hang 'em high

[mschultz373]

I recently heard Dan Schmidt on the DDH podcast reference times he hunted with deep south bowhunters who would climb 30'+ to minimize their scent dispersal in the warm temps and humidity. He suggested that humidities over 55% (!!) hold scent so well that avoiding detection may be nearly impossible without climbing high enough that one's scent disperses widely, almost in a diluted manner.

Dan is a far north Wisconsin guy, of course, which comes with a wildly different sensibility about hunting (i recall a WI state park official telling me over the phone that there are few hunters when temps are over 70F because "you lose a lot of meat"...), but I have heard plenty of accounts of deep south dudes climbing to such heights. So my question is who here has done this? who does it regularly?

it makes sense that hanging high would decrease scent concentration. my sense is the biggest drawbacks are getting to height efficiently and safely, and also practicing those steep shot angles.

[aside: this is contra cody d'aquisto's 'hunt low' strategy, which appeals to me, makes sense and I enjoy... but again, he is a product of his midwestern roots. i would guess the wind shifts at least 90degrees on 90% of my hunts, and it probably shifts 180degrees on over 2/3; versus plains/midewestern states where constant wind speed and direction allow for greater confidence in low set ups.]

 

[boyne bowhunter]

The "climb high" tactic is well known to be used by John Eberhart who hunts mainly here in Michigan so its not just a southern tactic. I'd also point out that the wind is very rarely consistent here in mid west hill country.

Personally I hunt where the cover best applies, be that 5 feet up, 30 feet up or anywhere in between. I'm not a fan of the archery shot angles provided by higher stand heights so, unless I feel really exposed at lower height I try to keep myself around 18-22 ft all other things equal (or if I am rifle hunting where I can gain a shot distance advantage).

 

[NMSbowhunter]

We hunt a lot of the same sort of terrain and deal with the heat and humidity, so I can tell you what I do, and you can go from there. Like you mentioned, we get a fairly unstable wind, most hunts, to the point that hunts that had a steady wind stand out in memory. I have climbed as high as 35 feet before, in hilly terrain, and still been at eye level with deer if they come from the wrong direction. I also hunt on the ground, or even off down in a creek, so maybe -3 feet, lol. Those are the extremes.

When I am seriously hunting I use Scent Lok and I am pretty diligent with it. Not crazy, but diligent. I wear clean rubber boots, and I try to never touch vegetation near where I think a deer might walk. I think it cuts down the scent signature to the point where unless that deer just happens to be in just the right spot it is going to be below what I like to call the startle level. I think that there is a scent level where a deer will no longer tolerate it without going on high alert or leaving. There are very few spots where the scent of humans never gets too. If the amount of scent is low, then the deer might conclude that someone was here yesterday of a few days ago. That is of interest to the deer but not the same as if they smell you and realize there is a human right there right now. I use the analogy of smoke. Without controlling your scent, our scent is like the smoke off a bonfire. With good scent measures, the scent is more like the smoke off a match. I think scent is the only thing where people say "if it doesn't work 100% I'm not going to do anything". Nobody says "if I can't walk through the woods and be 100% silent I am not going to hunt", or "if I can't be 100% camouflaged and guaranteed to be invisible I'll just wear my street clothes". But there it is.

If I am mobile saddle hunting I generally climb about 18 to 22 feet unless I have great cover lower. When I am pig hunting, no amount of scent control seems to work. Either pigs are way better than deer, or they have zero tolerance for any human scent. When pig hunting I play the wind, am willing to move a lot, and get busted often.

I will say this. In the South where I hunt, if I did not have a good scent control regimen and I had to play the wind, I would not hunt elevated. I would hunt off the ground so I could move with the changing wind...becasue you can count on it changing often.

 

[Sunshine]

I'd like to know where these guys are hunting that they can climb 30 ft and not ruin 98% of their shot opportunities.

Only place I find it conceivable in all the places I've hunted here in Florida are palmetto flats with the oddball pine trees in the middle of them or edge of them.

I might can think of a couple piece of old growth pine plantations that it could work....but overwhelmingly, I have to stay lower than I'd like or else I'm screwing up every chance of getting a bullet or arrow through to the deer if I do see one.

I just went and picked out a couple trees for a hunt coming up, and I honestly might carry a stool in and hunt from the ground cause my tree selection sucks so bad.

 

[Sunshine]

That being said, I've also virtually given up on the wind. Unless there is a front coming in, the wind swirls 360 degrees in every 15 minute time period, so I do get the desire, just no idea the solution.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I did a good bit of low hunting out of the LWCG .5 "Cody style" and I liked it. It's really nice to hang the stand from the ground and be low enough that if I fell out I'd just bruise my ego and not die. I did use scent control on those hunts. One nice thing about the low stand hunting was that having that option let me hunt some gnarly small trees. I think that is a tactical advantage to be able to set up in places that are unappealing to others. Also, if you need to break it down and move its easy when you are just 6 feet up to the platform.

I had a doe come in to me so close I could not shoot her while sitting 6 feet up this season, so low does work.

 

[mschultz373]

Okay so I also have a ScentLok suit I use and I think it is either past its useful life (I bought it used) or else I’m doing something wrong: it has not produced any noticeable result for me. In fact it correlates with having not killed deer the past two seasons of owning it! Correlation is not causation of course. i reactivate in dryer 50min on high every 5-8 uses depending on how sweaty I was.

 

[BTaylor]

For hunting with a bow, for me esp with the stick bow, there is no reason to climb high. Somewhere in the 12-18' range is plenty. The key for me has been, if possible, do not setup where deer will be approaching from 12 oclock from a stand or 6 from a platform. And recognize that not every good spot for a deer is not a good spot to kill em.

 

[gcr0003]

Are you concerned that deer are whiffing you and going around you or are you getting busted in the tree? How often do you see deer going wide of you? If getting busted how often? How do you know it’s your scent and not movement or skylining? Just because you see deer 80 yards off of you doesn’t necessarily mean they smelled you, especially if you have no terrain features keeping them honest on their daily travel routes.

I usually make adjustments to fix a problem, if there are no deer being affected (that I can tell) it’s kind of a guessing game as to what is having the biggest impact on them. If I get blown at, I’m thinking about wind, if I get blown at more than once and I know I had good wind then I might start thinking about scent control as much as height.

I also view that steep shot angle very, very, unfavorably. Where I hunt climbing that high also limits your view and reduces your ability to see deer coming.

I spent my season 2/3 one stick moves up a tree (10-15 ft) sort of like NMS and it really changed the way I look at the woods and set ups. I’m hunting a lot of marsh, swamp, and river bottoms. I also focused more on thick patches along travel routes. I couldn’t believe how close I was getting to deer without getting picked off. I always try and set up for the wind, but I’m starting to think getting caught without back cover is far more detrimental. The deer I witnessed also seemed less on edge walking through thicker stuff. My confidence went up a lot this season, it has me reconsidering how I hunt and where.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Okay so I also have a ScentLok suit I use and I think it is either past its useful life (I bought it used) or else I’m doing something wrong: it has not produced any noticeable result for me. In fact it correlates with having not killed deer the past two seasons of owning it! Correlation is not causation of course. i reactivate in dryer 50min on high every 5-8 uses depending on how sweaty I was.

It could be worn out. Especially if you got it used and don't know how much use it got. I use the pants, coat (the lightest weight they make for early season) and the drop down head cover. Are you using the head cover? I'm not sure how much scent is contained by the head cover but it has to be a lot. I also am throwing them in the dryer pretty much after every hunt early season if I sweat in it.

 

[gcr0003]

Okay so I also have a ScentLok suit I use and I think it is either past its useful life (I bought it used) or else I’m doing something wrong: it has not produced any noticeable result for me. In fact it correlates with having not killed deer the past two seasons of owning it! Correlation is not causation of course. i reactivate in dryer 50min on high every 5-8 uses depending on how sweaty I was.

How many deer busted you because of scent and got skittish and went wide or blew at you?

 

[mschultz373]

man lots of good stuff here. i have had similar thoughts about hunting height having commensurate issues with shot opportunity due to thickness of under/mid story. it doesn't sound (yet) like anyone really does the high thing.

in NE i had two bucks come within 8 yards of my stand while I was only 5' up. there was a lot of shoulder-high grass and reeds in this swale that I just got my head over. the major reason they came that close, though, was a constant, unvarying NE wind; i was just downwind of their trail. so i think the low set up can absolutely work.

i have most often gotten blown at while approaching a location, typically due to a wind shift or ground noise. but i have also heard these sort of soft blows that I'm 95% certain are deer? I'll link video below from a sit last night on in laws 15acres where I heard some deer approaching, do this 'soft blow' thing, then nothing. it basically sounds like the deer are snorting or huffing rather than blowing - shorter, softer. this set up was low (<8' up), with some trashy stuff obscuring my legs, but the wind shifted from SE, to E, to N/NE until finally settling from S at sunset. see pic of setup (green was final wind, blue were shifts, orange was anticipated deer travel...)

 

[gcr0003]

man lots of good stuff here. i have had similar thoughts about hunting height having commensurate issues with shot opportunity due to thickness of under/mid story. it doesn't sound (yet) like anyone really does the high thing.

in NE i had two bucks come within 8 yards of my stand while I was only 5' up. there was a lot of shoulder-high grass and reeds in this swale that I just got my head over. the major reason they came that close, though, was a constant, unvarying NE wind; i was just downwind of their trail. so i think the low set up can absolutely work.

i have most often gotten blown at while approaching a location, typically due to a wind shift or ground noise. but i have also heard these sort of soft blows that I'm 95% certain are deer? I'll link video below from a sit last night on in laws 15acres where I heard some deer approaching, do this 'soft blow' thing, then nothing. it basically sounds like the deer are snorting or huffing rather than blowing - shorter, softer. this set up was low (<8' up), with some trashy stuff obscuring my legs, but the wind shifted from SE, to E, to N/NE until finally settling from S at sunset. see pic of setup (green was final wind, blue were shifts, orange was anticipated deer travel...)

Couldn’t tell from your video but there is a bird that sounds pretty similar to a deer blowing. I looked them up before but I don’t remember what it was. It’s a common bird though. Took me some time to differentiate them. What I can say is, deer volume is louder and more airy sounding. Deer (in my experience) cadence of blowing is slower and more spaced out. If a deer is blowing you can typically see it.

 

[mschultz373]

okay, this could be a bird then. I hear it often at sunrise if I am near thickets. it is distinctly different than a doe blowing, but close enough that I wasn't sure it wasn't. i think you are right.

 

[BTaylor]

man lots of good stuff here. i have had similar thoughts about hunting height having commensurate issues with shot opportunity due to thickness of under/mid story. it doesn't sound (yet) like anyone really does the high thing.

in NE i had two bucks come within 8 yards of my stand while I was only 5' up. there was a lot of shoulder-high grass and reeds in this swale that I just got my head over. the major reason they came that close, though, was a constant, unvarying NE wind; i was just downwind of their trail. so i think the low set up can absolutely work.

i have most often gotten blown at while approaching a location, typically due to a wind shift or ground noise. but i have also heard these sort of soft blows that I'm 95% certain are deer? I'll link video below from a sit last night on in laws 15acres where I heard some deer approaching, do this 'soft blow' thing, then nothing. it basically sounds like the deer are snorting or huffing rather than blowing - shorter, softer. this set up was low (<8' up), with some trashy stuff obscuring my legs, but the wind shifted from SE, to E, to N/NE until finally settling from S at sunset. see pic of setup (green was final wind, blue were shifts, orange was anticipated deer travel...)

Not sure that is a deer. Deer will also sneeze sometimes and it sounds a little snortish but more guttural.

 

[gcr0003]

okay, this could be a bird then. I hear it often at sunrise if I am near thickets. it is distinctly different than a doe blowing, but close enough that I wasn't sure it wasn't. i think you are right.

I always hear them at sunrise/sunset near thickets. I’ll tell you this, you will know when it’s a deer! It’s loud and one of the most obnoxious noises you can hear in the woods lol.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Not sure...but it really didn't sound like a deer blowing to me.

 

[mschultz373]

Sad part then being there were in fact no deer.

I don’t think there was any tree I could get 30’ up and still have a shot so this is an example where low(er) is really only option.

 

[Still Kicking]

Winds are pretty predictable in central Illinois, but thermals can kill your hunt. I have rarely had to go over 14 feet and usually 8 to 12 anymore. There is sure more chance of being picked off when you draw your recurve but slow and steady usually gets it done. Cover is the key. I love multiple trunk trees for this reason. A lot of back cover on the ridges and the sun behind you also helps. I know a lot of guys that hunt at serious altitude and the majority of them have a lot more recovery problems. Just an old guy opinion so take it or leave it. Happy hunting however you do it.

 

[Tobey660]

That being said, I've also virtually given up on the wind. Unless there is a front coming in, the wind swirls 360 degrees in every 15 minute time period, so I do get the desire, just no idea the solution.

I agree on the fact that I have pretty much given up on hunting the wind. I recently climbed a tree on the property I hunt went 20 feet up and used two smoke canisters over a 3 hour period. The wind that day was supposed to be wsw at 4 to 7 mph. During that time the wind changed 14 times ranging from south to north ,east to west and everywhere in between.climbed as high as I could go and did it again same results. All of this was to prove to a guy at the club that stated if the wind wasn't in his face he didn't hunt. My reply was guess you don't hunt much. Just my 2 cents.