How to Find the Best Stand Locations for Taking Trophy Whitetails!

So you’ve finally gained access to piece of deer hunting heaven! A piece of ground that has been un-hunted for years. How do you go about deciding how to hunt it? Here’s a some answers to a few of the most commonly asked questions.

Where do you start?
How do you narrow down hundreds of acres into a handful of top stand locations?
How do you find that perfect spot to ambush a trophy whitetail?
How do you pick the right tree?
How will you access the stand?

You Found a Piece Great Piece of Property, Now, Where do You Start?

Once you have secured access to some ground, the next step, if you have not already done so, is to get a good aerial photo of the property. This will be one of the most valuable tools for getting started and can save a great deal of time and effort. I keep a small, laminated version in the truck to refer to all the time. You will be surprised just how off your perception of the lay of the land can be. A good detailed aerial will reveal more about how to begin your scouting and how to hunt a piece of land than you can imagine. This works extremely well for northern areas but a little less so in the south. However, a great deal of useful information can still be gained from an aerial even if you’re a southern hunter, such as a change in the vegetation or edge in the woods where an upland hammock changes to a marsh or planted pines change to a cypress strand or pond. Creek drainages, island, hammocks and other terrain features that are keys to deer movement can be derived from the aerial. In the northern part of the country such as the Midwest you can literally plan your entire strategy from an aerial before you ever set foot on the property. Even bedding areas can be easily determined once you learn how to interpret them. They are typically going to be the thick steep draws, especially if they have been select cut. After that, you are going to need to scout some of the areas you found on the map to verify whatyou have learned from them.

How do you Narrow Down Hundreds of Acres into a Handful of Top Stand Locations?

With your aerials in hand you will be able to identify the most likely stand locations.
I like to start with the fields. Look for inside and outside corners and points that project out into the field. Next, look at the general lay of the land for obvious travel routs for any buck looking to cross from one side of the property to another. Bottle necks or any features that funnel the deer travel will be a key spot. Also try to identify possible saddles that tie two ridges together, this is another great ambush site for all deer and especially Trophy Bucks.

How do you Find the Perfect Spot to Ambush a Trophy Whitetail?

Now that you have some potential key locations identified, its time to put on your hiking boots and get a first hand look at each spot. Any outside points are no brainers, they cut down the width across the field and increase your shooting range. You can have an 80 ac field and if it has a point that projects out into it, more often than not a buck is going to be drawn to walk by it.
If I had to pick one kind of stand location, it would be bottle neck or some kind of funnel that helps force the deer to move thru a narrowed area. This can be formed by fields on each side of a narrow strip of woods. Fences or some natural thick barrier.

You can even create your own funnel if you are hunting on private land. I have a favorite stand overlooking a strip of crp and a lot of the deer I was seeing were passing out of bow range, so I spent half a day cutting 2-3” maple saplings to create a big “v” to force the deer closer to my stand. It was a lot of work but it worked great!

Another spot to always keep an eye open for is a location where multiple types of edge all come together. The more the better. An example of this would be the stand that I killed the doe in the picture here. It’s an inside field corner that butts up to an open wooded bottom to the north and a thick cutover bedding area to the east. This can be a deer magnet. Another good example would be different age or type, stands of timber abutting a cutover or head, etc.

How do you pick the right tree?

Once you have zeroed in on the perfect spot, now comes the delima, picking the right tree. This is often a difficult choice, especially for a bow hunter. One of my favorite hunting buddies Cpt. Rick and I often debate over the right tree for 30-45 minutes before we come to an agreement. There never seems to be a good tree right where you need it and you usually end up in something with a dog leg or crook and it usually takes some head scratching to get the stand on the tree. Personally, I want to be as close as possible to as much sign as I can cover. In an ideal situation you would want to set up so deer don’t come from behind you but sometimes this can’t be helped. It’s a lot easier if you are a gun hunter but when bow hunting, you want to cover as much ground as possible. If you are gun hunting, get back off the sign a little to avoid spooking deer. If you are bow hunting, don’t get to close to a trail you expect deer to travel. Try to stay back 12-15 yds. If you can. You will have less deer busting you and have a better shot angle. On calm mornings it is nearly impossible to draw on a deer that is under 10 yds.

How will you access the stand?

How you access the stand can be extremely important. Always avoid walking in front of your stand and approach from the rear or side. There are hundreds of different scenarios you could consider but in general try to avoid approaching where you expect the deer to be. Use any possible cover to hide your approach. If you are hunting in thick woods like in the south, make a chop trail to your stand so you can avoid contact with the vegetation. This will help you avoid contaminating your walk trail with scent. Many times deer will start using your trail but it’s a trade off you have to live with.

If you will follow some of these tips and apply them they will get you that much closer to your goal of putting a Trophy Buck in the back of your truck!

Good hunting!
Larry Stephens

Less Scouting Just Might Help you Harvest a Buck of a Lifetime! Here's How!

Less scouting can equal more trophy bucks! I’ll bet you have never heard that before! Let me tell you how you can be more successful with less scouting and harvest the buck of a life time!

• Over scouting can push a resident buck out of the area!
• Over scouting can cause bucks to go nocturnal!
• Do part of your scouting on the way in and out of your stand.
• Stay out of thick areas lay-up!
• In open country scout deer movement patterns with optics from a distance!

Watch any hunting show or read any magazine articles related to hunting Deer and when you get to the section discussing scouting you will probably get the sense that you have to spend every spare minute scouting, leaving no rock unturned. Well, not exactly so. Over scouting can be even more detrimental to taking a trophy than under scouting.

Once you are Really Familiar with your property and how Deer use it
under various conditions you will know which stand to hunt without scouting.

Minimal scouting can be a major key to talking a trophy buck. To accomplish this you have to really know the property you are hunting. Obviously, the first few years you are on a new property you are going to need to do a lot of scouting to familiarize yourself with the lay of the land and how the deer use the property. In farm country such as in the mid-west, how the deer use the property will change from year to year ,depending on crop rotation, acorn crop, if the farmer has turned under the field , snow, etc.. You will need to determine where the bedding areas, feeding areas and any travel corridors that guide deer into confined movement areas. A lot of this knowledge can be learned during the off season, either turkey hunting or shed horn hunting, etc. Once you are really familiar with your piece of property you won’t need to stomp every inch of it just before you start hunting.

If you are hunting during the rut there is a revolving door of bucks entering and leaving your property so you can get away with a little more stomping around but you do still run the risk of educating a buck that might be on the hit list. If you do have the misfortune to spook the buck your hunting off the property there will be a new one there the next day, so all is not lost. If you are hunting pre or post rut you don’t have Bucks moving from property to property as much so take more care not to let this happen.

In the above photo i'm using a frozen creek between an alfalfa fieldand corn field to hide my access to a prime stand!

A Field Stand will Take a lot more Pressure than a Woods Stand!

Crossing an open crop field is far less impact on the deer than if he smells where you have walked in the woods. Field stands can be hunted much more than your woods stands. I have noticed that deer pay little to no attention when they cut your trail crossing a field. There is usually no vegetation to swipe against your legs and pick up scent and fibers from your cloths. Leave some scent in the woods and it’s a different story.

It should not take you to long to figure out where the prime stand locations are on your property. We like to take care of all of our stand work during spring gobbler season. Sometimes we are forced to move a stand or hang a new stand during the season based on a new movement pattern but keeping this to a minimum will help keep the disturbance down. This is really important, especially when hunting small properties. Keep in mind that does are much more tolerant of human intrusion than are bucks, A Big Bucks with 3 or 4 hunting seasons behind him will not stand for being jumped out of his bed. He won’t use that spot again for a long time, maybe never.

The Buck above was taken from a travel corridor stand in the woodsthat is adjacent to a field access. No Scouting required!

Our lease in Illinois is approx. 420 acres and about half is woods. We have over 20 stand locations that cover all the key spots on the farm. A few of these stands will be cold each year as the conditions are always different from year to year but the rest will all be productive spots that you could see a Trophy in, at any time. The balance of land is field and big draws. You really have to stay away from the draws as this is prime bedding and you can’t hunt it without blowing them out of there trying to get in. With this situation we can go to a stand cold and do a little scouting on the way in, hunt and get out. There is no need to stomp the place flat just to look at the sign. If he is there he’s going to end up at one of our stands, it’s just a matter of time. This is the best low pressure method of hunting small property.

If your Stands are Located Properly you really don’t need to Scout!

If you learn your property and get your stands located in all the prime movement spots ahead of the hunting season so you are not forced to be walking all over the woods when your supposed to be hunting, you’ll be able to hunt effectively with almost no scouting. That Trophy Whitetail your after will never know what hit him!

Good Hunting,
Larry Stephens

Monster 2007 Iowa Whitetail

Well, If you like Big Monster Bucks.....here he is. I don't know much about the story behind the harvest but reports indicate he was harvested in 2007 in Iowa.

There is always hope!

Good Hunting

Larry