When to put up stand?

[DTrain]

I have a ladder stand in my backyard that I have been practicing out of. I am wondering if I should put it up tomorrow or would it be alright to keep for another week of practice and put it out Labor day weekend (prob Monday)?

I have cleared the shooting lanes already so I should be able to slip in pretty quick and put it up.

So what do you think? Put it up tomorrow or practice another week?

[marksman72]

Dtrain,

If you think you need to practice some more than do it. Practice and more practice is good as long as you don't get into bad habits. Remember, you're not shooting just to fling arrows at a target. You're doing it to become a better all around archer. This includes your form, breathing, release, and follow-through. Try to get as consistent as you can with these when practicing and when the Moment of Truth arrives, you'll be better prepared.

Some times putting up the stand is the hardest or easiest part. You mentioned that you already cut the shooting lanes. Just slip in and put it up.
Good luck this Fall!

[bowhunter11]

The earlier the better! It would be great if you could put it out in a light rain or right before rain is forecasted, I say get that stand out asap! Good Luck!

[jme]

Marksman and Dtrain raise great points. When I hunt private land there's no doubt - the sooner the better so the deer get used to it. Some friends of mine leave their ladder stands up all year. On public land you have two constraints: 1) It's illegal to set them up before Sept 1. 2) Once up, you're advertising your spot to every other hunter - especially with a ladder stand. You might try camouflaging the stand with branches to break up its image. Most of my hunting is on state land and this year I won't leave my chain-on stands in a tree at all. They'll be chained/locked to the base of a nearby tree and covered with brush. I'll set them up and take them down each time out. Call me greedy but I don't want to give away a spot I've scouted and prepped. Good luck this year. John-Ypsi

[jjc155]

2 weeks ago, sorry thats when my stands went out.:evil: I wouldnt wait to much longer though.

J-

[firemantom]

If you need the pratice then wait, the stand wont do you any good if you cant hit the deer when the moment comes. Good luck this season! The sooner the better though!!

[webfarmer]

I usually put my chain-on stands up Labor Day week. My ladder stands stay out once set and maintained as needed. Getting old and permanentl ladder stands are now my preference. Maybe you could shoot from the garage roof or some other high place? I agree with some of the others, the sooner the better - especially ladder stands. Good luck!!

[November Sunrise]

This is probably very dependent on the area of the state that you're hunting in, but in the areas of southern Michigan that I hunt, the deer are very accustomed to human activity.

I wouldn't worry one iota about deer needing an extra seven days to "adjust" to a new stand. Deer deal with changes every day, whether it's a tree falling in the woods, a corn field being picked, a tractor left in the field, etc. They don't have the intelligence to discern that the ladder stand you hung is any more of a threat than any other change. For example, every year my dad will dramatically revamp the landscape near his gun hunting blind using a bulldozer or a skid steer loader an hour before dark on November 14th. Whatever has grown up over the past year is usually eliminated. Often, he then proceeds to kill a mature buck out of that blind during the next three days of firearms season.

Similarly, in the past four bow seasons I've had numerous opportunities to take and have harvested several mature bucks out of tree stands that my boys and I hung several days to a week earlier. While I hang the stand and trim branches, they gather sticks, cut down small trees, wrestle, throw rocks, etc. Typically after 40-60 minutes of this I'm done and we get out of there. There's no question that we've scented the place up and in the very short term "disturbed" the area. Somebody could film us in action and create a "How Not to Hang a Tree Stand" video when you compare our fun oriented approach to the approaches that are advocated by most outdoor writers. Yet when I return several days to a week later and begin hunting the stand (and at that point I'm as particular as possible regarding scent, quiet entry, etc.) I almost always have deer within bow range during the first time that I use the stand. I'm not suggesting that there are any benefits to this casual (sloppy?) approach to hanging stands (other than my boys have a lot of fun), instead I'm only pointing out that it doesn't have nearly the negative affect that many hunters would perceive it to have.

The deer on the farms that I hunt pass through areas on a daily basis where human scent is still lingering. Whether it's from farmers, neighboring houses, walkers, small game hunters, etc. they're accustomed to living around people and encountering human scent. In the areas where they encounter human scent and it's out of the ordinary, it may affect their very short term behavior but it will not alter their long term behavior. In other words, if I consistently scented up and disturbed the area around my stands I'm convinced that it would greatly reduce my opportunities at mature bucks. However, if I disturb the area once when I set up the stand and then from that point forward I'm as intelligent as possible in not over hunting the stand, utilizing beneficial wind directions, etc. then I have no concerns about them having previously observed scent in that area. If deer in southern Michigan were so wary that they avoided all areas where they had previously noticed human scent or a human presence or had been spooked by a human, they wouldn't be able to go anywhere!

Admittedly, the response of deer in the farmland of southern Michigan to human activity probably bears no resemblance to whitetail behavior in the Upper Peninsula. In a long winded way, I guess I'm just saying that in my neck of the woods it's my experience that there's still plenty of time to get stands in place. Of course, I guess it could also be argued that there certainly aren't any negatives to having everything in place as early as possible, and I suppose I would have to agree with that.

[mike hartges]

In a perfect world your stand would already be in place and you would have a practice stand in your yard. If you can afford another stand, that would be my recommendation for the future. I hunt from ladder stands too but my practice stand stays up all year long. Try to be as scent free as possible when you put the stand up. Also if you put it up earlier in the day, the temperatures will probably be cooler so you won't sweat so much. Good luck this season.

[safetreehunt]

I think you should put your stand up...

Right after you set your climbing rope in your tree, so you don't end up a statistic on the ground.

[beararch#1]

I think you should put your stand up...

Right after you set your climbing rope in your tree, so you don't end up a statistic on the ground.

I might have guessed a response like this by your name lol... Kinda funny, but yes, it's true, always... safety 1st.

[old graybeard]

They are all out there right now. I prefer doing it early and during a light rain.

[Gobblerman]

I put all of my stands out in Late July. I practice off my patio, you can also practice off the roof of your house depending on how high it is. Good luck.