The place I hunt last allowed permanent stands to be built about 10 to 15 years ago. Only portable stands are allowed now. There is approximately 45,000 acres of mostly hardwood hunting and hunting has occured for about 50 years on the military base I hunt. Sometimes times when scouting, I'll come to a spot and just stand there for minutes as the light bulb goes on in my brain says, "hunt this spot". Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, many times I look around and see an old wooden permanent stand grown into a tree or rotted out. Many times the old timers would hunt one stand only, so when they put up a stand you better be sure that they knew the deer movement in the area....don't overlook these clues when scouting. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I had it happen a few times when I go in on a run and gun. I climb up and get set up, then look around for shooting lanes. Then the next tree over is some old boards nailed in to a tree. It makes me feel better that I'm in a good spot. I too always keep a look out for old stands and try to figure out why they chose to hunt there. There usually is a good reason!
Haha that happened to me last season on public. I went so far in, had to have boat to access. I stumbled upon what I thought had to be the best spot and I had to be the first guy to hunt this tree.No way could anyone have made it in that deep and put in that much effort. So I set my sticks and got my stand hung only to look up at a sawn off branch and an old bow hanger. Amazing Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
A buddy and I had a spot on state land in central Michigan where some local hung a bunch of "dummy" wooden stands.....apparently in the hopes of warding off other hunters from the area. Once we figured out that there were a number of them and they never had a ladder or sticks to get into them, plus we never saw anyone using them....it was easy to put the clues together on his scheme. That is one step above putting "No Trespassing" signs on public land.
We have a couple of these on my lease. I'm actually going to hunt close to one of those spots this year. I'm way off the beaten trail and lots of promising signs. Hope it pays off in that area this year for me like the old timers.
It is funny how over time when I joined my current hunting lease went looking for spots. Everytime I found a spot, there was sign of an old stand or other things from old time hunters. My lease has been hunted since the 20's. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
