Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 800: Foundations - Season-Long Stand Setups Done Right, Right Now

Transcript

Ep. 800: Foundations - Season-Long Stand Setups Done Right, Right Now · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
0:09
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
0:14
Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:19
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
0:22
Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about summertime tree stand
0:27
Speaker 2: prep and how often we sabotage ourselves by not doing
0:31
Speaker 2: it correctly. You know those nagging thoughts you have that
0:35
Speaker 2: keep you up at night when you just want to
0:37
Speaker 2: slip into unconsciousness where you can, I don't know, dream
0:40
Speaker 2: away about prepping for the zombie apocalypse or something cool
0:43
Speaker 2: like that. Well, it was one of those dumb nagging
0:46
Speaker 2: thoughts to spawn the idea for this podcast. And you
0:49
Speaker 2: know also the fact that it's go time for summer
0:52
Speaker 2: scouting and tree stand prep now. If you're not out
0:55
Speaker 2: there getting something ready to go, you might miss your
0:58
Speaker 2: window and you don't want that. You also don't want
1:01
Speaker 2: to sabotage your future hunting self by not taking care
1:04
Speaker 2: of business now, which is really kind of what this
1:07
Speaker 2: episode is all about. About fifteen years ago, I was
1:10
Speaker 2: out looking for a good way to access some new
1:12
Speaker 2: public land by my house. The property had gone from
1:16
Speaker 2: private ownership to county ownership, and it looked like a
1:19
Speaker 2: good place to shoot some ducks and arrow a few deer.
1:22
Speaker 2: It also bought it up to a few different roads,
1:24
Speaker 2: so I started poking around. On one of the dead
1:27
Speaker 2: end spots I found where I thought I could access
1:30
Speaker 2: the property, I parked, hiked into it, and took a
1:34
Speaker 2: good look around. And when I came back out, there
1:36
Speaker 2: was a guy standing by my truck, which always sucks.
1:40
Speaker 2: It turned out different than I expected. The guy was
1:42
Speaker 2: a bowhunter who owned seventeen acres that bordered that chunk
1:46
Speaker 2: of public land and just wanted to know what it
1:48
Speaker 2: was like in there, because he hadn't gone in yet.
1:51
Speaker 2: So we struck up a conversation and came to an
1:54
Speaker 2: agreement that he'd let me park at his place and
1:56
Speaker 2: access the public through his ground if i'd keep him
1:59
Speaker 2: updated out on the deer activity and maybe hunt with
2:01
Speaker 2: him a little bit. So we became friends pretty quickly,
2:04
Speaker 2: because at that time I didn't have kids, and I
2:06
Speaker 2: scouted and hunted a lot, so I was out there
2:10
Speaker 2: a lot while he struggled with hunting in general, you know,
2:14
Speaker 2: kind of just from a lack of experience. I quickly
2:17
Speaker 2: found that he could fix anything and was always working
2:20
Speaker 2: on something. You know, the kind of person I'm referring to.
2:24
Speaker 2: He's always working on a classic car rebuild or something
2:27
Speaker 2: on his house or whatever. He's not the kind of
2:29
Speaker 2: guy to sit around drinking beers on his deck for
2:32
Speaker 2: hours at a time. If you get my drift, well,
2:35
Speaker 2: Scott sort of semi retired a few years ago. He
2:38
Speaker 2: still works some, but he has more free time than
2:40
Speaker 2: he used to. This means he has more time to
2:43
Speaker 2: take on crazy projects. For example, a couple of weeks ago,
2:47
Speaker 2: he called me and asked me if I could give
2:48
Speaker 2: him a hand with something. Now. That's something was lifting
2:52
Speaker 2: a nineteen twenty seven player piano over on its side
2:56
Speaker 2: in his living room so he could replace a bunch
2:58
Speaker 2: of parts and get it running. Now, if you're not
3:02
Speaker 2: going to transport yourself back to prohibition days to run
3:05
Speaker 2: a speak easy for the folks looking to catch a buzz,
3:08
Speaker 2: but stay off the police radar. I have no idea
3:11
Speaker 2: why you'd need a functional player piano. But it doesn't
3:15
Speaker 2: matter what I think about it, though, because it wasn't
3:17
Speaker 2: my jam. So I went to Scott's place, where I
3:20
Speaker 2: met up with his son and his son in law
3:23
Speaker 2: and some other dude who I don't know. Together, we
3:26
Speaker 2: could barely move that thing without breaking everything, including the
3:29
Speaker 2: important parts of our bodies that allow us to stand
3:32
Speaker 2: up straight. Seriously, the cheap plastic shit we fill our
3:36
Speaker 2: houses with these days just doesn't compare to the build
3:39
Speaker 2: on that stupid piano. The whole thing was made to last,
3:44
Speaker 2: and with that durability comes a lot of weight. Five
3:47
Speaker 2: grown men who are you know, in pretty good shape
3:51
Speaker 2: could barely move it. What was worse is that we
3:54
Speaker 2: knew Scott would get the whole thing fixed and up
3:56
Speaker 2: and running, and then we'd have to lift it and
3:59
Speaker 2: hold it up while he bolted the legs back on,
4:02
Speaker 2: which was way worse than our initial job. Scott was
4:05
Speaker 2: pleased with himself and is off on other projects, and honestly,
4:09
Speaker 2: I kind of admire him for it. He keeps busy
4:13
Speaker 2: and he doesn't half assed stuff. The work he does
4:16
Speaker 2: on random things doesn't appeal to me in the least,
4:19
Speaker 2: but he doesn't phone anything in and in one way
4:23
Speaker 2: I can relate to him on that which is you know,
4:26
Speaker 2: in this one thing which you're probably going to guess,
4:29
Speaker 2: which is my golf swing, ha ha, just kidding, it's
4:32
Speaker 2: deer hunting, or more specifically for this episode setting up
4:36
Speaker 2: season long stand sites. I qualify it that way because
4:41
Speaker 2: we often talk about going mobile, whether you know that's
4:44
Speaker 2: with a saddle or a lightweight hang on, and guys
4:47
Speaker 2: like me in the industry often forget how important it
4:49
Speaker 2: is to go out in the summer and hang stands
4:51
Speaker 2: it will stay up until the season closes, which is
4:54
Speaker 2: a strategy that a lot of hunters use. Now, the
4:57
Speaker 2: emphasis we put on the mobile game and thinking through
5:00
Speaker 2: our setups is important, but it also ignores the reality
5:03
Speaker 2: that that style of hunting benefits greatly from the surprise aspect.
5:08
Speaker 2: I know that's not a secret, but it is like
5:10
Speaker 2: the number one reason to go that route. It's also
5:13
Speaker 2: just not a great route for everyone. I was reminded
5:16
Speaker 2: of this recently when I was laying in bed trying
5:18
Speaker 2: to sleep and a thought occurred to me that has
5:21
Speaker 2: occurred to me a lot since the end of April.
5:24
Speaker 2: There's a stand that I hung over in northern Wisconsin
5:27
Speaker 2: for the rut in this pine tree, and I'm very
5:30
Speaker 2: excited about that spot. I've already talked about it a
5:33
Speaker 2: few times. But in that pine tree, I cut a
5:36
Speaker 2: lot of branches off to get where I need to be.
5:41
Speaker 2: Those branches or where those branches used to be are
5:44
Speaker 2: now I'm sure going to be a sappy nightmare. I
5:49
Speaker 2: need to remedy that, because I hate climbing into a
5:52
Speaker 2: stand and getting covered in sap. I hate leaning against
5:55
Speaker 2: the tree and sticking to it. I don't know what
5:58
Speaker 2: I'm going to do about it, but I think I'm
6:00
Speaker 2: gonna get some cheap fabric, maybe some felt or something,
6:03
Speaker 2: and use it as a buffer against those spots where
6:06
Speaker 2: I cut off the limbs and they're gonna be all sappy.
6:09
Speaker 2: I know I need to do this, but I haven't yet,
6:13
Speaker 2: and that bothers me. Everything about that stand is good
6:16
Speaker 2: to go already, but that one detail. The trail into
6:20
Speaker 2: it is cut and trimmed and tact and it's money.
6:23
Speaker 2: The shooting lanes are cut and ready to go. The
6:25
Speaker 2: whole thing is going to be so fun to sit
6:27
Speaker 2: in November, but not unless I address this one stupid detail.
6:33
Speaker 2: And if I don't. I know I will regret it
6:35
Speaker 2: and I won't hunt that stand or that spot the
6:38
Speaker 2: way I need to, and that would be stupid. It
6:41
Speaker 2: could very well cost me a deer. I know this
6:45
Speaker 2: because I've sabotaged myself a lot when it comes to
6:48
Speaker 2: tree stand setups. In fact, this often unacknowledged reality is
6:52
Speaker 2: one of the reasons that pop up blinds and box
6:54
Speaker 2: blinds have become so popular in deer hunting. They're just
6:58
Speaker 2: easier in general once they're set up. They just don't
7:02
Speaker 2: require as much attention to detail. But with blinds, you
7:06
Speaker 2: give up the experience of feeling like you're a part
7:09
Speaker 2: of the woods and are meeting the deer at a
7:11
Speaker 2: level where they can have a good chance of busting you,
7:13
Speaker 2: if that makes any sense. Now, I know you can
7:15
Speaker 2: get busted in blinds, but I also know it's a
7:17
Speaker 2: different type of sit than being in a tree stand.
7:19
Speaker 2: There's a little more at stake. So anyway, you probably
7:23
Speaker 2: have a few stands you set up for bow or
7:25
Speaker 2: gun season or both that are sitting in your garage
7:29
Speaker 2: right now, just waiting for you to mess with them
7:31
Speaker 2: and make plans to get them set up. The thing
7:34
Speaker 2: that gets a lot of us at this stage is
7:36
Speaker 2: that the idea we have in our heads is often
7:39
Speaker 2: not the reality we meet in the woods. A few
7:43
Speaker 2: years ago this became very evident to me when I
7:45
Speaker 2: drove down to southwest Wisconsin to help set up some
7:48
Speaker 2: ladder stands in my buddy's property. Now, I'm not a
7:51
Speaker 2: big ladder stand guy in general, because they're so not
7:55
Speaker 2: very portable, and I don't like sitting spots that get
7:58
Speaker 2: hunted super hard, which is something that seems to happen
8:00
Speaker 2: a lot with ladder stands. But his property is right
8:04
Speaker 2: for a few season long setups, so we set out
8:06
Speaker 2: with a plan when we got to each spot to
8:09
Speaker 2: wrestle those giant, heavy ladder stands in place. We ended
8:13
Speaker 2: up making concessions on every spot. You need the right
8:18
Speaker 2: tree for a big ladder stand, and nature doesn't often
8:21
Speaker 2: deliver perfect trees in the spots you really want to hunt.
8:25
Speaker 2: It was a huge pain in the ass, and we
8:28
Speaker 2: ended up mostly going for trees that were suitable for
8:31
Speaker 2: putting a stand in them, then hiding a stand and
8:34
Speaker 2: a hunter, or positioning a hunter for a really good
8:36
Speaker 2: shot in a different tree that would be better for
8:39
Speaker 2: the setup, or at least better for the spot worse
8:42
Speaker 2: than that, those big ladder stands that all of the
8:45
Speaker 2: deer know about are hard to hide when the leaves fall,
8:48
Speaker 2: which means you take a spot that should be really
8:50
Speaker 2: good and you put a very noticeable stand there that's
8:55
Speaker 2: going to stick out for a lot of different reasons
8:57
Speaker 2: as the season progresses, so you actually get easier to
9:02
Speaker 2: pick off as the pressure builds in a single area,
9:05
Speaker 2: which is a good recipe for clunker hunts because you
9:08
Speaker 2: have two things going against you there. Bigger hang ons
9:31
Speaker 2: are a slightly different story, but can encourage us to
9:34
Speaker 2: fall into the same traps. The truth with this stuff
9:37
Speaker 2: is that it's best to spend some real time thinking
9:40
Speaker 2: these setups through. Too often we pick a spot eyeball
9:44
Speaker 2: a tree fifteen yards away, and then set a stand
9:47
Speaker 2: up to face the most likely shot location, and we
9:49
Speaker 2: call it good. Well, we might also trim every possible
9:53
Speaker 2: thing that could deflect an arrow there, which might do
9:56
Speaker 2: us a favor but also might make us easier to
9:59
Speaker 2: get spotted better. Yet, it's pretty common these days to
10:04
Speaker 2: take a season long spot and make sure it has
10:06
Speaker 2: a camera overlooking it, which means more human presence, even
10:10
Speaker 2: if it's a cell camera. Now I realize I'm making
10:13
Speaker 2: a good case for not setting up season long stands now,
10:16
Speaker 2: because after say, I don't know, a couple of weeks
10:19
Speaker 2: of bo season, they might you know, not be worthless,
10:22
Speaker 2: but they might be getting there. But they don't have to.
10:25
Speaker 2: I think the first way to make a stand site
10:27
Speaker 2: better is to position the stands so it isn't facing
10:30
Speaker 2: where the deer are most likely to be. Being able
10:34
Speaker 2: to hide behind the tree, at least partially is a
10:38
Speaker 2: big benefit, it really is. I almost never set anything
10:41
Speaker 2: up to face the likely travel spots of deer because
10:44
Speaker 2: I don't want to be hanging out there on their
10:46
Speaker 2: side when I am most likely going to have to move.
10:51
Speaker 2: I don't know why this is so common, but I
10:53
Speaker 2: see it all the time. I have one buddy who
10:57
Speaker 2: is scared of heights and who is also one of
10:59
Speaker 2: the worst and hangers I've ever seen. Every one of
11:02
Speaker 2: his stands is about ten feet off the ground and
11:04
Speaker 2: always facing the open field or food plot or logging
11:07
Speaker 2: road or pond or whatever he thinks the deer will use.
11:10
Speaker 2: He also gets busted a lot. He's one of those
11:13
Speaker 2: people who thinks deer have a sixth sense because they're
11:16
Speaker 2: always seeing him. But the truth is, he just really
11:19
Speaker 2: kind of stinks that setting up stands, and he isn't
11:21
Speaker 2: hunting super unpressured deer. It's pretty simple. So what else
11:26
Speaker 2: can you do to give yourself a chance while not
11:28
Speaker 2: sabotaging yourself? For starters? Remove any and all extra stuff
11:33
Speaker 2: you don't need. If you don't need a shooting rail
11:36
Speaker 2: on your ladder stand, remove it. The more metal you
11:40
Speaker 2: have hanging around you, the more likely you are to
11:43
Speaker 2: bump a bowl, limb, or a backpack buckle or something
11:46
Speaker 2: into it. Simple is good here. If you happen to
11:51
Speaker 2: climb into your stand while you're cutting, shooting lanes, or
11:53
Speaker 2: just generally setting it up, Listen that slight pop your
11:58
Speaker 2: ladder makes under your waist, or the clank of a
12:01
Speaker 2: d ring that helps keep two sections of ladder together
12:04
Speaker 2: is not going to seem like a big deal in
12:07
Speaker 2: July or August, But it's a different story on a
12:10
Speaker 2: calm morning when it's twenty seven degrees out. If you
12:13
Speaker 2: have a way to tighten things up and shore up
12:15
Speaker 2: anything that might make extra metal on metal noise, do
12:19
Speaker 2: it now when you're in your stand and running a
12:22
Speaker 2: pole saw or directing a buddy on the ground with
12:25
Speaker 2: a saw. Take some time also to imagine how realistic
12:29
Speaker 2: you need to be about shooting lanes. It's easy to
12:32
Speaker 2: go way overboard in August with this task, and that
12:35
Speaker 2: will bite you in the ass in November. At twenty yards,
12:39
Speaker 2: you should be able to shoot through a basketball size
12:42
Speaker 2: shooting window all day long if you need to now.
12:45
Speaker 2: While I wouldn't recommend only giving yourself that option, the
12:49
Speaker 2: other end of the spectrum is to cut everything down
12:52
Speaker 2: to give yourself wide open shooting options. You gotta find
12:55
Speaker 2: a happy medium. Give yourself a few windows on the
12:58
Speaker 2: best trails or into the field or food plot, but
13:02
Speaker 2: don't open things up so much that you're bound to
13:04
Speaker 2: get picked off. This is a lot easier to say
13:08
Speaker 2: than it is to do, but it's very important to
13:10
Speaker 2: think about now. I also like to envision where the
13:13
Speaker 2: deer are likely to travel and what my shot options
13:16
Speaker 2: will be when they go one way on the trail
13:19
Speaker 2: versus the opposite. Now, you might set up and have
13:22
Speaker 2: a nice quartering away shot at eighteen yards when they
13:25
Speaker 2: go down the best trail, like you hope they will,
13:28
Speaker 2: but they often don't do what we hope they will.
13:31
Speaker 2: Can you shoot him if he comes down the trail
13:33
Speaker 2: from the opposite direction, or will that nice quartering away
13:36
Speaker 2: shot turn into something that's totally iffy and quartering to
13:40
Speaker 2: a little too much? How do you remedy that situation
13:43
Speaker 2: in the summer without opening yourself up too much? How
13:47
Speaker 2: much of the tree or neighboring trees can you leave
13:50
Speaker 2: in place to give yourself some cover in the front
13:52
Speaker 2: and behind and below you? Leaving cover behind you might
13:56
Speaker 2: be the easiest. In front, Well, we've already kind of
13:59
Speaker 2: discussed that cutting shooting lanes, but what about below your
14:02
Speaker 2: stand platform. We don't think about this a lot, but
14:06
Speaker 2: the deers that are most likely to bust you are
14:08
Speaker 2: your non target deer. They get close enough to get
14:11
Speaker 2: a whiff of where you placed your hand on the
14:13
Speaker 2: ladder or are you touched a dead fall on the
14:15
Speaker 2: way to your stand. Those deer they get a little
14:18
Speaker 2: cautious off of some olfactory red flag, are the same
14:22
Speaker 2: ones that eventually look up. A deer that has a
14:26
Speaker 2: clear view of you there, especially at KG dough is
14:30
Speaker 2: one that's going to lose her mind and turn your
14:33
Speaker 2: hunt into a snort fest. It often won't be the
14:37
Speaker 2: buck that just has his destination in mind and plans
14:39
Speaker 2: to walk right on through it. Last night, it'll be
14:42
Speaker 2: the dough with two fawnds who comes through twenty minutes
14:45
Speaker 2: before him, who realizes you haven't done a good job
14:49
Speaker 2: with your stand setup. So, besides addressing some of these
14:54
Speaker 2: common mistakes, we all make what is a good strategy here?
14:58
Speaker 2: I think it's to give yourself time. Too often we go, well,
15:01
Speaker 2: my cousin isn't working today, so we're gonna meet up
15:04
Speaker 2: on the family farm and get six stands set up,
15:07
Speaker 2: and hump three stands into the day. You know you're
15:11
Speaker 2: kind of done. You're ready to go belly up at
15:13
Speaker 2: the local watering hole for a birder and a beer
15:15
Speaker 2: and consider it a job not maybe well done, but
15:18
Speaker 2: done well enough. Maybe I don't know, but it's not though.
15:22
Speaker 2: You need to give yourself time to get this stuff right.
15:25
Speaker 2: I'm way more into hanging maybe two stands a day,
15:28
Speaker 2: but doing it right than to try to get a
15:30
Speaker 2: whole summer's worth of work done on a Saturday. Having
15:34
Speaker 2: to rush through anything because you're almost out of time
15:38
Speaker 2: or you're just ready to quit working is a great
15:40
Speaker 2: way to do just the basics, but not the real
15:43
Speaker 2: detail work that makes tree stand setups really hum for
15:47
Speaker 2: the whole season. The thing here is that even if
15:51
Speaker 2: you're a really busy person, we are talking roughly the
15:54
Speaker 2: same amount of time, but broken up into manageable chunks.
15:58
Speaker 2: Instead of rushing through six set up in a day,
16:01
Speaker 2: try to cover out, you know, parts of three days
16:03
Speaker 2: in the next few weeks to get a couple stands
16:05
Speaker 2: a session set up, you know, set up the way
16:08
Speaker 2: you really want them set up. Now, the last thing
16:11
Speaker 2: I'll say on this, which our mustachioed friend would wholeheartedly
16:14
Speaker 2: approve of, is you might want to make a list
16:19
Speaker 2: not only of each stand site and what you want
16:21
Speaker 2: to accomplish, but really everything about each site that requires
16:24
Speaker 2: summer work, the entrance and exit trails, the trimming, the
16:28
Speaker 2: lifelines you want to hang so you could hunt safely,
16:30
Speaker 2: whatever it is. A checklist will help you set things
16:34
Speaker 2: up the way you need to and follow through with
16:37
Speaker 2: a good detailed plan. I know this might sound like overkill,
16:41
Speaker 2: but here's the deal. It's easy to half ask this
16:44
Speaker 2: stuff in the summer and call it good. But we
16:47
Speaker 2: all know the feeling of getting into a stand that
16:50
Speaker 2: isn't set up to our best abilities, even if that
16:53
Speaker 2: stand is ninety three percent of the way there and
16:55
Speaker 2: it's just a sappy mess that makes the other seven
16:58
Speaker 2: percent untenable. You know, we also know the feeling of
17:02
Speaker 2: making too much noise or sticking out like a sore
17:04
Speaker 2: thumb when the first group of domes starts to work
17:07
Speaker 2: their way through. We know what it's like to get
17:10
Speaker 2: this stuff even a few percent wrong, because that's all
17:14
Speaker 2: the advantage the deer need to show us. We are
17:16
Speaker 2: amateurs and they are not. Do not do that to yourself.
17:20
Speaker 2: Think about your setups and what could go wrong, and
17:22
Speaker 2: then get ahead of as much of that stuff as
17:25
Speaker 2: you can. Give yourself time work through the possible problems
17:29
Speaker 2: and eliminate them. And then come back next week because
17:32
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about a trail camera strategy that
17:34
Speaker 2: you can implement now to help yourself kill bucks in November.
17:38
Speaker 2: Whether you're a bow hunter, a gun hunter, or both.
17:45
Speaker 2: That's it. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired
17:47
Speaker 2: to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which has brought to you by
17:49
Speaker 2: First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening
17:52
Speaker 2: and for all your support. Truly appreciate it so thank
17:55
Speaker 2: you for that. If you need some more hunting advice,
17:58
Speaker 2: maybe you're taking a road trip with a family and
17:59
Speaker 2: you want to listen to some new podcasts I don't know.
18:02
Speaker 2: Maybe you're grilling out, you need a new recipe. You
18:05
Speaker 2: can head on over to them meeteater dot com and
18:07
Speaker 2: find all of that stuff and a hell of a
18:09
Speaker 2: lot more