Mobile Tree Stands and Tactics for Archery Hunting

Bowhunters have little room for error when it comes to tree stand setups. Unlike gun hunting for whitetails, archery hunting for deer is more complex. You can not just shoot through brush or reach out to a mature buck at 100+ yards. There is much more thought that goes into where to setup a tree stand for archery. Scouting is a big part of this decision but also archery hunters have to think about cover, the right tree, shot options and what obstructions may impact shot selection. You never exactly know where a buck is going to be standing when that time is right to shoot.

The main purpose of tree stands is to give you an advantage when hunting deer by allowing you to elevate yourself out of sight. Bow hunting tree stands allow you to spot deer from afar and keep you concealed long enough until that right buck gets into range. If a buck does see you, the game is up. The stand, however, gives you a significant advantage. Allowing you to prepare, draw and make the shot all without a buck ever knowing what happened.

If you are putting the time in, your scouting over the summer has provided you with several good spots for your tree stands for archery hunting. Unfortunately, many bow hunters do not have time to spend day after day either in the woods or going through camera pictures to position their hunting tree stands. So what usually happens is we head back to the same hunting spots over and over and year after year. These are mainly based on past success but not always. Sometimes traditional hunting spots are based on exactly that, tradition. Often archery hunters have the mentally of “I have been hunting here for years so I am going to hunt there again.” Well things change over time and even if you have had success at a certain spot before it does not relate to how successful that hunting spot will be going forward.

What is your alternative you may be asking if I do not have time to put into scouting new areas? The answer is to go mobile. Mobile archery hunting is not easy and it is even more challenging when deciding where to place a tree stand. But with the right mobile hunting tree stands and with the right mentallity, taking to the ground and getting mobile for archery hunting deer this fall can be vastly rewarding. Get mobile with your tree stands for archery hunting and focus on areas that commonly produce deer.

Qualities of Good Mobile Bow Hunting Tree Stands

First and foremost you need to have the right mobile stand. There are several qualities that make an archery stand mobile. The first is weight. A heavy stand has several problems when it comes to being mobile for archery hunting. A heavy and bulky bow hunting tree stand will not be very friendly to your back and cause you to sweat as you look through the woods for a hunting spot. Sweat puts any of your scent control in jeopardy and in cold weather can leave you chilled all day long. Next is ease of use. It should be a stand that you can drop off your back and throw up on a tree in minutes. Tree stands that take hours to hang are no good if you want to be mobile. Lastly, they should be comfortable. Weight and ease of use are important but comfort should not be sacarficed for these two qualities. You will most likely spend hours or a full day in your portable tree stands unless you are one of the lucky ones who hangs a stand and has a monster buck walk in front of you before your breathe settles.

You choices for tree stands are climbers and portable hang-ons. Climbing tree stands are the ultimate mobile archery stand, mostly because they are designed to be light, easy to setup and large enough for comfort. With climbers you have the stand and way to get up the tree in one package. This cuts down on the equipment needed to carry with you, including climbing systems like climbing sticks or steps. Portable tree stands do however have their own place in the mobile archery game. Hang-on stands are often lighter than climbers but require climbing sticks or steps. These need to be carried along with the stand in order to get up the tree. The advantage of a hang-on stand over a climber is that if you find a spot with deer sign, your portable stand is ready to hop in the next day or following weekend. Climbers can be left as well but the climb would have to be done again. Finally, climbers require certain skills to do so safely. Portable tree stands still need to be navigated safely but many hunters are more comfortable ascending climbing sticks or steps.

Tree Stand Placement Strategies When Mobile

With mobile archery hunting, you are moving from area to area without much prior knowledge to rely on. For that reason, it is important to consider basic areas that consistently hold deer. Focusing your bow hunting tree stands in these areas will significantly improve your chances of getting close to a shooter buck.

First and foremost, you want to look for deer sign. Deer sign like pellets, tracks and trails all relate to deer movement and use of an area. Look for both new and old sign, which indicates deer are not just passing through but are using the area frequently over time. In addition during the rut, you want to identify areas that have scrapes and rubs that are fresh. These signs hopefully give you confidence that a hot doe and ultimately a buck is close. Hanging hunting tree stands in these locations give you options. You can put down a mock scrape or do some rattling to try to entice a buck into range.

Look for habitat type changes and natural places that funnel deer. Topological features like saddles, benches and draws are all places that bucks use to move between feeding and cover areas. Identify these features prior to heading to the field. Focusing in on natural deer movement areas then adding a piece of cover, water or food source will put your stand in a pretty good spot for seeing some deer. Archery hunters choosing mobile tree stand setups should consider these three tree stand placement strategies for mobile archery hunting for deer.

Food sources are important. Fall mast areas like oak flats or areas near agricultural lands are all good choices to move in with a mobile tree stand setup. Focus on worn trails leading to and from these food sources to try to cut bucks off as they approach.

Deer, like hunters, need water to survive. Small, secluded water sources are ideal as these areas attract deer from long distances in areas where water may be limited. Work river bottoms until you find heavily used crossings to put up your archery stand.

Cover is the third part of a deer’s needs in its habitat. Bucks use cover for bedding and escaping during the fall. Target thickets of cedars, laurel, briar patches and old clear-cuts to pop in with a climbing tree stand.

Although not a detailed list of places to hang your tree stand, focusing on food, water and cover are good places to start when you are going into an area that has not been scouted. Furthermore, even archery hunters going mobile have to keep in mind the basic principles of where to place a tree stand. First, make sure your tree stand is downwind of where you believe a buck will approach from. Even with good scent management, the last thing you want is to have the wind blowing right up a buck’s nose as he is approaching towards you. Next, you have to consider the type of tree for your stand. Choose multi-stem deciduous trees to cover any slight movements like checking ranges or drawing your bow. Finally, consider visibility when choosing a tree stand location. You want a concealed location but not too concealed that the fall leaves and other trees prevent you from seeing incoming bucks. With mobile archery hunting, there is limited time to manicure trees and surrounding brush when you do find a good hunting spot. Add a small set of clippers to your pack to quickly trim stand trees and make shooting lanes from your stand.

Challenges with Mobile Tree Stand Setups

Being mobile in archery seasons comes with its challenges. Bouncing from spot to spot can help you cover ground, but each new stand setup tests your archery abilities. The placement of hunting tree stands has to be thought out so that you put yourself in the best possible areas to see deer. Seeing deer is half the battle because frequently your shooting ability will be challenged with difficult shots in tough conditions. You need to prepare for shots at awkward angles and in tight windows as mobile setups rarely offer perfect bow shots. Also being mobile means your equipment changes. Select quality stands that are lightweight and easy to setup since you will be carrying in climbing tree stands and climbing systems with fixed position stands. The last thing you want is something heavy to lug around looking for a spot and then struggle with getting a stand into position.

Benefits of Being Mobile for Archery Hunting

If your scouting time is limited, mobile setups are for you. This archery hunting technique gives you freedom to move to new areas with relative ease all season long. This tactic is your scouting and may even uncover areas that are worth putting in more time. Having hunting tree stands that are mobile let you move quickly based on changing conditions, especially important during the rut as deer activity changes rapidly. Bucks are unpredictable even with the best scouting so it is important to be confident in your ability to change archery stands to improve your odds of getting a shot at a buck.

Conclusion

It takes time each year to scout for archery hunting. However, you can still be successful even if you have limited time to put in pre-season. Consider going mobile with your tree stands. Grab a good mobile bow hunting tree stand and work with the basics of tree stand placement strategies to break free from the traditional archery tactics this bow season.

Cutting Shooting Lanes While Hanging Tree Stands

If you’re used to hanging tree stands in thick woods, you know the value of shooting lanes. Without them, you might be able to see a mature whitetail buck moving below you, but you could not ethically take a shot at it; this is especially true if you’re bow hunting. While natural openings work well enough in some forested settings, some are not well-suited for this. Some examples could include young aspen or conifer forests, which grow too densely together or have too many lower branches to effectively take a shot through them.

Conventional wisdom is to wait until the week before deer season opens before hanging tree stands and clearing new shooting lanes or cleaning up existing ones. This can be a problematic situation. Deer are far more familiar with their environment than many realize. Imagine if someone knocked down one of the walls in your house or cut down one of the trees in your yard. You’d realize it pretty quickly, right? Deer know their surroundings very well and can notice when something looks different. They can also smell the freshly-cut trees lying around with whatever other scent you leave behind. Depending on where you live, this might not bother them all that much or it might put them on high alert. For example, suburban deer might not hesitate to move through a disturbed area like this, but big woods bucks would certainly be suspicious of the area for several days, if not longer.

A better strategy is to go out in the mid-summer months to cut new shooting lanes and clean up old ones. If you hunt on private land, this is also a good time for hanging tree stands. Then, a week or two before the season opens, you can simply go check everything to make sure the lanes are still open and in good condition. Unless a tree falls within them, they should only require minimum work (and thus disturbance) to finish them. But first, let’s take a step back.

Planning Your Shooting Lanes

Before the chainsaw or pole saw comes out into the woods with you, you need to do some quick thinking. For help visualizing how the shooting lanes will fit into the surrounding area, use some desktop scouting software to map it out before you cut anything. Ideally, you should also climb into your tree stand and picture the best direction for a shooting lane to go. Which way would be the most advantageous for a quick shot? Also, how many do you plan to cut? You want to walk the fine line between not seeing enough ground and having too many lanes. Though each tree stand location will vary in its shooting lane requirements, a good rule of thumb to start with would be at least 2 to 3 lanes per stand. This way, you can cover three different directions to accommodate different deer travel patterns. Be sure to remember this every time you are hanging tree stands.

The ultimate design or layout isn’t really important – it just depends on what you’re willing to do and how much the deer would be disturbed. If you’re going to cut a series of larger or longer shooting lanes, it’s best to do it now so whitetails have time to settle down and get used to the new openings. The simplest option is a basic V-shape extending out from your tree stands, so you can see in two different directions. Theoretically, if a deer walks in front of your stand, you should get one opportunity to spot the deer and one to shoot it with a quartering away shot. However, another popular option is the hub and spoke design, where there are several shooting lanes radiating out in every direction from the tree stand. This allows a hunter to intercept deer along any of these paths.

The ultimate length of each shooting lane will depend on your goals for that location too. For example, if you plan to only bow hunt from a given area, you really only need lanes that are at your maximum ethical shot distance. For most, that would be 40 to 50 yards in length. This helps you gauge distance without a range finger, and eliminates any temptation to take a longer shot. But if you plan on hunting with a rifle, you could easily have 200 yard lanes in front of you.

Trimming While Hanging Tree Stands

As we mentioned, the best time to cut these lanes with the least impact is when you’re hanging tree stands. It doesn’t really matter which type of hunting tree stands you’re setting up. But if you’re going to go through the effort of cutting shooting lanes, it goes without saying that you should probably hunt it more than just once or twice out of climbing deer stands. The best tree stands for these lanes would be something more permanent, such as ladder stands. The Venture ladder stand has a wide, curved platform with a matching seat so you can watch several shooting lanes around you.

First, climb into your deer stand and locate the direction you chose earlier. Now pick a landmark tree off in the distance along your intended path. Stay between your tree stand and that landmark as you cut, which should produce a straight shooting lane. You can use a chainsaw for larger trees, but a simple hand saw and pair of pruning shears/loppers is usually all that’s needed for saplings and brush. Inevitably, there will be branches from larger trees extending into your shooting lanes that would interfere with a shot from up in your lock on stands. An extendable pole saw is invaluable for these situations.

How to Enhance Your Shooting Lanes While Hanging Tree Stands

Instead of simply piling the cut branches and brush off to the sides of each lane, consider using them to enhance your tree stand concealment. Wary whitetails often look down each side of a shooting lane before entering it. Your tree stands will really stick out if you don’t use some natural camouflage. Use zip ties or twine to attach some of the branches to your tree stands, which will break up your outline in the tree. Bring along a portable tree saw when you hunt, just in case something shifts in your stand. You can also prop cut trees up against your tree and attach them to the base so your single tree looks like a clump.

Additionally, deer will sometimes use shooting lanes as short-distance travel routes since they offer the path of least resistance. But sometimes they will bolt right across them since they have no real reason to stay in the open. There are a few hunting methods to counter this tendency. The first would be hanging a scent wick where you want them to stop within the lane, and applying your favorite deer odor to it. Another, where legal, is to use a mineral block near the end of the lane to catch early season bucks.

Planting small food plot strips along your lanes is also great to hold them still long enough for a shot, this is something you should keep in mind when hanging tree stands and trimming shooting lanes. Provided your lanes get enough sunlight, simply use some herbicide on the existing vegetation, being sure to use one that will kill cut tree stumps (e.g., triclopyr) as well as the herbaceous growth (e.g., glyphosate). After letting the herbicide work for a few weeks, go back in and expose the soil using a hard-tined rake, roughing up the surface a little in the process. Broadcast seed that can handle your local soil, sunlight, and water conditions. Perennial clover varieties should work great on shaded trails with less-than-perfect soils. Remember, you’re not trying to make these shooting lane food plots into lush, ultra-attractive plots. Instead, you simply want deer to pause for an opportunistic snack while they’re walking through. Therefore, you don’t need to spend a lot of time and money making them look like one on TV.

You probably didn’t think much about shooting lanes when hanging tree stands before, except that they might give you a better shot at a deer, if you were lucky. But if you use the tips above, you should be able to increase their effectiveness many times over to put luck on your side.

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Going Mobile with Tree Stands this Fall