When deer patterns shift and you need to move a stand, mid-morning and midday are good times to do it. (Photo courtesy of Summit Treestands)
November 06, 2024
By Mark Kayser
You hang your tree stands with care in the preseason based on hours of research and hundreds, if not thousands, of trail camera images. Inevitably, whitetails decide to drastically alter their patterns, leaving you facing a dilemma: Do you move a stand and risk spooking deer in the process? With a calculated plan revolving around the schedule and behavior of the deer you hunt, you can absolutely minimize accidental disturbances in the deer woods.
GET READY Once you’ve confirm a pattern shift and have decided it’s time to make a move, enlist some help. Partner up with someone to hand you steps, untangle lines and clear shooting lanes as you hang your new stand. Any assistance, in whatever capacity, will usually help minimize noise and speed up the process.
Next, sort through your inventory of tree stands and tree steps and select an easy-to-hang stand with few metal parts that might clang together while placing it. Do the same with your tree steps. If you’re moving a stand rather than hanging a new one, rob an existing setup that similarly hangs easily and is quiet.
Finally, consider employing scent control throughout the process. You’ll need enough spray on hand to treat your boots, your clothing, your stands and even the step sections once attached to a tree. The key is to erase your presence and increase the odds of a stealthy shift. With these issues out of the way, you decide when to make your play.
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Option 1: MOVE IN THE MORNING The case for moving a stand in the morning has an easy winning argument. Food plots empty out, and any agricultural field becomes vacant as deer fade back into bedding cover for the day. With an empty arena, now is the time to hang stands on field edges.
Getting a friend to help you set a new stand or reposition an old one will help decrease the amount of time you spend in the area. (Mark Kayser) Mature deer typically feed in a crepuscular fashion (that is, at dawn and dusk), and all research confirms this. Sure, weather could bring about an earlier or later feeding pattern on fields, but the latest GPS studies across the whitetail’s range regularly confirm dawn and dusk activity spikes. But you already knew that.
To avoid bumping the brunch crowd, wait at least two hours after sunrise to set up an edge treestand. Choosing whether to hike or drive to the edge location is your call but should be based on what deer in the area are used to. And don’t be surprised if you bump a deer or three on the field. Fawns of the year wander and do what they wish when mom disappears for breeding. Forget about that flag. Bumping the young ’uns usually won’t cause a pattern shift, though disrupting mature deer might.
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Option 2: SHUFFLE AT NOON Midday may seem like a good time to grab some lunch, but it offers advantages for moving stands without disruption, too. Your goal should be to not intrude too far into your targeted deer’s sanctuary or bedding cover. By noon, whitetails typically take a siesta after rutting all night and feeding into the wee hours of the morning. This offers another window to set up along field edges without disturbing deer, but you can take it a step further.
Despite the rut prodding bucks into a wayfaring lifestyle in which they move whenever they wish, pressured and mature bucks still lead a guarded existence unless the essence of estrus overwhelms them. Expect them to be deep in cover, giving you the green light to reposition stands inside the edges of fields and food plots. Maintain a reserved presence and do not push too near a refuge. However, by positioning a stand 100 yards into a woodlot off a field, you set a trap for deer watchful of an edge ruse. Time your move with nearby farming activity, wind or even a light rain to help veil your incursion.
Option 3: ACT AFTER HOURS This next suggestion may not be for everyone: Consider moving your stand under the cover of darkness. This sounds out of the box, but it gives you unfettered access to the very perimeter of a remote sanctuary deep in cover.
Think about it: At dusk, deer traditionally vacate the woods and move toward feeding opportunities in open areas, such as food plots. An hour after dark, bedding cover is as vacant as a video rental store. Using deer movement knowledge, a downwind approach and a backdoor entrance, stealthily move to the edge of bedding cover to set your stand. Run your headlamp on low to minimize light and be extra quiet on a calm night to avoid alarming deer that might be feeding just a few hundred yards away. Set your stand and slip out the same way.
When moving stands mid-season, use scent-control spray on boots, clothing, stands and other gear to minimize disruption. (Mark Kayser) One recent season, changing deer patterns had left me discouraged and my only choice was to move my stand. After considering all possibilities, I settled on a late-night move. Two hours before daylight, I sneaked into the outskirts of bedding cover in a large woodlot and quietly set my stand. Instead of leaving, I climbed in for a day-long sit. Less than two hours later, a mature buck trotted into the area to snoop through the bedding cover, affording me an 18-yard ending to the season.
This article was featured in the November 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
