Thought I'd share a tip for those of you that hunt thick stuff and have trouble finding stands in the dark. Go and buy some small solar light and wire them to your stand\tree Really works great!
Bright eyes the trail left and right and stay the course. Most stands have illuminated tape on the stand anyway once you get close. Bright eyes worked for me for 20+ years. Good enough ! Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Great way for thieves to find your stand. Don't want to sound like an ass but you gotta know your area with your eyes closed.
This is my concern. Coon hunters and folks riding four wheelers at night are tough on stands in my area.
A couple of small markers like bright eyes very close to the stand ...then just drop a pin on an gps app. Get close and look for the stand .
I use survey flagging (orange) If it's private property and you're not worried about people finding your stand. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
There are thumb tacks that have a reflective push circle on them, don't know what that parts called, lol. But this is only like a 1/4 inch so it's small. Unless you really know to look for them you can mark a trail every so many feet and follow them right to your stand as the light reflects off of them.
I use scout look or on x maps hunting apps to mark my stand locations. like others said I know my hunting area like the back of my hand and can find it blindfolded.
These are nice, but if you hunt public alot of times they will be all over the woods and it can be easy to get on the wrong trail. I do tend to put two on the tree I intend to climb though so that once I get close I can shine a quick light out and identify my tree. I typically walk most of the way there in the dark though.
Not really a problem on the private land, you can drive a ATV right up to the tree if you wanted. I hunt public usually late season closer to home and in that case, just following my footprints in the snow usually does the trick.
Bushnell Back Track. When hunting public land I have a climbing stand. Scout the area during day, mark tree. They are accurate to like 9 ft. so you can mark the exact tree with survey ribbon or reflective tacks. Private land I use it to mark last blood or even the carcass. Then I go get the 4 wheeler and pull right up. They cost like $40-50.
I remember my first time looking for my stand in the morning dark. I was walking around all over I the right "area" bit couldn't find the tree! I ended up finding a tree to sit behind on the ground till the sun came up. It's crazy how different everything was the first time in the dark Sent from my SM-G930P using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I jest of this thread was too help those that hunt thick cover. No need for a flashlight or looking at a damn phone/computer while trying to sneak in quite n stealthy.
Forget the GIST of this thread, just learn your route into your stand. It's actually called woodsmanship, which I think a lot of folks lack these days.
