Buckly
Well-Known Member
I used to climb for a living. Show me the tree that you put a stand in at 45 ft , I’d like to see what a stand at that height looks like. If it’s anything like the buck picture I’m expecting a picture of a step ladder. Lol
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Any Sanctuary Builders / Developers
- Thread starter Whild_Bill
- Start date
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Whild_Bill
Member
I was at a deer expo in the mid 1990’s and had the pleasure of spending several hours talking with Babe Winkleman, we discussed everything under the sun and drank probably three pots of coffee and he told me he said you know a deers biggest weakness is they don’t look up at the top of trees
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I always thought a deer's biggest weakness was the fact that they see in black and white and therefore can't see hunters as long as they don't move?
If a hunter can sit still, there's not much need to endanger your life in the treetops. I'm not knocking those people who like to get high, I'm just saying that sober old carpenters like me can get a deer sitting on the ground too. One things for certain, at 58 years old, before I'd climb 45 feet up in a tree just to get a deer, I'd dig a hole with a trapdoor lid to keep them from seeing me, and use a periscope binocular to keep an eye out for that big buck.
My best friend fell out of a tree stand at about 25' up a tree in Wisconsin 20 years ago, and he's been a cripple who drags one leg ever since.
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Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
That's what I used to think, however, I have a friend who is Amish and won't wear camo pants, always goes in blue jeans (with buttoned on suspenders of course) in a climber about 15' off the ground, he arrows as many or more deer than the next guy wearing Sitka and Kuiu Verde. there's many amish who wear camo, but there's also many who go in blue (or black) pants, and they seem to shoot more deer than most people.
George
Well-Known Member
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
65'
About the only trees that can be climbed to 45' high with a climber are Eastern White Pine and Tulip Poplar trees. Poplar trees, as we call them in PA, (and what you are cutting in your sawmill every day) are straight as a telephone pole, and are some of the most stable trees for a portable climbing platform.I would say 18-20" dia trees are about 12-14" in diameter at 45 feet up, so if a hunter started his summit climber at a 45 degree angle at the bottom it would probably only slant down 2" from level at 45'?
So G, this might mean that every time you cut down a poplar you are cutting down a potential tree stand?
BenAllgood
Well-Known Member
I'll bite on this thread. I've hunted and know guys that hunted commonly in the 40'-50' range. This was in pine country in LA/MS. We could start climbers out at the bottom basically at a 45 degree angle. With the Ol' Man or some other climbers, we could readjust them as we went up. There was even a climber you could turn a crank on to adjust. We did have some loc-ons that high too. This was done mainly to see into cutovers we were hunting with rifles. So, I think those could be sanctuaries if they weren't intruded and scent wasn't blowing into it. Delineated borders would help. But, I don't think you can consider a place you enter into during the season or a month or so before, a sanctuary. I don't believe you can go into an area that routinely holds deer without them knowing you were there. At that point, they detect danger, so by definition, they don't have a safe haven there.
Whild_Bill
Member
Well we dont get winded by our deer we make sure of that or in the rare event one blows at a member its a $250 fine and it not self reported can result in forfetiture of the rest of the season, we have a scent chamber we use before we go out and we use a ton of C'mere Deer throughout the property year round
Whild_Bill
Member
We operate on the honor system with a zero tolerence policy if cought lying and another member could possible hear too, but its really not a issue because we go through extreme measures to cover our scent and not push deer, its the ONLY way we can hunt inside the sanctuaries, but again the conditions have to be perfect or we dont even think about hunting in it
BenAllgood
Well-Known Member
How do you not let any deer cut your track in their sanctuary?
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
What you are saying makes sense; I hear you, you don't take your hunting lightly, and you are fully aware that hunting sensitive areas is very touchy. I think that we are all kind of saying the same thing; hunting a mature trophy buck is a very careful business. And if you have hunting buddies who might not be as serious about it as your are, you might just have to threaten them so they take you seriously.
But about the scent thing, just like you can take a boy out of the Amish but you can never take the Amish out of the boy; you can lower your scent profile, but you can never eliminate your smell, deer will always know when someone has been inside their sanctuary, no matter how many pool noodles you stack up.
A human releases approximately 4,640 quintillion molecules of sweat per second on average, that's how my neighbor's tracking dogs can track a rider on a bicycle a half a day later, by the airborne scent particles that blow onto the weeds at the side of the road. "When a person walks through a deer sanctuary, they are, for all practical purposes, destroying the sanctuary." Or, in effect, undoing what made that place a sanctuary for deer.
I mentioned earlier that we hunt inside of our sanctuaries two days per year average, but that is splitting hairs, if we draw our unmarked sanctuary lines just short of the closest shooting plot and technically make them smaller, we can honestly say that we never hunt in our sanctuaries, it's just a matter of interpretation. By either interpretation, what we are doing is still making a tradeoff, we are fully aware that we partially ruining (the edge of) our sanctuary for a oneshot chance at a trophy. I know a lot of hunters who make a last ditch effort on the last day of the season, hunting special areas that they normally have off limits.
What are some good alternative options? Not many if the shooter buck is hanging tight in the middle of the sanctuary and never comes out in daylight, even if in the middle of the rut (although we never give up hoping and hunting the rut out side the sanctuary, as the rut often brings the old guard to their feet). If you are hunting with a rifle, what @BenAllgood said makes a lot of sense, getting up higher to see into a sanctuary without physically going there except to retrieve that buck of a lifetime. If you are archery hunting, what we are doing is probably one of the best options, drawing deer out to the edge of the sanctuary with a small food plot.
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Buckly
Well-Known Member
Don’t fall for it. LOL. Only if your Covered in Ever calm and swim noodles at 45’. LOL
George
Well-Known Member
We caught us a troll.
George
Well-Known Member
65'
I would say 18-20" dia trees are about 12-14" in diameter at 45 feet up, so if a hunter started his summit climber at a 45 degree angle at the bottom it would probably only slant down 2" from level at 45'?
So G, this might mean that every time you cut down a poplar you are cutting down a potential tree stand?
As much as I enjoy arguing with you Menman, your tulip demensions are right on. A couple of the 18-20" tulips that I have milled were 12-14" at 50-52'.
G
George
Well-Known Member
"I don't believe you can go into an area that routinely holds deer without them knowing you were there."
I concur, most folks have no idea how easy it is to move deer off of their property. While not being a very good hunter, two realizations of mine that have allowed me some success are, 1. I stink, 2. I'm not sneaky.
G
T-Max
Well-Known Member
I really want to comment on the 18 year old spike, but I ain't falling for it...
