Truck full of a few stands ready for placement
My cousin and I spent last Friday and Saturday getting ready for the upcoming archery season. Friday was spent talking to the farmers and landowners of the property we were interested in hunting this year. I’m sure we all have those go to stands that we hunt year in and year out. We spent Saturday hanging these stands. Also, we walked new property we have gained access to, so we could just get acquainted with the lay of the land. We wanted to see the food sources, terrain and habitat in this newly found hunting property. We had seen some good sign in trails and scat, and also, surprisingly, saw a couple of early scrapes.
Checking out some new areas, I was sure to mark all the coordinates of promising spots
We started off the morning by walking a piece of property we had never been on before. We found this property to be a relatively steep hillside with a decent bench about midway down. The deer seemed to be using the logging road on this bench as a travel route. Over top of the wooded hillside, we found a strip cut which also looked like the deer were using. We found a white oak stand and some old apple trees with no apples in them. We marked a couple of areas we felt were decent stand sites on our GPS and will be back to see if there is any buck sign around these areas at a later time. Overall, the property had some potential, but it is too early to tell if we will hunt it heavily or not before a return trip. It was nice to get on the property and just see what was up there.
Scrape under this tree already!
Next we went to set a stand on a farm we acquired access to last year. We had already known where we were going to set this as the stand was good to us last year. As we suspected, the sign around the stand site was excellent, with apples on the ground, deer scat, trails and even a little scrape, all within 30 yards of the stand. We got this stand set up and went to another spot on this farm, which we had seen a few bucks from, and readied a tree for our climbers. There was also good sign around here in many trails intersecting a little over 20 yards in a crab apple thicket in front of our stand site. After, seeing this property, we are excited to return later in the year with our bows.
The next part of the day was about saying goodbye. We had left a stand in a little creek bottom with apple trees that had been very good to us in the past. I have taken a couple of doe and seen several bucks from this stand, and my cousin had taken a buck and seen several more deer/bucks (all archery deer). This area, though not this particular stand, was where my cousin grew up hunting and had taken many bucks off of this probably 70 acres. The stand was always a favorite of mine as it was just an enjoyable place to be, beside the fact that we had taken several deer from it. Through the last couple of years, there is an asphalt company dynamiting and stripping the land over the hill from this stand, and as they were getting closer, the hunting and overall experience on this stand gradually declined. The land owner understandably doesn’t want anyone back there hunting, as there is just too much going on with the asphalt company. As I said, the hunting has declined with the increased activity. Though it was hard to loose a great piece of hunting property such as this, the timing is right and there are many other places to hunt that offer great opportunity. Generously, the landowner had given us access to another piece of his property to hunt away from the stripping. Still, the mood was a little somber as we were taking down that stand and driving out of there.
Our next stop was to another farmer’s house that we weren’t able to contact on Friday. After the OK to hunt a portion of his property, we were hanging another “yearly” stand which we have had some success at. We see deer every year at this stand as it is a pinch point between the river hill and a big hay field. After going in and seeing the normal good trails we hung the stand in the same position as last year.
Setting up
View from the stand
By this time of the day, we were both starting to feel the heat as well as a time crunch. We went to my uncle’s property to hang a couple of his stands as well as one of our own. When walking on the wooded portion of his property we really didn’t know what to think of the sign. Though we saw some sign, and a really good amount of trails around one of his wild apple trees, there weren’t the trails that we had seen in years past. My theory is that all of the corn on his property is holding the majority of the deer now. We had hung our stands a little earlier this year, and the corn hasn’t been harvested yet. I will be interested to see if the sign changes after the corn is harvested, as I suspect it will. My uncle joined us in setting two of his stands and one of ours in the likely spots from previous years. We had to leave this area before clearing out an entry way and checking out one more spot, but as I said, we were strapped for time and had an appointment to meet another farmer to see about some archery hunting access on his property.
To finish out our day, we were going to meet a farmer and a friend of my uncles from his church. Driving back to his place, I was amazed at the farming and territory in which I had never known was there. We had met him earlier, but we were going out so he could show us around, and so we could get to know each other a little better. This will be archery only, buck only territory, and from what we saw, it was a very impressive farm as well as an impressive area. We didn’t actually take a walk in the woods, but he took us around his property and camp and got us acquainted with the property he was permitting us to hunt on. He gave us an aerial photo with an outline of the area we are permitted to hunt, and the photo also gives us an idea of the territory and terrain we will be hunting. It was great having an opportunity to get to know him as well as getting familiar with his property. This brought us to dusk and on the way out we saw many deer with the highlight being a group of 5 bucks (1 shooter) crossing the road in front of us.
To finish this entry, I would like to thank the generous people allowing us the opportunity to use their property. A great positive to trying to gain access to property is the great people you meet and get to visit with every year. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity, and find this part of the archery season to be very enjoyable. To me, this is what hunting is all about: family, making friends, the outdoors, and the sense of accomplishment that comes when all the hard work pays off.
Good luck to you in the upcoming hunting season, and be safe.
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