bspittman

The place I' m hunting has a heavily traveled trail that comes up our of a ditch from behind a pond damn. The only trees within bow distance are medium sized pine trees with tons of limbs, and I can' t get my stands up in them. I' m a pretty lazy hunter and like to be good and comfortable so my stands are all pretty big and bulky so I can' t maneuver them around all the limbs, but don' t want to cut a lot b/c I don' t want to disturb the trail. I was wondering if any of you have any suggestions on a decent stand that' s small enough to get up into a pine around the limbs??

kevin1

bspittman,
have you tried a ground blind instead ? Sometimes you just can' t find a decent tree . I use an Ameristep Outhouse(I didn' t name it) pop-up tent blind . It weighs 8 pounds , covers my movement , allows me to set up almost anywhere in under 5 minutes , and grants me portability that a tree stand could never match . While I can stay in the woods all day , sometimes you gotta try somewhere else when the action ain' t where you are . It cost me $49 , which is comparable to a chain on tree stand . I prefer hunting from the ground , and sometimes it' s the only choice you have if you want access to a high percentage spot . You can take a folding stool like me , or even a folding chaise lounge if you want . The blind has 4 zip down windows , one of which is also the door . I never have to worry about the wind or rain freezing me off stand , and you can make it as comfy as you want . The newer models have an interior coating to hide shadows too . Spray some cover scent on it and you' re as good as invisible to deer .

Deer_Slayer_10

I think You should buy a ground blind

timbercruiser

Get a limb saw, pick out the best located pine and saw the limbs off now. By deer season they won' t pay it any attention.

skeeter 7MM

I hunt in pines trees lots, in fact it as darn near the only time I choose tree over ground. I limb out the tree up to my stand height only on the climb in and shooting lane side and leave the back and top untouched. Pines I prefer to side saddling up the tree and this eliminates the work in limbing out a bunch of extras and keeping good backing cover. I have mostly small triangle style stands, like Lone Wolf and Rivers Edge. If you do it now or even July the deer won' t re-route coming fall.

The other option would be hunt from the ground.

However I have limbed and hung a stand, then sat in the same day and turned out fine. If you due well before season then it will be even better. I would suggest locking your stand on if public can find it and remove the steps...just in case[:@]

Sq2Hunter

You should have no problem if you do it now beacue you have several months before you will hunt it anyway. Youll be ok. No need to go crazy, just clear out a place for the stand and make sure that you have a clear shot.

Tazman

bspittman, I prefer hunting from the ground, the secret to a ground blind is to make sure what is behind you is fairly solid, and what is in front of you either blocks the view of you entirely or breaks up your image very well. The wind when you are on the ground is 10 times as important to pay attention to than when you are 20 feet up a tree. Camo and movement is also crucial, all movement must be done when the deers head is down or blocked by something, they have excellent periphial vision, so good that they can pick up your movement even when they are not looking in your direction. I have had deer within 20 foot of me on the ground, talk about a thrill, of course as luck would have it on these occasions, it was gun season, they were doe and it was bucks only, but it is still pretty neat. Deer inside 20 yards if you are set up in the right spot are not rare at all.