BEHIND THE TREE
Ideally, you’ve done sufficient scouting ahead of time and positioned your tree stand so that deer will pass in front of you. Practically speaking, however, deer invariably will approach from behind your set. It’s just the way of the woods. When that happens, you’ve got the tree your stand is attached to contend with, not to mention any gear that’s hanging from the tree and your safety harness, all serving as potential shot blockers.

One of the first things I do when I get into my stand each day is check to see how I need to arrange my gear in order to shoot behind my stand, if it’s at all possible. Obviously, if you have many limbs and brush behind you, it might not be possible.

We all have backpacks and binoculars and other gear that we carry with us into our stands. I put screw-in hooks into the tree to hang all my gear. And I strategically place my hooks in areas where I know I can’t shoot. If I have limbs on one side of my tree, I’ll hang my gear there. If I’m in a tree that allows me to shoot anywhere behind me, I’ll hang my gear at the height of my seat on both sides of my stand. With this setup, my only blind spots are just about straight down behind my stand. I should have a shot somewhere along the way if a buck gets into that zone.

One thing you must do when you get into your stand is draw and aim straight behind your tree. You need to do this to see how the tether that attaches your safety harness to the tree might affect your shot. Maybe you need to move your tether higher or lower so that you know it will be out of your way if the moment of truth arrives.

Expect the greatest problems when you’re shooting to the side of the tree that’s the opposite of your string hand: righties shooting left and lefties shooting right. In these positions, your tether is likely to come in contact with your string hand. You might have to lower your tether just a bit to make sure there’s enough slack in it to give you room to get into the anchor position at full draw.

No matter how big a buck is, never lean out of your stand to shoot behind you. First of all, you’ll probably be unsteady when you try to aim, and second of all -- and most important -- it’s just not safe.

IT’S THICK IN THERE
So, you’ve found the mother lode of buck rubs. You’ve found big trees stripped bare from the ground up a good 4 feet, scattered along a trail that’s beaten into the earth by all the deer traffic. There are several good trees adjacent to the trail that could hold your stand. The only problem is, the area is extremely thick -- so thick you can’t walk upright in a straight line for more than three steps.

The question hits you like a ton of bricks. How am I going to get an arrow through this stuff?

We’ve all gone out blindly into the woods and set up a stand in an area to our liking, even though we’ve never been there before. Try that when you’re bowhunting in heavy cover and you’re bound to fail.