Advanced Tree Stand Strategies
Why Stay Away From The Deer
 Editor’s Note: Paying attention to small details will spell success when tree stand hunting. The sportsman who knows where and why a trophy buck will hold and move during daylight hours often bags more deer from a tree stand than from a ground blind. Try these advanced tree-stand tactics from Ray McIntyre, of Grand Island, Florida, an avid bowhunter, this season, and you may take the buck of a lifetime.
Tree stand hunters often create problems for themselves when they plac e their tree stands close to the place they expect the deer to appear. Ray McIntyre explains that, "The farther away you put your tree stand from where you think you'll see a buck, the better your odds for bagging the buck when hunting with a bow or a gun." McIntyre emphasizes that deer can see, hear and smell things within 10 to 15 yards of them that won't bother them 25- to 30-yards away. "A good bowhunter must be able to center a pie plate at 30 yards," McIntyre observes. "If the hunter places his tree stand to have a 30-yard shot at a deer rather than a 15- or a 20-yard shot, he more than likely won't spook the buck he's trying to take and will bag the deer. Any rifle hunter should shoot at least a 3-inch group at 100 yards. Therefore, his chances of bagging a trophy buck will increase if he sets up his tree stand 100 yards from where he anticipates the deer will show up than if he puts his stand up 30 to 50 yards from where he expects the deer."
McIntyre believes tree stand manufacturers make quiet tree stands, but that when a hunter sits in a tree stand, the combination of the hunter and the stand will make noise. The further away you set up from the deer, the less likely that the deer will hear you or your tree stand. "Also most hunters know they can shoot more accurately and spook less deer by sitting rather than standing to shoot," McIntyre says. "Gun hunters have learned to sit in their tree stands rather than stand in them when they shoot. However, bowhunters seem to think they have to stand to shoot accurately. If more bowhunters will learn to shoot from a sitting position, they will make less noise, create less movement and bag more bucks with their bows."
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