Treestand questions?
 

Hi Guys and girls
I am archery hunting for the first time this fall. I have a hunting spot that is a hill with CRP on one side and a wetlands on other with woods in between. I have a stand in the edge of woods overlooking CRP. Shoud I put another stand at edge woods and wetlands? Also what do you do with branches that you have trimmed to put stand up and make shooting lanes?

Thanks
Croc

Not sure where you should put your stand, but if the limbs you trimmed are green and you can hunt alot of times deer will eat they because it's a quick bite.

If it were me, I would have many hunting locations found... I would not put a stand there till the day I hunted and then move to a new location next hunt... The only stand I would hang and leave would be an observation stand to glass from before I hunted.

just let the branches lay... they aint hurtin nothin... just move them out of the way of the main trail comin throuh

I know some guys zip tie the branches to their stand, out of the way of their shooting lanes of course, to help conceal their stands.

I carry my stand in each day and hunt from a new place each day. When I have to trim the branches I make sure I am using de-scented gloves if I handle them, which I usually don't, unless the fall onto a lower branch and obstruct a shooting lane where they fall. I try not to get too many branches onto the ground around my stand. I think a bunch of broken/cut branches sets up a yellow (not red) flag to experienced deer. When I handle them, if I think there are too many on the ground, I usually toss them up in a higher branch, just for scent control and to get themout of eye level for the deer. Sometimes I put them around my stand as additional camo.

Branches...and entire trees...come down all the time naturally, so I highly doubt that a few branches on the ground will alarm them. If they're full of your scent from handling them, then they probably will be more alert. I watched a small 5-pointer sniff the tree where I had placed my hands while setting up my tree climber, so it doesn't take much for them to smell you.

If you're setting up a stand (e.g. ladder or hanger) that you intend to leave there for a while, the best time to do it is in a rain storm IMO. The rain will both dampen the noise as well as wash away your scent. When it rains, I take to the woods to make any last minute preparations that I didn't get to earlier in the year.

If you can/are planning to leave these stand(s) in for the season, you should definitely think about putting more stands up to compensate for different winds. Singular stand locations limit you to hunting only certain winds.