EARLY SEASON TREE STAND SITE SELECTION - It’s mid August and the weather is still hot. The lawn seems to be in constant need of attention, the kids are continually begging to be taken to the pool or local lake, your wife is always out shopping for new school clothes, and the fish will be biting again soon. But in the back of your mind lurks the knowledge that archery season is just around the corner. Note to reader…archery is always at the forefront of my mind.
Anyway, if you haven’t already, now is the time to begin thinking about where you’re going to place that tree stand on opening morning.
During the late summer months, deer frequent crop fields. These food sources are readily available, are often bordered by woods that offer a quick means of escape, and are high in the nutrients that deer are bulking up on for the upcoming mating season and winter months. One of the luxuries that crop fields offer to hunters is that they are often within spotting scope or binocular distance of roadways and we can sit back at a distance and watch deer feed without spooking them. This is also a fun family time if you can get the kids to stay quiet.
It’s been at least six months since the last hearty hunter has left the woods and the deer are now the most relaxed you will find them. They are in a routine. The does and yearlings will generally enter the fields well before sunset to begin feeding. Young bucks will be close behind. The big boys will make their appearance usually within the last 30 minutes of daylight. And while it’s entertaining to watch the deer through your binoculars, that’s really not what you should be looking for.
Get to your vantage point early…well before the deer start filtering out of the woods into the field. Then watch the field edges closely and mark the spots where the deer are entering the field. Pay special attention to where the bucks enter the field because it’s not always the same place where the does and yearlings enter. Please understand that the feeding habits of deer may change from August until the opener, especially if acorns start dropping. Deer will abandon every other food source in favor of acorns. White oak is the favored variety followed by red oak. If you can find a white oak ridge littered with acorns about ready to fall, you need to abandon any other hunting plans you have and find a spot nearby…right away. The deer will only stick around until the acorns in that area are gone. But since most archery seasons open before the acorns start to fall, field edges are your best bet in the early going of the season. Try to identify more than one point where the deer are accessing the field. You may need more than one stand location depending on wind direction. And you must be very careful with this. You don’t want the wind blowing out into the field where feeding deer may alert those who have yet to arrive and you don’t want the wind blowing in the direction the deer are coming from or you will never see them.
Accessing and leaving the stand are of great importance as well. Try not towalk through the bedding area on the way to the stand and attempt to get out of your stand and vacate the area without disturbing the deer feeding in the field.
I like to set my stand back from the field’s edge where I can cover any buck that might be visually checking the field out but also close enough to the field where I can reach it.
Another good tactic is to find a ridge that overlooks the field. Many times, bucks will utilize the ridge just before dark to visually check out the field. This is called a staging area. It’s the places bucks hang out after they get out of their beds but before they hit the feeding area. The bucks will also stage in an area with heavy cover anywhere from 50 to 150 yards away from the field. Once the sun sets, they’ll leave these staging areas and make for the fields. If you find a good staging area, you’ll want to set up between it and the bedding area to give yourself every advantage of available daylight.
There are a lot of options for early season archery hunters who want to try field edge hunting. But remember, if you’re not very careful about entering and exiting your stand and paying strict attention to the wind, you will only have about a week to score before the deer realize they are being hunted and go nocturnal on you or switch fields.
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