The appropriate top to hold your stand is the one which works finest for that specific searching state of affairs.
I’ve hunted from stands 30 ft within the air.
I’ve hunted from stands 8 ft off the bottom.
Each have been exactly the proper top for the place they have been positioned. How’s that attainable?
Hanging a treestand on the “proper top” isn’t a precise science. It’s one thing that adjustments relying on many variables, together with the peak of obtainable bushes within the space and the density of surrounding foliage.
How excessive do you want to hold your treestand to keep away from getting busted by deer?
That 30-foot-high stand was in a stand of tulip poplars the resident deer have been reducing by way of every night to go to an adjoining crop discipline. All of the bushes have been mature poplars, which implies the woods regarded like a set of phone poles with little or no floor foliage.
I needed to go excessive to get out of the deer’s line of sight. In any other case, I might have caught out like a sore thumb at 15 and even 20 ft. My purpose was to have the ability to enable does to cross inside 10 yards of my tree as I waited for the bucks to indicate on the finish of the night migration.
Had I been decrease and a cautious previous doe busted me, my hunt would have been over there. There have been no low branches to cover amongst, so my solely choice for canopy was to go up. And it labored. I arrowed a pleasant 8-pointer after a number of sits in my sky-high perch.
Branches and brush round your stand can help you mix in significantly better, even at a decrease stand top.
Conversely, the 8-foot-high stand was located in a thin little tree that stood solely about 25 ft tall in the course of a swamp. It was the one tree inside taking pictures distance of the principle deer path that supplied any sizable trunk for holding a hang-on stand. However 8 ft off the bottom was as excessive as I may go earlier than the tree began tapering down and the branches began rising too shut collectively.
The 8-foot enhance, nonetheless, gave me simply the correct amount of carry to see over the encircling cattails. I knew a deer was coming lengthy earlier than it acquired inside bow vary, which allowed me loads of time to prepare for a shot or to freeze, relying on whether or not the approaching deer was a shooter or not.
And fairly truthfully, whereas the deer coming by way of my poplar woods at all times gave the impression to be scanning for hazard, the dense floor vegetation of the swamp appeared to make these deer really feel very comfy. They by no means regarded up at my tree, and so long as my wind was proper, I by no means as soon as acquired busted in that stand.
Sadly, I by no means had the proper deer come by my swamp setup, so I by no means shot a deer from it. However I certain handed quite a lot of deer that I simply may have shot.
No matter how excessive you dangle your treestand, at all times put on a security harness and use a treestand lifeline. Even a fall from a low distance can severely injur and even kill you.
The ethical of the story is you dangle your stand to swimsuit the situations surrounding it. Do what it takes, because the saying goes.
Having mentioned that, should you take particular circumstances out of the equation and suppose that I’m searching a fundamental, regular woodlot, I like my stands to be 20-25 ft excessive – favoring 25 ft over 20. Why? That appears to be the peak the place it’s best to keep away from detection by deer on the bottom.
I dangle these stands as excessive as I do to not shoot deer. If my plan was to shoot the primary deer that walked up, then stand top can be irrelevant. However I imagine you must take into consideration not taking pictures deer. You could think about that the deer you wish to shoot is likely to be the fifth, tenth, fifteenth, and many others., deer to stroll by your stand. And which means you must keep away from detection by the primary 4, 9, 14, and many others. deer.
From expertise searching japanese hardwoods like we’ve got in my dwelling state of Pennsylvania, I’ve discovered it arduous to flee a deer’s eyes and nostril once I’m below 20 ft. Even once I freeze like a statue whereas hugging the tree to attenuate my silhouette, I’ve had deer peg me at 15 ft. Add one other 10 ft, although, and I can get away with virtually something.
Bear in mind that the upper you dangle a treestand, the extra you’ll want to take into consideration shot angles. A ten-yard shot within the air when you’re 12 ft is almost completely broadside. A ten-yard shot from 25 ft up is almost straight down. You could take into consideration the place to position your arrow to hit as a lot of the important space as attainable.
Ideally, you wish to put a gap in each lungs. Nicely, from 25 ft up taking pictures at a broadside deer 10 yards out, you’ll most likely should intention a little bit under the backbone on the facet of the deer closest to you. That ought to can help you hit the shut lung after which catch the far lung because the arrow slices diagonally by way of the chest cavity, exiting the underside of the deer’s physique on the other facet.
Bear in mind, the upper the stand the steeper the shot angle. Be sure that to follow these photographs and plan accordingly when selecting your shot placement.
Nonetheless, some folks don’t like heights. Or they don’t like taking steep shot angles. So perhaps you wish to dangle a stand at 12 or 15 ft. That’s okay, as long as you’ve got cowl. Put your stand in the course of some branches to interrupt your silhouette. One in every of my favourite methods is to search out a number of bushes rising shut collectively and dangle my stand in the course of them to assist with concealment.
So, in conclusion, the perfect top to hold your treestand for searching whitetails is no matter fits the atmosphere you’re searching in and no matter you are feeling comfy with. It’s actually that straightforward.
P.J. Reilly, Technical Author at Lancaster Archery Provide, P.J. has been bowhunting for almost 40 years, and has labored at Lancaster Archery Provide since 2013. He lives in Southeast Pennsylvania along with his spouse.
