Hanging stands

[osage outlaw]

We are late getting our stands up this year.  Season opens Saturday and we still have a couple left to put up.  Yesterday I was clearing out some dead trees around a stand we have in a patch of oaks.  I dropped a tree and cut it up with a chainsaw.  After I piled up all the wood I climbed into the stand to look around when something caught my eye.  A mature doe stood up 15 yards away from where I had just dropped the tree.  She was bedded down behind a small brush pile.  She stretched for a minute and then slowly walked a half circle around us and on up the other hillside.  She never flagged or looked alarmed.  I couldn't believe it.  I'm sure this weekend she will spot me in that same stand and let out half a dozen snorts to alert all the other deer in the area. 

Here are a couple pictures of our stands.









I'm not sure how long that tree will stay up.  It's split all the way to the ground.  I'll hate to loose the stand site when it goes but I'm excited about getting some staves with a story behind them.






I scouted out a new spot to hang this stand.




After we were done putting it up I noticed the steps in a tree behind it.  I guess I read the same deer sign that my grandpa did 30 years ago.  He must have been a lot tougher than I am.  He put a few steps up a tree and would sit on a branch with nothing to lean against or to put his feet on.  I don't know how he hunted like that.  We find old stands of his like this every now and then.  It makes us stop for a moment and think.   

[Pat B]

Nice stands Clint. Bring your chainsaw when you hunt and leave it at the base of your tree. Maybe she'll think you are working and not hunting and give you a shot. 
 Finding old tree stands makes you look around and wonder about back then and now. Must be a reason it's there.

[BowEd]

Nice stands Clint.Some kind of storm will get that split tree I guess.At least you know exactly why it went down anyway.I've had to move a few of my stands this year because of the tree going dead.Don't trust it.Acorns,hickory,and walnuts are a dropping.It's cooled off a bit nicely.Deer are'nt near in their winter coat yet at all though.Yearlings look a good size already.Getting to complete fall colors soon.Things are shaping up.

[osage outlaw]

Nice stands Clint. Bring your chainsaw when you hunt and leave it at the base of your tree. Maybe she'll think you are working and not hunting and give you a shot. 
 Finding old tree stands makes you look around and wonder about back then and now. Must be a reason it's there.

Pat, Most of the time I get dropped off at the stand by my mom with their utility truck.  She makes a loop and drops my Dad off at his stand also.  The deer are familiar with the truck since we are always driving it around.  A lot of times as soon as she drives off I'll have deer walking by.  It's nice to be picked up after dark to.  It's got me a little spoiled. 

[osage outlaw]

Nice stands Clint.Some kind of storm will get that split tree I guess.At least you know exactly why it went down anyway.I've had to move a few of my stands this year because of the tree going dead.Don't trust it.Acorns,hickory,and walnuts are a dropping.It's cooled off a bit nicely.Deer are'nt near in their winter coat yet at all though.Yearlings look a good size already.Getting to complete fall colors soon.Things are shaping up.

That tree has been split for a couple of years now.  It gets a little worse each season. It has been through a lot of storms.  I check it every spring while shed hunting to see if its still standing. 

The ash borers have really damaged our woods.  Every tree is dead or dying.  There were several trees I wanted to put a stand in but couldn't because it was dead.  Once they start falling our property will be a mess.  On a positive note, we have acorns this year.  None of our trees produced last season.  It threw off the usual travel patterns.  Acorns are the main food source on our property.  We place most of our stands around clusters of oaks.

[bjrogg]

Thanks to help from guys on here and a few good friends who borrowed or just plain gave them to me, I have 5 tree stands and 2 nice natural ground blinds. Clint I've been clearing dead ash trees from my fence rows when I've had time off and on for a month. Finally had the logs piled to make fire wood and was burning brush and stumps. My neighbor drove his pickup back and we were visiting watching the fire burn. I said look John there's a doe, it was about 6 yards from my loader tractor. we continued to visit while it grazed on the clover cover crop totally ignoring us. After about 45 min. John said he had to leave. I watched the doe as he walked to his pickup started it up backed up towards the doe and drove away down the trail with just a slight twich of the tail but stayed right there. I waited for her to move off before I gather the fire together and took my loader tractor home. They really seem to know when your working and when its hunting season.
bjrogg

[bjrogg]

PS Clint maybe you could wrap some sinew on that split tree. lol. but seriously it is a lot harder to find good tree stand tree's with all the dead ash. If you can cut them as soon as you can cause after a couple years they get dangerous to fall with chainsaw
bjrogg

[osage outlaw]

Our property is loaded with huge ash trees BJ.  We looked into getting it logged several years ago before the borers hit us.  We decided against it because of the damage the logging crew would have done to our land.  I'm not crazy about the idea of dropping 24"+ diameter ash trees. 

[bjrogg]

I hear you Clint it still hurts to look at all that beautiful wood just going to compost. I have noticed that a lot of maple and other types of saplings are really stretching out and millions of seedling have sprouted. Hopefully it won't look like fall in the ash woods year round soon.
Bjrogg