Hanging Your Stands to Better Your Success in the Whitetail Woods
Over the past 18 years of bow hunting I have definitely made my fair share of mistakes that have cost me big deer. Luckily with those mistakes I have learned from them, and have changed the way I hunt to increase my odds of harvesting that giant I am after.
Hang Multiple Sets for Multiple Wind Directions
As whitetail hunters we always play the wind, and before seasons approach we pre hang a lot of our sets to the normal prevailing wind directions, which is normally S, SW, or a Westerly wind. This a lot of the times works, but the last few years we have had numerous East and North winds which has thrown another curveball into our bow hunting.
In 2021, not being prepared for these wind directions cost me the buck I was after.
When the wind was off and I couldn’t hunt, he would show. That year I learned a very important lesson, which leads me to this first tip… always hang multiple sets in a given area for all wind directions. The more consistent you can be at hunting a particular deer, and the more treestand time you can have, the more likely you are to harvest that deer.
No matter the wind direction, I no longer have an excuse why I can’t be in a stand. Being prepared and pre-planning for multiple winds ahead of time has really increased my success in recent years.
Position Your Stands for 20-Yard or Less Shots
One of the biggest mistakes a lot of us have surely made at one point in time or another is making a bad shot -- whether it was from hitting a limb, shooting too far, or the deer ducking or jumping the string. Unfortunately, anything can happen and we can’t always control it, but you can hang your sets to alleviate some of these mishaps.
When I go into an area to hang a stand, the first thing I try to determine is where that deer will most likely be. This could be where they enter and exit a field or food plot, a cluster of mass producing oak trees, a scrape, or a particular trail or ridge they tend to travel most. Whatever this location may be, I try to always hang my sets to where I will have around a 20 yard shot. Given the state or terrain sometimes this could be challenging, but it’s always something I try to stick with.
You will be less likely to hit a limb that you may have never seen at a longer distance, less likely for error, and less likely for a deer to have time to react to a shot to duck or jump your string. Anything that will help alleviate in making a bad shot and wounding a deer is extremely important.
Hang Sets in Imperfect Trees
When we head to the woods to hang our stands we tend to look for the trees that are the straightest, easiest to climb, and that have the least amount of shooting lanes to cut, but what we should be looking for are those trees that are less than perfect and require a little more work.
Those perfect trees may be good for us, but in all reality they are not good trees to hunt from as they don’t have much cover/concealment or abnormalities to blend in. When I head to the field to hang a set I look for trees with split trunks, trees with limbs to break up a pattern, trees that may be leaning or crooked, and I look for tree species such as oaks, smooth bark hickories, and beech that I can hang a set in (or similar) since these species hold their leaves throughout the fall and a lot of the winter months. This will allow you to keep cover even when the leaves come off.
Thankfully the Novix Treestands and Climbing Sticks allow you to hunt in virtually any type of tree given all of the adjustments on the stands and sticks themselves. If you cannot locate any of the tree species above that retain their leaves, CamoFlex has been a really great tool for me in creating that cover that I may not be able to find naturally. Being able to stay concealed and undetected is an extremely important factor in being able to harvest that buck you are after.
In conclusion, there are many variables that are constantly going against you in the whitetails woods, but better hanging your sets is one variable you can control to help increase your odds of harvesting that giant buck you’ve been after!
