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Do you prep trees?

Do you prep the majority of trees you hunt?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 31.0%

  • No

    Votes: 20 69.0%
  • Total voters
    29
elk yinzer

elk yinzer

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Messages
2,926
Location
State College, PA
I see the phrase "prepping trees" tossed around here a lot. I have to admit I'm not even sure what that entails. Do you prep trees and what does that constitute?

I hunt public land and it's illegal to cut live stuff. I take that with a pretty liberal interpretation and I'll give myself some room to work with when setting up. Just getting some branches out of the way at hunting height to have room to maneuver silently. You can do a lot just bending them and sometime tying them out of the way. If worse comes to worse some light pruning. Does that make me a prepper?

But I almost never prep anything aside from that. I hunt some super tight cover and as long as I have a couple of shooting lanes I'll work with it. I don't need to have a deer on camera for 10 minutes to establish rapport with viewers, I just need a little window to squeeze an arrow through. Scouting I see all the time places where people practically clear cut all the undergrowth in a 30 yard radius. To me that is just ruining the area because you're taking away all that security cover and altering the deer travel routes.
 
Agreed. I don’t prep areas either and all I need are small holes to shoot through. I have “prepped” trees/lanes in the past and never end up using them because the wind is usually doing something different that day and I need to shift a few yards to cheat it. I think the biggest advantage of the saddle is going in without touching an area and being able to setup with minimal disturbance.


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On private I’ll cut limbs with a saw to open up bigger and longer lanes, because why not??

On public I don’t really “prep” but moreso take your approach @elk yinzer in that I don’t really saw but I take my hand pruners and Whatever they can get I’m fine with
 
It depends.

On my lease, I cut shooting lanes like spokes on a wheel out to 100yards or so.

On public, I have some "prime" rut spots where I may do a little tree trimming and lane clearing, or even drilling. But most spots get practically 0 tlc.
 
I prep a bunch of trees on the private land I hunt. I put Cranford screw-in steps, trim small branches that are in the way of climbing, and take a pole trimmer and trim small shooting lanes from where I'm hanging on the tree down to likely points of impact. Also clear a small trail to the tree and put up marker tape/brite eyes to mark the trail.

Public land is a different story, here in PA we can preset a "stand" but no trimming or breaking the surface of the tree. So I've started presetting a few trees with WEI stepps, removing the bottom stepp (I use a 4-step aider so my second stepp is around 11' high).
 
I hunt all public and trimming is illegal, as are screw-in steps and the like. I never “prep” anything as a result. I rarely hunt the same tree twice, but I DO mark down trees I’d like to hunt from on my OnX with the label “ideal tree”. That just gives me options as I go through the day’s possible hunting spots, but I usually end up hunting a random new tree regardless because the sign is always hotter 5 trees over lol.
 
I would describe it as prepping the spot more-so than prepping the tree.
It's all about putting as many things in my favor as I can legally do so.
Establishing low impact access routes, cutting shooting lanes, manipulating deer travel (block trails, or open trails, pinch down old fence, etc) is almost as much of the pep as actually preparing the tree itself.
Pulling down poison ivy vines off of prospective trees in early spring is another type of prep. How many times do we look at the only tree that will work for us and it's loaded with ivy and the season is a week away? When I'm spring scouting and shed hunting, if I see a tree that might work later on but it has ivy on it, I deal with it right then and there.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
When I'm spring scouting and shed hunting, if I see a tree that might work later on but it has ivy on it, I deal with it right then and there.
Click to expand...
Do you use your body to pull them down? Sounds like the most painful prep around. I’m seriously wondering how you do this, because entire swaths of land were closed to me yesterday, where I knew the deer were, because of ivy and sumac.
 
Lots of different methods of prepping a tree or area, context is important

Predrilling holes for bolts
Hanging paracord or such for SRT/rappel.
Clearing shooting lanes
Delimbing trees for even a climber stand
Actually setting stands, climbing sticks
etc
 
I have to prep trees for SRT.... no way I can go in before dawn and get a rope for climbing up in the tree, I can barely do it in the daylight on some trees with lots of branches. All public land pre-sets this year (saving my private for the rut). I don't cut limbs on public land, just find trees to hunt and get paracord in them to pull climbing rope up when I go in to hunt them.
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
Do you use your body to pull them down? Sounds like the most painful prep around. I’m seriously wondering how you do this, because entire swaths of land were closed to me yesterday, where I knew the deer were, because of ivy and sumac.
Click to expand...
Depends on the situation. Sometimes the vines are pretty small and I can work a stick in between the vine and the tree and I can often pull the whole vine down.Sometimes the vine is a bit more stubborn and I have to pull it down with gloved hands. Sometimes I just cut the vine at ground level and rip it down a year later. The vine may still contain urushiol, but it won't be as bad as with a live vine.

I really like the Atlas Therma Fit gloves for prep work. They have rubber palms/fingers so ivy sap doesn't soak thru like it might do with fabric gloves. These gloves leave less residual odor from hands, too. BTW, the same oil on fingers that allow cops to dust for finger prints, contains odor. I know that for a fact. We don't want to touch stuff around our tree with bare hands.

Here is one example of the level of ivy we have around here. Those are PI vines growing up that tree.
Sometimes, the only tree in a spot that could work for a stand location, has ivy on it. What are you gonna do? Walk away and not hunt a great spot, or do you deal with complications? I eliminate complications. I prep.
3d736b40c40e02cdc70a4c0b51a14aaa.jpg
 
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elk yinzer said:
I see the phrase "prepping trees" tossed around here a lot. I have to admit I'm not even sure what that entails. Do you prep trees and what does that constitute?

I hunt public land and it's illegal to cut live stuff. I take that with a pretty liberal interpretation and I'll give myself some room to work with when setting up. Just getting some branches out of the way at hunting height to have room to maneuver silently. You can do a lot just bending them and sometime tying them out of the way. If worse comes to worse some light pruning. Does that make me a prepper?

But I almost never prep anything aside from that. I hunt some super tight cover and as long as I have a couple of shooting lanes I'll work with it. I don't need to have a deer on camera for 10 minutes to establish rapport with viewers, I just need a little window to squeeze an arrow through. Scouting I see all the time places where people practically clear cut all the undergrowth in a 30 yard radius. To me that is just ruining the area because you're taking away all that security cover and altering the deer travel routes.
Click to expand...
I agree o prepping for me I very rarely use the same tree or the same spot more than once
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Depends on the situation. Sometimes the vines are pretty small and I can work a stick in between the vine and the tree and I can often pull the whole vine down.Sometimes the vine is a bit more stubborn and I have to pull it down with gloved hands. Sometimes I just cut the vine at ground level and rip it down a year later. The vine may still contain urushiol, but it won't be as bad as with a live vine.

I really like the Atlas Therma Fit gloves for prep work. They have rubber palms/fingers so ivy sap doesn't soak thru like it might do with fabric gloves. These gloves leave less residual odor from hands, too. BTW, the same oil on fingers that allow cops to dust for finger prints, contains odor. I know that for a fact. We don't want to touch stuff around our tree with bare hands.
Click to expand...
I might have to start lugging my big Bowie around the woods again. Doubtful that cutting a poison ivy vine here and there counts as “damaging trees”. Thanks for the hot tip!
 
I praise the good Lord every day that I’m not allergic to Poison Ivy. Hunted a lot of trees with it and I think it adds a little extra concealment lol
 
Im in the "prep" group. I'll delimb a tree for the LWHC. Or I'll throw in some screw in steps if its not climbable. Stepping down some swamp grass or cutting a small trail to get through thick stuff. Heck prep work is part of the fun! Seeing a plan come together and your hard thought out work paying off is a good feeling!
 
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This will be the first full season for me with a saddle, so I do consider myself a novice. So far this year on my ground I have prepped 11 spots. To me that means that I have as many shooting lanes as is reasonable, my climbing method is established or installed, my height and direction are established, and a pull rope is in place. For some, I have a stand and stick installed. For some, I have bolts installed. For some, the bolt holes are drilled. Ultimately, if I can go up easily and quietly in the dark and see what I expected to see when daylight arrives, that tree was well prepped. Most of my spots took 2-4 hours, some up to 6. I will be well concealed, have adequate shooting lanes, and should not have to figure anything out that morning in the dark.
On public ground, I have not done any of that. I have done some scouting and that is it. I believe that after post season scouting this year, I will do some prepping on public ground but it will have to be minimal compared to private.
 
my "prepping" is done on my porperty or family property. I may trim slightly, check for wind downed trees that could be adjusted slightly to make funnels towards the tress where it makes sense, and of course drill for bolts.

This year I have had time to do nadda. Going in blind.
 
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