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Getting To Your Stand
The best stand site in the world isn't worth much if you can't find it in the dark on opening day. After you have chosen your stand location or several locations, plan how to get there while causing the least disturbance possible.
Any brush you touch holds your scent and most non-rubber, stitched boots "seep" human scent. You leave a scent trail to and from your stand each time you use it. Consider clearing a path through the brush to your stand. This cuts down on your scent trail and you make less noise going in. All rubber or rubber-bottomed pac boots are a bit hot, particularly early in the season, but they hold in human scent. Using foot pads or drag rags with either a cover scent or an appropriate lure scent is a good idea.
Mark your trails well. Nothing louses up your hunt like missing your stand site by a few feet in the dark and having to stumble around your hunting area looking for it.
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Deer Knowledge Zones
Deer best know the areas they frequent most. This means they are quicker to spot a change and react more strongly to it in areas where they spend much time. Keep that in mind both for stand site selection and for hunting later on. This is the reason it is not usually a good idea to invade a buck's core refuge area or sanctuary while hunting him. He'll pick up on your intrusion very quickly and become super wary or perhaps abandon that area altogether. Bucks are almost as sensitive about their primary breeding scrapes. Too much disturbance there will cause them to look for does elsewhere. In both cases, hunt the fringes of such areas rather than sticking up a stand right in them. Hunting the trails connecting bedding, breeding and feeding areas isn't taken as such a "personal" affront although don't think you can get away with sloppy technique even there. Rather than putting up a stand right on the trail, stay a reasonable distance away.
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The Blind Bag
One of the best duck hunting accessories is a properly designed "blind bag." This is where you carry most of your waterfowling accessories. It absolutely should be in camouflage and be waterproof. It should also be fairly large. Since waterfowling is a "sit and wait" deal you don't have to carry the bag while actually hunting. However, you should consider how long and hard the trek to your blind is because you will be carrying the bag and your gun that far. I've settled this problem by having two bags. One is large so I can carry lots of gear to easily accessible blinds. The other is small for the tough treks. Taking the smaller bag means I have to be more discriminating about what I think is absolutely essential for that morning's shooting. A good blind bag should have several separate pockets and maybe a compartmentalized interior, like a camera bag. That way your don't have to dig through every thing to find the item you want.
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Select Several Stand Sites
Smart deer hunters pick several stand sites either to hunt an individual buck or to hunt in different areas.
The individual buck will soon figure out that someone is out to get him. If you hunt from the same location all the time, he will simply avoid that one area. Pick several areas that he frequents and divide your hunting time among them.
It's also good to have several different hunting areas with several alternative stand sites in each area. This works on the same principle as hunting the individual buck from several locations in his home range. By mixing up your hunting locations, you might mix up the deer.
Select different stand sites that can be hunted in various wind and weather conditions. Also consider other factors, including thermals, the lay off the land and sun direction when selecting a stand site. At the minimum have a morning and afternoon site so that the rising or setting sun isn't in your eyes.
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Getting Your Stands In Shape
Start early to get your hunting stands ready for the season. If you hunt from permanent stands, visit them now to make needed repairs. A tree swaying in the wind will loosen nails. Check for rotted timber. If your shooting lanes need trimming up, do it now and drag the cut brush out of the area.
The same goes for the semi-permanent ladder or tripod type stands. If you are going to move them, do it not and cut new shooting lanes. All of this activity creates considerable disturbance in your hunting area and you want it done and over with well before deer season.
For your portable stands check for rusted nuts and bolts at all critical support areas. If any are frozen by rust, using strong-smelling penetrating agents now allows the scent to dissipate before hunting season. The same goes for any lubricants that might be necessary to prevent the stand from creaking and squeaking while you are on it.
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