Terrain and Tactics – The Art of Positioning a Tree Stand to Hunt Deer with Outdoor Writer John E. Phillips
Day 4: How to Hunt Non-Traditional Tree Stand Sites for Deer with Outdoor Writer John E. Phillips
Editor’s Note: Tree stand placement not only determines how many deer you’ll spot but also your likelihood of seeing a big buck.
  A hunter who finds a tree stand site in a spot that doesn’t really offer a place to put a tree stand will harvest more older-age-class bucks. For example, you can have a hunting site in places where other hunters won't look like . . ..
* clear-cuts. Most hunters find 1- or 2-year-old clear-cuts some of the most-difficult places to hunt from because of the lack of trees big enough to hold tree stands. However, two strategies will allow you to hunt from an elevated platform out in that clear-cut. You can use a tripod-type stand. Set-up the tripod, and use brush and fallen trees at the bottom and the top of the stands to hide the tripod up and the hunter in the stand. This tactic works best on private lands where you can leave your tripod and then return to it later. You can go to your tripod from downwind, get into the stand and look from above for deer out in the clear-cut where most hunters won't see them.
You'll find the second clear-cut tree-stand strategy more radical and requiring much-more work. Only the certified nuts of deer hunting on private lands go to all this trouble – but they consistently take big bucks. These men will purchase telephone poles and then use posthole diggers to dig holes big enough for the telephone poles to fit into at a clear-cut. They'll raise their poles, drop them into the holes, pack dirt around the poles and use three side poles or 2x4s to brace these telephone poles. After the poles settle, they'll climb them with their climbing tree stands or more often build permanent stands on the poles where they can watch the clear-cuts. This radical strategy has paid-off handsomely for the hunters I know who’ve used it.
  * young pine plantations. Bucks often will move through young pine plantations. But in the pines, you won't find a tree big enough to attach a lock-on type tree stand or to climb with a climbing tree stand. However, I know some hunters who've used portable ladder stands to take nice bucks out of young pines. A hunter can find a spot where two or three young pines grow close enough to each other to support the weight of a ladder stand. Then a hunter can move this type stand into young pines, set it up, hunt from it, take it down and leave the pines after the hunt is over without alerting other hunters to the hot spots.
Whitetails follow traditional routes through a property. Even when that land's clearcut and replanted in pines, the bucks often will continue to use the same trails they’ve traveled before the clearcutting of the land. If you can find those traditional trails in the young pines and set-up a ladder-type tree stand, you'll often discover some productive trophy-buck hunting by using a technique that other hunters will rarely if ever use.
To get John E. Phillips’ Kindle books, “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros,” “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro” and “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows,” click on them, or go to http://www.ASAzon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.
About the Author
John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors. Click here for more information and a list of all the books available from John E. Phillips.
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