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hang 'em high

Whenever I can, I probably hunt higher than most here, from what I can tell. Twenty-two feet or a tad more is a sweet spot in a lot of places; 32-35 feet is a stretch but I've done it. As guys have noted above, you need the right understory, tree canopy and shot angles/distances.

There's no doubt in my mind that 25-ft.-plus mitigates scent concerns big-time, but with thermals or swirling winds there are no guarantees.

On a lot of flat land I hunt, setting up higher is almost a must to avoid deer picking you off from a distance unless you hide behind the tree trunk. That's even before you even try to position for the shot or draw a bow. (Not a lot of low background cover in openish pine stands, cutovers, deep old hardwood bottoms, etc.)

Whenever I'm not able to cut shooting lanes or hunt pre-sets where I know my stand height and shot windows/angles, I'm usually forced to hunt lower than I'd prefer, though, just so I have some holes to shoot through.
 
For me, it seems like escaping scent is nearly impossible. It’s well over 90 degrees when our archery season kicks off. And it can be 80 plus til close of season (ask anyone who was at Saddle Flaooza 2 weeks ago)… if I have clean shooting lanes and I can get 25 to 35 feet high, I absolutely will. That’s a big if usually. In our oak hammocks you are often lucky to find a straight tree, let alone one with decent shooting lanes at 15 to 20’… it’s thick down here and a different kind of thick then most people are used to.
Now if we have the opportunity to hunt pine plantations with little to no branches and only palmettos interfering with shooting clarity, I will usually go 30 or so feet. The steep shooting angles suck but you get a much better point of vision for the deer moving between palmettos and you also get up high enough that our ridiculous winds should blow your scent over the deer that come within 80 or so yards.

More and more I try to find pine rows but most of my hunts are spent in thick green oak hammocks. So getting high isn’t usually a viable option.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
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).
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But but… it’s the scentlok!

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I have some older Scentlok base layers that I break out occasionally, but it's very hot to wear during the period we're most worried about warm temps and exertion in the South, which is most of my season. Plus I found it a bit fussy to take great care of all the time, so I can't say I'm really on the team.

I like it as a wind barrier in the cold temps, though.

The better solution for me when I have to hunt "low" or in challenging wind and scent conditions has been cover scents. I will smoke some of my clothes and gear (which has the added benefit of fighting scent-producing bacteria), and am a big fan of fox, coon, deer, calming and curiosity scents used properly.

I'm not going to eliminate my own scent completely, but I am going to hide it.
 
This is why I am a scent control fanatic. That includes my scent regiment and hunting the wind if possible. Big if! Deer are gonna smell you a LOT. We can't help that but if they get just a tiny little whiff and possibly can't tell how fresh it is or how close and it confuses them for just a minute you have to consider that a win and a very rare advantage. Saying that, I hunt where the best cover is. For me and the deer.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
I'll also add that if I lived in the deep south, I'd be a golfer not a hunter. lol. I've hunted with sweat dripping off me the whole time. No thanks.
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but have you hunted with sweat dripping off you the whole time, with mosquitoes trying to eat you alive, with bubba and randy busting past you directly at first light - all this on repeat for 10+ sits without seeing a deer??
 
mschultz373 said:
but have you hunted with sweat dripping off you the whole time, with mosquitoes trying to eat you alive, with bubba and randy busting past you directly at first light - all this on repeat for 10+ sits without seeing a deer??
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That description could just as easily describe a day at the golf course, except the part about not seeing deer. They are at the golf course, lol.
 
I've hunted pretty high. With a modern compound with good power and a fixed head, I am not that worried about shot angle. Just know where the heart is at, imagine a marble sitting on top of the heart inside the animal, and then shoot the marble. As long as you don't spine it, it is absolutely devastating. I got one last year with that same shot, and it feel over almost like it had been shot with a rifle.
 
raisins said:
I've hunted pretty high. With a modern compound with good power and a fixed head, I am not that worried about shot angle. Just know where the heart is at, imagine a marble sitting on top of the heart inside the animal, and then shoot the marble. As long as you don't spine it, it is absolutely devastating. I got one last year with that same shot, and it feel over almost like it had been shot with a rifle.
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I'm the same way. I get plenty of penetration, even with my 44 pound bow, to make most shots and get a pass through. If I can visualize where I want my exit to be on the animal and put the vitals between the point of entrance and the exit, and I am close, I will take it. Several of my recent kills were very steep. A doe last fall was shot facing away down through the top of the back and out the neck with the 44 pound bow. She dropped on the spot. The broadhead came out her neck. Another doe, shot just to one side of the spine, and out the armpit on the opposite side didn't go far. If you have the right arrow, most angles are very doable. I would not take any super hard raking forward shot through the guts to get to the vitals, or Texas heart shot, but, frontal shots, shoulder shots, etc are very doable, especially with the 60 pound bow.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I'm the same way. I get plenty of penetration, even with my 44 pound bow, to make most shots and get a pass through. If I can visualize where I want my exit to be on the animal and put the vitals between the point of entrance and the exit, and I am close, I will take it. Several of my recent kills were very steep. A doe last fall was shot facing away down through the top of the back and out the neck with the 44 pound bow. She dropped on the spot. The broadhead came out her neck. Another doe, shot just to one side of the spine, and out the armpit on the opposite side didn't go far. If you have the right arrow, most angles are very doable. I would not take any super hard raking forward shot through the guts to get to the vitals, or Texas heart shot, but, frontal shots, shoulder shots, etc are very doable, especially with the 60 pound bow.
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My sense is that the down angled shots actually do more damage, since the arrow is inside the lungs for a farther distance.
 
I would like to live in a world where you never lose a deer you've shot at, so am firmly in the camp angling for double lungs, exit holes and blood trails.

Ideally, you get all three. Steep angles increase your chances of the dreaded single-lung hit and/or hitting high from the point of aim.

Can you get killing shots shooting steep?

Some people can, sometimes.

But it's not something to bank on.



 
It does seem that the consensus is that high set ups only work in areas where you are essentially climbing up and over the understory then shooting down into it. Broadly speaking.

There are precious few areas like this in my hunting area. The most applicable would likely be climbing high in a cypress either along sloughs in the bottoms or in the swamp. I suppose a tall pine would work, but I don’t typically key in on these areas as the understory is not thick enough
 
Swamp Fox__On The Run said:
I would like to live in a world where you never lose a deer you've shot at, so am firmly in the camp angling for double lungs, exit holes and blood trails.

Ideally, you get all three. Steep angles increase your chances of the dreaded single-lung hit and/or hitting high from the point of aim.

Can you get killing shots shooting steep?

Some people can, sometimes.

But it's not something to bank on.



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I'm always trying to hit the heart on the way out...you hit the heart or any of the large vessels leading off the top of it after passing through one lung its over. One good lung doesn't do much good if the heart that pumps the blood isn't working. Steep downward shots also lead to low exit wounds which usually put a lot of blood on the ground right off the bat too. There are no guarantees for sure. I also practice a lot of close in, steep downward angles and practice aiming low to compensate. A lot of my shots happen in that 6 to 16 yard zone, so even if I'm only 18 feet up, a 6 yard shot is pretty steep.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I'm always trying to hit the heart on the way out...you hit the heart or any of the large vessels leading off the top of it after passing through one lung its over. One good lung doesn't do much good if the heart that pumps the blood isn't working. Steep downward shots also lead to low exit wounds which usually put a lot of blood on the ground right off the bat too. There are no guarantees for sure. I also practice a lot of close in, steep downward angles and practice aiming low to compensate. A lot of my shots happen in that 6 to 16 yard zone, so even if I'm only 18 feet up, a 6 yard shot is pretty steep.
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The heart eats too good to destroy it intentionally. You're a barbarian!

Spot on the whole rest of your post, though. ---LOL
 
Sunshine said:
Man, this year, I've just been happy to climb a tree big enough that I ain't worried about it bending over and dumping me when I try to take a leak.

I'm honesty way too fat to be climbing some of the crap I did.
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Please report to the staying in shape/fitness thread immediately! lol.
 
I’m also a roughly 18-22’ high hunter but it’s not about the height it’s about the situation in the location.

I hunt in places with a lot of hills and hollars. It can be a frustrating situation especially in the early season. With the wind and thermals.

For presets or preset locations already picked/used that have climbing infrastructure already installed, I pretty much know when to hunt that for optimal conditions.

My thought process is typically a macro and micro location analysis strategy. Macro analysis: where are the deer now for that area, what are the forecasted winds, and what is the likelihood of a good setup for the micro location I will be hunting within that macro area. If the macro location is bad that day relative to most deer movement, I’m not going to my micro location anyway. I will try not to push it. My micro location strategy is then further drilled down based mostly on thermal activity at the time I will be hunting that specific micro location. So I feel this is a double assurance process to keep my best locations from being over hunted.

Anymore, especially in the early season, I have learned that “pushing it” is a fools errand. I try to have several spots to be able to hunt and access each when it is right for that spot, both in a general sense and at the specific location I will be overlooking. I’m not trying to figure out how I can thread the needle. I’ve done that so many times and it never works. I’ve found if I watch out for those things, everything else kinda falls in place. Kind of!!! If my voice is saying to me: You’re trying to push hunting this location too much, usually I don’t hunt that spot that day/time.

You also don’t want to over think this stuff either which I tend to do sometimes. If the basics of the hunt are already a cluster for that location, that location is out of the thought process for that particular day and time.
 
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