Pick the right spot for your deer stand

That leaves hunters with general concepts to choose their stand site. Bedding and feeding areas are a good place to start if they’re obvious, but show me a deer that uses the same bedding area, feeding spot and transition trail every day, and I’ll show you a deer that lives in a pen. At the very least, a deer with those kinds of habits is destined to be removed from the gene pool in short order.

Real-world deer are smarter than that. Though some deer follow the same general pattern a couple days in a row on occasion, hunters shouldn’t count on it.

The problem with targeting food sources is that they are constantly changing. Summer deer like new bean fields, but mostly abandon them by the time deer season starts. Some transition to corn where available, but often ignore it as other seasonal foods become available. Persimmons trump corn early in the fall, and a good, established apple tree will cause deer to forget corn altogether.

In places where white oaks are old enough to drop lots of acorns, they draw deer away from everything. Hunting acorn trees is a frustrating proposition, however, since they are often spread out and need to be hunted at just the right time.

Instead of counting on any one food source, it makes sense to engineer a spot that capitalizes on several at the same time.

This is where food plots become invaluable. Their shape, size and location can be manipulated to funnel deer past a chosen spot.

This is accomplished by planting food plots that allow stand placement between them and an already existing food source. Make them long and narrow, and pay attention to the trees when choosing the shape.

Make sure the plot is not only near a mast-bearing white oak, but also designed to create inside corners near the best stand trees.

A good stand tree is straight enough to hold a stand, big enough to hold and conceal a person and should sit about 10 yards off the edge of the plot, into the woods.

Resist the temptation to hang a stand in a mast crop tree. This will only spook deer before they offer a shot. Instead, find a tree 10 yards away, with the new food plot another 10 yards away in the opposite direction. Because deer seasons start so early in some states, water sources are great stand sites. Sunny, 80-degree days are very possible in September and early October, making deer visit water every day in some instances.

Find water holes that aren’t in the open, including creek crossings that are off main trails. If the water sits between a food source and cover, say along a wooded fence row, all the better.

Place a tree stand in the trees at the top of the bank, just inside the cover. Deer will often hit the cover and hesitate before drinking or crossing, giving hunters the time they need to shoot.

Never place a stand in the creek bottom. Wind swirls in a depression, it is difficult to get higher than the bank from which deer are approaching, and they often are on the move once they hit the water.

More than anything, early season hunters need to be willing to move as deer constantly change the places they feed and sleep. Having several stand locations ready is best, but climbing tree stands will suffice if deer start using unanticipated locations.

Once winter arrives, cover and food sources become a lot more obvious. Deer concentrate on the few food sources they haven’t already depleted, and cover still dense enough to conceal them.

For the first time during deer season, those generic magazine maps become useful. They can help pinpoint what is now obvious, or at the very least, provide something to read if a stand is still in the wrong spot.

Don Mulligan can be reached at outdoorswithdon@aol.com.