[Garbo]

I went Friday afternoon, and hunted a hardwood bottom with a small stream running through it. There were Planted pines on each side of the hardwood that followed the stream, and I walked the stream until I came across a heavily used trail, and got on the trail until I found a good tree with some cover but had some shooting lanes as well. After I got up the tree I seemed to think I should have climbed about every other tree in the bottom but the one I climbed. I seen 6 does, and killed the last one that I seen. I was hunting with a bow, and had a good shot at each of the 6 that came through, but from the spot I sat at in the tree I could have had alot better shot from about every other tree in the area.

Is there a good way to pickthe besttree from the ground?

 

[AUradar]

grass is always greener on the other side...

One note, don't pick a long tall pine tree on a very windy day.

 

[duckhuntinsailor]

If I have that many choices to choose from then I always choose based on shooting lane, wind, size, comfort. downwind of course. type of tree, some have noisy bark, or sway with the wind. elevation, i.e. if there is a hill I would rather be toward the top. so that the deer walking down the hill isn't looking you in the eye. Sounds like you choose alright, at least you got the job done.

 

[Splittine]

What I always do if it is a spot Im going to hunt multiply times, I set up a deer cam and see where the deer are moving to and from, then i find a tree and climb it and check for shooting lanes, that way if you need to you can trim limbs rather making all that racket the morning of the hunt. You know that it will be a good tree to hunt out of.

 

[Tuna Man]

Seems that no matter the tree you pick, once up, you THINK there is a better one "over there". That tree must of been a good choice as 6 deer seen with a kill.:clap. OK where are the :takephoto

 

[Grassflatsfisher]

Wind 1st, Shooting Lane 2nd, cover/camo 3rd. If you don't trick their nose you will never see them. If you trick their nose and can't shoot them then you defeated yourself. If you trick their nose, you can shoot them, but they bust you in the tree then they win!

 

[Captain Woody Woods]

AUradar (11/26/2007)

One note, don't pick a long tall pine tree on a very windy day.

I LOVE a tall pine tree on a windy day. Like a rockin chair man, puts me right to sleep, which is what I do best in the treestand!

To answer your question, obviously you want a tree with a high enough crown to be able to climb. Ideally, I like to get 25 plus feet up a tree. Most people are content with 12-18. I like to put climbers up in the open pines around our greenfields, often 15 yards or even more off the field. These "staging areas" (at least at our farm) usually hold more deer than actually show themselves on the greenfield, particularly bucks. The deer can see the field much better from within the pines as opposed to deer (or us, for that matter) on the field looking back into the pines.

 

[whipper snapper]

AUradar (11/26/2007)grass is always greener on the other side...

One note, don't pick a long tall pine tree on a very windy day.

you might as well put me on the zipper @ the fair, than to put me 30' up a pine on a day like thanksgiving afternoon.

 

[rob883]

I am with Woody i look at the sleeping situation always.My partner always says i need to start hunting and leave the books at home too LOL............ I sleep best in my Buckshot climber made for fat boys and talk about comfort.I am thinking setting it up in the living room

 

[one big one]

Back in the days we didn't know much about climbers, I always had a rope in my back pack,I would go to the swamp & find a Ceader Tree or a Water Oak with low limbs so I could climb up 12-15 ft & sit for 2 hrs on just a limb or until my butt was numb, feet went sleep or I shot something, had lots of luck but I'm too old & too lazy to do that now, besides the 2 mi hike in off the Warrior River ( Lock 5). Good Times though.

 

[Caspr21]

My thoughts going into a newer area that I haven't hunted, I take my API Bowhunter which will climb everything from a little pine to a big oak. Just go sit, then once you can get up there, you can tweak what you are doing. Odds are until rut, the bucks arent going to use the same trails as does, so obviously you were in a good spot if you shot and killed with the bow and had a shot at all of them. But part of hunting is being able to adapt. Because who knows, two weeks from now that cover may be gone due to leaves falling and you need to move. I, like woody, climb high. These freaking alabama deer have Ph.D's on looking up in trees especially those freaking does.

 

[whipper snapper]

i feel the same way hoo does about staging areas adjacent to feeding areas and such. if i am hunting an area i have never scouted or been to. which almost never happens, sorta like pi$$in' in the wind. i find a heavily used trail usually where a head makes up on a branch or creek swamp, then i will walk it tilli find a place where many trails that intersect closely and set up down wind. 9 times out of 10 there will be no tree to climb in that particular spot. improvise:banghead

 

[Ithaca37]

Sounds like a good place, but you might try placing your stand off the trail a little. Outside of the rut, most mature bucks won't walk a known trail.