How High?

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Mike Foss
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How High?

Unread postby Mike Foss » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:00 pm

This subject might have already been talked about. It seems each year I go higher and higher. How high does one have to go to escape scent detection from deer? Is there really a safe zone? Please share your opinions.


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Dor
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Re: How High?

Unread postby Dor » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:04 pm

Depends on so many factors. 20 to 25 ft average. Sometimes 30+ ft, other times 8 to 12 ft is plenty.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby dan » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:06 pm

Mike Foss wrote:This subject might have already been talked about. It seems each year I go higher and higher. How high does one have to go to escape scent detection from deer? Is there really a safe zone? Please share your opinions.

You can't escape scent detection by height alone... The height of my stands varies at each set up based on many factors such as wind direction in relation the perceived bucks approach, terrain, elevation, thermals, cover, etc..
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Re: How High?

Unread postby 3dog » Sat Dec 11, 2010 3:47 am

Seems like I've been hunting lower and lower the past few years. Most my hunts are of the "hang & hunt" variety and the higher you get the more canopy you get into. That's a big part of hunting lower, plus it's just easier to set-up at 15' then it is at 30'. For scent control, I like to hunt around the tops of ravines if I can and let my scent drift into the ravine.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby blackwolf » Sat Dec 11, 2010 9:03 am

I like to go 16-20, usually 20 because my climbing poles are 20ft when using all 4 sections. Being leary of heights myself, I rarely go higher.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby lungbuster » Sat Dec 11, 2010 9:07 pm

Twenty -twenty five feet depending on the terrain, I like hunting higher not so much for scent control, but to keep out of the deers line of sight.
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GRUD
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Re: How High?

Unread postby GRUD » Sun Dec 12, 2010 1:52 am

I have been hunting lower this year. Probably 17-20ft. In some cases I get up higher closer to 25-30 if the woods is open. If I have some cover I like to hunt lower because I get a better shot angle. Ive done some ground blind hunting this year and from ground level double lung is very easy. It seems that from up high sometimes the angle makes it tough to get both lungs. I lost a doe early archery because I only got one lung. Tracked her till blood stopped and looked all through the thicket, nada. Anyway, I shot a doe last weekend with my muzzleloader from about 20 yards and only got one lung. She jumped and ran under my tree and stood there for 15 minutes breathing heavy. She finally laid down and I carefully reloaded. The other deer with her spooked because I made a little noise pushing down another load but she remained bedded under me. I put a second shot center of her neck. When gutting her out I could see that she was slightly quarting to me when the first bullet struck, hitting the lower lobe of the shotside lung and exiting just below the offside lung. The offside lung was bruised but not bleeding. If I had been a bit lower in the tree I think I would have hit the offside lung, it was a pretty steep angle with her so close.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Sun Dec 12, 2010 12:03 pm

I have been hunting lower and lower due to the lack of cover on our land. We hunt private land 120acres of mainly overgrown popples. None wide enough to hide my movements with the right camo so as instructed by Dan I have been hunting at the top of the brush height with main focus on the wind. Since I started doing this, this year, my sightings have increased exponentially and I haven't gotten busted since the early season when I hunted a fixed stand. This weekend I built three brushy ground blinds and plan to finish out the late season on the ground in snow camo. My closest encounter this fall with a "big buck" occured when I was only 5 feet off the ground. This was the biggest buck I've ever seen on our farm, and the biggest buck we got on camera all fall. Unfortunately the doe he was with went down the trail away from me rather than towards me. I focus more on the wind and amount of cover than the stand height. I get too high in the tree and I miss because of the angle.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby gjs4 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 3:29 am

15-25 but it has much more to do with breaking up my outline and not sticking out. I had one stand that was around 5' up and it worked.
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Dor
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Re: How High?

Unread postby Dor » Mon Dec 13, 2010 3:33 am

All things equal....I prefer to be as high as I can. The main reason has little to do with scent (though it helps), but increased visibility.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby Arrowbender » Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:49 am

Every set is different. I usually target about 18' to 24'. I run into a lot of timber that limits how high by the canopy. I've virtually have gone "trim free" lately with great results with closer deer and only a few "NO shot" occurrences.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:00 am

I've virtually have gone "trim free" lately with great results with closer deer and only a few "NO shot" occurrences.

Great point Arrow! I see much better results by leaving the area as is,( as little as possible trimmed ) and being patient in waiting for a shot.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby PASwamper » Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:33 pm

Depends a lot on terrain. I have a rope on my climber thats 25 feet and I'll usually try to go up till my bow starts to lift off the ground. The safe zone thing might apply a little bit if a deer comes from upwind and passes through to downwind it might not smell you till its much farther out. This year I had 5 does smell me from about 100 yards upwind but when they come to check me out they couldn't find me, they weren't even looking at me, I figure it was cause most of my scent was going over them to where they originally came from. So I think it helps with scent a little bit, it definitely helps with visibility.
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Re: How High?

Unread postby dan » Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:34 am

You can't escape scent detection by height alone...

With this comment, I did not mean that height does not help with getting your scent over deer. It certainly does... Simply meant that your scent can still drop to bel;owe you if you do not have wind, thermals, or some other varable contributing to the height.


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