When we had done our Labor Day weekend walk through, we had been looking for the best places to set up tree stands.  When we went back in October, it was with a mostly made plan for 3 of the stands.  We hadn’t been able to spend time on the land to determine usual wind patterns, identify any minor game trails or determine whether or not there were any areas deer would use to bed down.   We were going to have to go on the natural trail we had found and take advantage of lesser wood areas that gave a better shooting lane. `

Using a GPS mapping App, we had identified the edge of our woods to the West.  The State land trees were cut right to the property line for the snow mobile trail.  To take advantage of the open shooting areas found on the snow mobile trail, my husband and son cut a trail West from the natural trail in our woods.  They followed what seemed to be a game trail from the west most of the way.  They made it just wide enough to get the 4-wheeler through to carry some of the stands’ pieces.  Two of the ladder stands went up along the property line about 250 yards apart. 

With the natural trail and the new trail to the west, we put up a ladder stand at that ‘intersection’.  There were few trees to the east of there, so it made viewing and shooting easier.  Sitting to face to the south, shooting to the left would be easiest for a right-handed (or better yet, are you left eye or right eye dominant (another post) person?   The natural trail moved south of this spot, so a natural shooting lane was there.  The trail to the west was slightly ahead of the stand to help with shooting to right without having to move the shooters’ body completely.

Not really having enough time to cut shooting lanes, we continued to look for spots that had good views with open shooting areas.  I had planned to use the stand at the intersection.  It had a nice wide comfortable seat with armrests.  There is a bar to pull from behind over your head, so it creates a bar in front.  Handy to set the gun on, a feeling of security forward.  But, when I saw how high in the air the ladder stand was, I changed my mind.  I am terrified of heights and around 14 feet didn’t sound too high, until I saw it go up into the air.  Then I remembered why I always offer to walk the drive we do in the morning and sit at the edge of a pasture in the afternoon. 

In the end, J sat there.  His back was to a thicker section of woods, not as likely to have a deer come up directly behind him.  The natural trail in the woods did come from behind him on the left.  Very possible to find a deer walking down that.  Why wouldn’t deer want to walk down the easier path?  With it being on the left side, J would be able to turn his body more easily if he needed to turn to his left.  We reminded him that if he was turning to the left to check out the trail, he needed to turn very slowly.   

Because J wasn’t likely to sit really still for any period of time, his deer stand also had a good spot to rest his feet. There is a bit of a lip on the front part of the foot rest, it allows you to move your feet/legs into a different position without having to move very much. We teased him that if he fell asleep in the stand, he had a backrest, armrests and a bar in front. He should stay in the seat.

We took a rope, tied one end to the stand armrest and put a carabiner clip on the end of the rope to clip onto the sling swivel on the gun.   J could climb up the ladder stand, sit down and then bring his gun up.  Going down, do that in reverse – clip and then lower the gun, then climb down.

Now that we had J squared away, it was time to figure out where I would sit.  I haven’t sat high in a tree stand that I got up into climbing a ladder.  I hate heights.   Going up about 6 – 7 ft wouldn’t be too bad.  That was about 1 ladder section.  We had high ground on the south side of the land, with an up to 1300 foot elevation.  There were a few places where the elevation was steep.  I took advantage of that by putting a ladder stand on the top of a rise.  Looking down, I had good elevation over lower ground.   There was an area with fewer trees, more open ground for shooting.  I only had to go up about 6 – 7 feet in the air.  Ironically, this spot was the general area where I had gotten lost on Labor Day weekend and I would have to find my way back and forth to the natural trail that I couldn’t find before. 

My other son and his wife were going to use the ground blind.  The high elevation on that section of land followed a line over to the opposite side, toward the West.   They put the ground blind on a high area with a pretty good 360° view.

We were set. We had stands and a blind for 6 hunters.