppings, or rubs without too much effort. Ideally, you’ll find a heavily-worn trail with plenty of scat, and several past rubs lining the way. Now do you see any good-sized trees overlooking this trail that could hide your profile once sitting in the stand? Try to stay away from aspen, ash, or birch trees as they generally don’t have a wide enough profile to hide your silhouette. However, oaks, maples, and conifers usually have enough structure at height to help you disappear.

Stealthy Access and Wind Direction are Critical

Alright, you think you’ve found the perfect spot, but did you miss something important? Most hunters focus too much on the stand location in terms of deer sign, and completely neglect the access side of things. This is one of the most important deer scouting tips. If you can’t sneak in and out of your location without spooking the deer, then the perfect tree you found is actually garbage. By hunting it, you risk disrupting normal deer behavior and travel patterns, making your top-notch pinch point useless. Similarly, if you see a perfect tree on the predominantly upwind side of the trail and still decide to hang a stand there, you could spend more time educating deer to your presence than seeing mature bucks. And that is not the goal.

Take another look at the aerial map and see if there’s a way you could approach and leave the stand location without crossing the deer trail or otherwise leaving any sign you were there. Since you’re perched on a deer trail versus bedding or feeding areas, it should be a little easier to do, but keep this in mind. For example, is there a ditch or creek near the funnel that you could use to navigate there without leaving much sign? Is there a steep ridge that deer are unlikely to use that you could approach from? Even if it means going out of your way a bit, it’s better to err on the side of caution when it comes to entry and exit routes. Yet many people ignore these basic whitetail deer hunting strategies because they get lazy.

Don’t set up tree stands on the upwind side of a trail if you can possibly help it. It’s better to choose a less-concealing tree downwind than perching in a great tree upwind. Why? You can sometimes fool a whitetail’s vision if you dress appropriately and don’t move. But it’s pretty much impossible to convince them you’re a tree after they get a nose full of human scent. For most of the whitetail range, the predominant wind direction is from the northwest, but there will be localized differences depending on the topography. Make an effort to understand that before you commit to a hunting spot.

The Best Tree Stands for Different Situations

Whew! You finally found the perfect hunting spot using your aerial deer scouting techniques and field verifying them. Now you need to decide what type of tree stand is best for the location. If your resources are somewhat limited, you may only have one stand to choose from, which makes this section pretty easy for you. But if you have a couple different types hanging in the garage or shed, this process can make a big difference in the ease of hunting and your ultimate success.

First, consider how difficult it would be to physically get tree stands to your final location. For example, do you really want to weave a ladder stand through a maze of aspen trees or brush, or haul it up a steep ridge by yourself? We’re guessing not. But a fixed position tree stand or climbing stand would be relatively easy to carry into remote sites full of the conditions above. Alternatively, if you’re hunting an open field or food plot with good access, you could easily use a side by side or ATV to haul a double-wide stand in. Along those same lines, will you be the only one hunting from the stand, or do you plan to take your kids with? The Duo is a great option for bringing along a hunting partner, no matter the age. The footrest, seat, and shooting rail all flip back to offer more room on the platform while setting up, but the stand is big enough for two people and is rated to hold 500 pounds of hunter and gear. For these reasons, it’s also one of the best ladder stands for big men, as well.

If you use hunting stands and blinds alike, you’re familiar with the challenges of private versus public land. When you primarily hunt on private land, you can leave your stands up throughout the season without much fear of it being stolen. Since you have that option, you can also choose larger, more permanent stands such as a tripod tree stand or box blind. But if you’ll be hunting public land, you’ll probably want to choose a climbing tree stand or fixed position stand that you can take with you or hope nobody notices it if you do leave it out. Your hunting personality will also play a role in deciding which tree stand to use. If you like to be very comfortable while in the woods and have all the tree stand accessories, including camouflage tree stand blinds, then a more spacious model might work better.

These considerations will all help you narrow down what kind of tree stands you decide to use. Whichever one you choose for your situation, you need to make sure that it’s safe by doing seasonal maintenance. The best option is to take it down at the end of the season and tighten all bolts, grease any moving parts, and renew your cables or straps.

The Final Touches

As you can now hopefully see, aerial deer scouting saves you from walking many, many miles to find new hunting hot spots. By first screening hunting properties and the land cover on them, you can eliminate 90 percent of the area, which saves you time and effort. Then you can focus on really examining the high priority spots in person. So this next season, spend some time deer scouting the smart way, with a refreshing beverage in hand and sitting on the couch.

Locating Gobbler Hot Spots for Your Ground Blinds

April 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Got Game Blog, Ground Blinds /by Big Game

Ground Blinds | Turkey Hunting Strategies to Make Life Easier

What’s one phrase that realtors and anyone involved in the housing market repeatedly love to preach? “Location, location, location,” right? You’ve heard it all before, and can probably understand why this is true. But what do housing clichés have to do with turkey hunting? You can say the same thing about the best locations for your ground blind during turkey season. Of all the spring turkey hunting tips you hear about, it really all comes down to location, whether you’re hunting relatively unpressured, early season birds or extremely call-shy, late season birds.

Now you’re probably asking what the purpose of turkey decoys or calling tactics is if location is the most important factor. Those are extremely important details too, as we’ll look at below. But without the right location or hunting blind set up, you may be stacking the deck against yourself before you even head out into the woods. So if you’re wondering how to how to hunt turkeys in the spring, here are some tips for finding and taking advantage of these turkey hunting hot spots so you can have a better chance at adding a fan and beard to your wall soon.

Youth Season Turkey Hunting Success Out Of Ground Blinds

(video) A lot of turkey hunting action and a whole lot of youth hunting success. Using the ground blinds was critical to the success of these turkey hunters.

Ideal Turkey Habitat

Turkeys aren’t too picky about their habitat preferences, but there are a few things that help make for a tremendous property. First, there should be numerous roost trees on your hunting land. Basically any tall, open-branched tree should do the trick, but typically these include oaks, some maples, and white or red pine trees. Waterways, including streams, ditches, rivers, or ponds, are also a vital habitat feature for turkeys. These waterbodies not only provide a critical drinking source for them, but also support healthy trees, shrubs, and herbaceous vegetation.

The next thing they need is a good feeding area to sustain them beyond what foraging for native plants or leftover mast (e.g., acorns, wild grape, crabapples) might provide. People might not realize it, but up to 90% of a turkey’s diet consists of plant matter. Turkeys love spring food plots for that very reason, with clover being one of the more common species preferred in the spring. They will forage on the fresh green leaves, but also key in on the newly emerging insects because of their high protein content. This makes clover plots attractive not only for deer, but also for turkey hunting.

Turkeys also prefer shorter-cropped or more open-growing vegetation as opposed to wading through dense long grasses (cool season grasses like reed canary). This type of growth is more difficult for hens with poults to travel through and reduces their visibility from predators. However, hens will still nest in areas with good side cover, provided it is within proximity to feeding areas, early successional habitat, open understory shrublands, or mature woodlands with little herbaceous growth.

Best Ground Blind Locations

Now that you’re familiar with where turkeys like to live, we’ll discuss some good spots for you to set up your ground blinds to maximize a shot opportunity. As we mentioned, even the best calling and turkey decoy placement won’t do much for you if you set up in a spot where turkeys naturally don’t like to go. You’ll be forcing them to go out of their way to come to you, and it’s a losing battle more often than not. On the other hand, if wild turkeys already prefer certain locations and you can set up adjacent to or between these areas, you’re not making them do anything different from their normal routine. The only difference is that there will be a sweet-talking hen decoy at their usual hangout. And that’s a recipe for success when you’re hunting for turkeys.

Open fields in the form of food plots, pastures, meadows, or hay fields draw turkeys during spring mornings to eat and toms will often choose one of these locations as a strutting zone. However, Eastern wild turkeys will rarely feel comfortable venturing into the center of large fields, and more often prefer openings smaller than 5 acres. Because of this tendency, you should focus your effort on the edges. Set up your Quantum ground blind on the edge of one of these fields, flanked by shrubs and trees to break up the outline further. The blind is surprisingly lightweight at only 11 pounds, and sets up in short order due to its spring steel frame. Place your decoys in the open field about 10 to 15 yards in front of your shooting window. Face the decoys quartering away from you in whatever direction you anticipate gobblers to come from.

A location that sets up similar to this includes smaller forest openings or recent clearcuts, but you need to make some adjustments to your strategy. Forest openings may be significantly smaller than open field settings, so you’ll be tucked in closer to the action. Take some time to brush in your ground blinds so that they blend in seamlessly with the surrounding cover. We’ll discuss that further below.

Another important area you should hunt is between roosting and feeding areas. You can often catch turkeys working their way from roost trees to the feeding areas in the early morning hours. After you’ve roosted a gobbler by using an owl or crow call, you’ll need to quickly get to your blind very stealthily. You should set some walking hen decoys out so that they’re facing the feeding area, and ideally use some fishing line to add a little movement to them. Once there’s enough shooting light, feel free to call aggressively using cuts and yelps with the occasional fighting purr tossed in. Calling spring gobblers isn’t as difficult as it seems if you stick to these three basic calls. That should convince almost any roosted tom to fly down and check it out.

If the morning hunts don’t work out in your favor, it’s not too late. Afternoon turkey hunting can also produce some exciting action, depending on the location you choose to hunt. First, realize that turkeys will get more cautious as they return to their roost trees, as they don’t want to attract the attention of a predator right before bedtime. As a result, dial down your calling efforts as the afternoon sun starts to dip lower in the sky. To still catch some good turkey action, set your ground blind up on a travel route between the feeding and roosting sites, but nearer to the food source where the gobblers will still eat and strut a bit before retiring for the day. One of the best afternoon turkey hunting tips is to not set up too close to the roost trees, because you’ll probably not hear them approach and you’ll disturb them when you leave for the night.

How to Hide Your Ground Blinds

Not brushing in your ground blind, even a little, is a huge mistake. Any effort to hide yourself further from the keen and penetrating eyes of a mature gobbler will help. Even though it seems you’d have a better view, try to avoid placing them on ridge tops or hills. Once the sky lightens up, your blind will be a dark blocky shape that sticks out like a sore thumb. Instead, position yourself so that the top of your blind will not show against the ridge line. In relatively flat areas, the aim of the game is to break up your outline as much as possible by locating it against a natural backdrop (such as a large tree, clump of shrubs, or uprooted tree), and then adding additional branches around, leaning against, and even on top of your blind. Step back and take a look at it from 40 to 50 yards away to see what stands out.

If possible, try to get your ground blinds set up and brushed in a week in advance of your hunt to give the birds time to get used to it. If that’s not an option, then you really need to step up your natural concealment efforts. While turkey hunting in a blind, you should dress in darker camouflage patterns or black clothing to match the dark interior of the blind. If you keep most of the windows closed, it should stay fairly dark inside, which will conceal your movements more. Additionally, don’t forget to bring your turkey hunting chair or it could become a long day of squatting in your blind.

While you may not strictly need a ground blind for shotgun hunting, it will really help with bow hunting. Ground blinds for bow hunting turkeys should have enough room to maneuver inside and draw your bow back, and also offer a comfortable height to shoot from. That’s why Big Game Tree Stands has some of the market’s best hunting blinds. You may also want to use ground blind accessories like a bow hanger to make the moment of truth easier and less hectic.

How to Find the Best Turkey Hunting Locations

While boots on the ground is really the only way you can truly confirm your choice to hunt a given spot, there are ways to find them without tromping around your entire hunting property. If you hunt your own private land, you likely already know it very well, but if you’re hunting a new lease or public land, this approach works really well. Open up an aerial map software, like Google Maps satellite view or Google Earth, which should allow you to survey the hunting property for possible ground blind locations. Locating any open field areas (pastures, natural meadows, or food plots) is easy, but finding a mature oak stand isn’t always so intuitive. Cycle through the imagery dates to find an autumn time period. Oak trees maintain their leaves in the fall, so they’ll stand out once all the other trees lose theirs. Once you know these two basic areas, look for possible travel routes between them, using topographic layers to help. Using this technology makes scouting for turkeys pretty easy, and you’ll just need to confirm the spots.

Get Out There

To recap, once you’ve potentially located one of the hot spots mentioned above on an aerial map, get out there a week or so before your hunt to set up your blind. Brush it in thoroughly and locate it in an area with a high chance of calling a gobbler into range. Using these turkey hunting tips and strategies for ground blinds, you’ll be hoisting a mature gobbler over your shoulder before you know it.