Deer Stand Views....

[David]

I hope this isn't a repeat here, i have seen a thread like this on another site i am on. I loved it. I have actually modified some of my set ups based on what others are doing. Show your favorite stand views and describe the set up. I love seeing others properties.


"First Field Tripod"
Overlooks a 4 acre old growth field with a one acre clover plot. I am still learning the ways of food plotting, but i think most folks in the SE had this view last year in November.


"Big Field White Oak"
Definitely my "biggest" view from any stand. Too many things in the picture to describe. Chestnuts on the right, 2 plum patches in the middle, a clover plot and surrounded by hardwoods. The field it self is dominated by old field growth. this was taken in February, but well into hunting season, there is still plenty of cover for bedding. You can see the terrain is rolling hills, there is a saddle right in front of me. one low side comes in from right, and the other low side comes in at the green clover plot. I rarely hunt this stand, for many reasons, but i love when the wind works out well to hunt it. The sun sets in my face, so its a bad PM stand, and the prevailing winds are rarely in my advantage in the AM. Access to this stand is terrible so its not ideal, but when it everything comes together the right way, i love it. Longest shot is over 500 yards, but i would never take that. This stand was placed by the previous owner, this view had a lot to do with me buying this farm.

 

[j-bird]

I'll play along....

First one has been a long time favorite of mine. My buddy called it "the stupidest place for a stand he has ever seen". I have taken 2 nice deer form this stand.

First the big picture:
Up is north and this is in a bottom flood plain. The creek makes a great access and the steep bank forces deer movement in a predictable manner behind me. Thin line straight lines are approx property lines. Orange is an annual food plot and green triangle is a perennial plot with 3 apples trees in it. Red dot id the stand location and the arrow indicates the direction the stand faces. The tree line across from the stand shows where the elevation changes and rises - this has several nice chinkapin oaks in it. The brown is CRP around the plot and is native weeds and sapling trees. The green strip between the plot and the stand is a filter strip of cool season grasses. Obviously there is lots of ag around. I hunt this stand when the wind comes from the West, NW and North. It carries my scent mostly to the neighbors place.....too bad. I access the stand from the creek bed and I enter the creek bed near to point in the ag field to the SW of the stand location.


The deer typically come from across the plot in the CRP......some however come from my right round the bend in the creek. This bend and the bend right behind my stand create a steep bank and thus the deer do not like to cross the creek there. The annual plot tends to have corn or beans in it and is only about an acre in size. The apples are just now starting to produce anything at all. The "point" in the strip of trees where the elevation changes is sort of an on/off ramp area where the deer seem to like to go up and down in this location.....we call it "doe point" as both my son and I killed our first deer there and both where does.

The actual view from the stand. First pic is one where I planted the main plot into a fall annual mix. Second pic is obviously planted in corn. With only minimal movement I can see the entire plot area from this location. Once the sun goes down and the shadows start to creep over the plot area the does come to feed and when the time is right the bucks come looking for the does.




The stand itself is tucked back into the trees into a big ash tree (that the borer hasn't gotten to yet). It's a 2 man type ladder stand. I also have a clear view of behind the stand so when I here splashing in the creek from the deer I can get prepared in advance. Any shot at a deer in the plot area is less than 100 yards. And a shot to the near edge of the large plot is less than 30 yards.

This stand has produced 2 of my best bucks and both did the exact same thing.....looking for does feeding in the corn in the larger plot. This stand tends to produce best in the evenings. I think how the cool air gets sucked into the creek bed in the evening has something to do with that.

 

[j-bird]

My second favorite stand is a shooting house I built one summer from scrap machine pallets. It's a little rough and not exactly built for tall people, but it gets the job done. It sits only 4 feet off the ground but it sits where the slope of the ground is away from the plot area so it seems like we are higher. You can see the slope and the annual plot in the background left of this pic. This was taken during my switchgrass planting a few years ago.


The area:
You can see the white roof in the pic. Again orange is annual plot - about 1/4 acre and the green is a perennial plot/orchard of about 3/4 acre. North is a production corn/soybean field. East is a sanctuary area and west is the neighbors.....where nobody hunts! Obviously the deer like to move thru this area and I have even added a stand location in the tree line along the creek for archery season.

The area around my plots is CRP planted in switchgrass and what ever else mother nature has tossed in. There is a small string of willows at the northwestern corner of the annual plot that connects to the neighbors.....the bucks love to rub the crap out of these willows. Furthest shot again in the plots is about 100 yards. I don't archery hunt from the enclosed blind. Access is from the north by crossing the cut corn/bean field and we hunt when winds are from a southerly direction. My stand along the creek is positioned to take advantage of when the wind comes from the north.


This is the view out towards the apples. I also added several sawtooth oaks along the edge of this plot this year so hopefully they do well and we have an additional food source in a few years.


And then this is out looking toward the annual plot. This tends to be corn or beans again and then I tend to add some turnip and winter wheat as well later. To the right you see the willows the deer love to beat up.

 

[Triple C]

Two of my favorite stand sets year end and year out are below. Hang on stands have been placed in the same tree each year since 2011.

This is the view looking north out of the lower-lower plot hang on. Here's what I love about it - It sits on the edge of wetlands behind the stand. Once the leaves fall you can see well into the hardwoods on the other side of the plot and often see deer filtering toward the plot. And near sunset, waterfowl, mostly woodies, come whistling in behind you to the beaver sloughs. It's one of those "feel good" stands with great views.


2nd favorite sit is about 200 yds north of the pic above looking south. It's on the edge of the upper-lower plot. Hardwood draws flank each side of the plot along with a small fallow area we maintain between the 2 plots. Another sit where you see deer in the plot but also filtering in from the hardwoods. My 1st trad bow harvest was out of this stand. Brooks was in the lower lower plot stand and watched thru his bino's as a doe fed from above him up to my stand.

 

[David]

Triple C, it appears like the two stands you posted are on opposite ends of a very large long plot. Tell me about the single pines you have planted in the plot, and the small group of pines that are planted closer together in the overgrown area. What was your strategy behind the pines? Also do you mow or burn the overgrown area around the pines that are out of the plot in the overgrown area?

 

[Triple C]

Triple C, it appears like the two stands you posted are on opposite ends of a very large long plot. Tell me about the single pines you have planted in the plot, and the small group of pines that are planted closer together in the overgrown area. What was your strategy behind the pines? Also do you mow or burn the overgrown area around the pines that are out of the plot in the overgrown area?

David, this plot is a long, linear plot, about 275 yds from one end to the other. When I bought the property, everything except the larger area to the south (lower-lower plot), was in 10 yr old planted pine. We expanded this plot to include everything to the north which we call the upper lower. The pines were young and easily removed with a skid steer. The pines you see left in the plot were just left for aesthetic reasons. My son did all of the work since he owns the equipment and does it for a living. He just likes to leave a few pines scattered here and there in the plot. I didn't argue since he did all the work. The fallow area between the 2 plots had many more pines left in it but several years ago, he removed most of those and piled them in that area for birds to light and drop seed. Next thing you know we had everything growing in it imaginable. The fallow area previously split the 2 plots in half without being able to see from one to the other. We removed about a 1/3 of it to be able to see from one end to the other and expand the size of the planting area a bit. We planned to burn the fallow area this past winter but didn't get it done. It is scheduled for a burn this coming winter when we do a prescribed burn in the pines.

I took this pic in January with a drone. It's looking north to south. You can see the beaver ponds to the left of the lower lower plot and to the south of the plot. Terrible drought this past year so wasn't much growing in January other than grains. At any rate, it's my favorite sit on the property because it's so secluded and it's just a good view. We have 2 archery stands in the north section of the plot, one in the south section and a double ladder stand in the north end of the lower-lower plot just behind the fallow area where you can see from one end to the other.

 

[David]

If his goal was to make it look nice, he did a great job.

It's nice to do some esthetic habitat improvements!

 

[snowracerh]

Great views!

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[DocHolladay]

One of our tripods we put up at the lease.

Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs.

 

[gut_pile]

This one is a favorite come early November


Then sometimes when the wind is wrong, you grab a gobbler lounger and a shooting stick and go make it happen. I killed a nice 5.5yr old buck about 20 minutes after this picture


This gas line is KY produces 20-30 deer sightings per sit. You can see 2 does in the picture in the cut lane



Passed the biggest buck I've ever passed in this stand last year. It's a guarantee 15-20 deer per sit type deal as well

 

[George]

very nice, you guys.

G

 

[Osceola]

This isn't my best hunting stand, but it's my favorite view. The flat area in the distance is a one acre clover plot. The trees on the far side of the plot are about 250 yards away, about my max range. I can easily approach this stand from the North with good concealment, so it works well with our predominantly SW winds.

 

[X-farmerdan]

A few of my favorites.....

 

[Chainsaw]

A few of my favorites..... View attachment 9189 View attachment 9190 View attachment 9191 View attachment 9192

Very nice looking vistas X-Farmer Dan. The stand in the woods though is most interesting. It appears to be a cut out opening. What is the deer draw to it?

 

[X-farmerdan]

Very nice looking vistas X-Farmer Dan. The stand in the woods though is most interesting. It appears to be a cut out opening. What is the deer draw to it?

Thank you Chainsaw! I always appreciate your gracious and considerate commentary and thought!

The short answer to your question is, nothing!" The "draw" is elsewhere but to get to the draw there's some travel involved!

Now the rest of the story. The farm is about 400 acres just on the western edge of the coastal plane in Virginia. The farm is long and skinny. The only entrance is to the north where the elevation is about 220 ft above sea level. The land quickly falls to an average elevation of about 60 ft. At 50 feet you will find yourself in wetlands.

At the north end of the farm there are 30 cropland acres planted with either corn or soybeans in a typical 3-1-3 rotation. That's a lot of deer food (plot?!). We have 16 or 17 different stands. Some are on food plot fields. Some are on this one 30 acre cropland field. Many more...at least three-quarters....are on trails the deer use to get from bedding areas to their feeding areas. This happens to be one of those stands.

I guess we prefer hunting (almost exclusively archery) the trails, especially in the morning because the fields are hard to get into without spooking deer.

My most memorable experience came at this stand on Halloween evening a couple years ago. The "rut" was on. About 75 yards west of this stand was ground zero. There must have been three bucks chasing about six does. At first and for about 45 minutes I couldn't see anything but flashes of brown and white. I could hear it though. Antlers rattling. Snorting and wheezing, and. a tree getting and antler beating. Eventually the parade ran thru this opening, but the opportunity was over in the blink of an eye.

There are other shooting lanes at this stand, but this particular opportunity makes a great picture!

 

[Stickbow Felty]

I have 3 stands on my 11 acres . This is the only picture i have from the stands. It is all wetlands so I set up on the trails between the bedding area and the feeding areas. This stand is where they cross the river.View attachment 9205 View attachment 9205

 

[Someday Isle]

These were from our first two stands on our new property last year. The first one is a place we call Austin's corner and the second one is a place we call widow maker. Austin's corner is a spot my son really liked when we first bought the property. We cleared an old logging road which this year we expanded to feed into a 1/4 acre plot. Austin killed his first deer here last year. Widow maker is in an area that had an old broken, dead tree top hanging over the trail. I told the boys to stay away from the "widow maker" and the name stuck. I took our first deer with a bow from this property in this spot last year.


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[Chainsaw]

Thank you Chainsaw! I always appreciate your gracious and considerate commentary and thought!

The short answer to your question is, nothing!" The "draw" is elsewhere but to get to the draw there's some travel involved!

Now the rest of the story. The farm is about 400 acres just on the western edge of the coastal plane in Virginia. The farm is long and skinny. The only entrance is to the north where the elevation is about 220 ft above sea level. The land quickly falls to an average elevation of about 60 ft. At 50 feet you will find yourself in wetlands.

At the north end of the farm there are 30 cropland acres planted with either corn or soybeans in a typical 3-1-3 rotation. That's a lot of deer food (plot?!). We have 16 or 17 different stands. Some are on food plot fields. Some are on this one 30 acre cropland field. Many more...at least three-quarters....are on trails the deer use to get from bedding areas to their feeding areas. This happens to be one of those stands.

I guess we prefer hunting (almost exclusively archery) the trails, especially in the morning because the fields are hard to get into without spooking deer.

My most memorable experience came at this stand on Halloween evening a couple years ago. The "rut" was on. About 75 yards west of this stand was ground zero. There must have been three bucks chasing about six does. At first and for about 45 minutes I couldn't see anything but flashes of brown and white. I could hear it though. Antlers rattling. Snorting and wheezing, and. a tree getting and antler beating. Eventually the parade ran thru this opening, but the opportunity was over in the blink of an eye.
There are other shooting lanes at this stand, but this particular opportunity makes a great picture!

Thanks Dan. That is a great photo opportunity for sure and it must have been an exciting evening with multiple bucks chasing and snorting and even wheezing. Wow! I too am a fan of trail stands. Trail stands done right allow hunting multiple days without getting noticed by the deer. Getting the stands right in every way of course is a challenge.

 

[X-farmerdan]

Getting the stands right in every way of course is a challenge.

It is! And part of the Sherlockian experience! We probably move a third of the trail stands every year. Some workout. Some don't. Some are hot - and then they are not. There's always a reason, but trying to conclude what it might be is part of the fun!

 

[X-farmerdan]

The first one is a place we call Austin's corner and the second one is a place we call widow maker.
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Names!! We have The Turn, McClellan's Road, Halfway, Original, Crispy, The Ridge, The Dan Stand, The Gorilla, The Line, The Old Oak, The AP, LP, The Hiney, The Meadow, Squeaky, Almos Wood,