Observation Stands

[Schubox1265]

I am very intrigued by the concept of using observation stands to scout. I am looking for BEAST tips and tricks on this method.

What month do you start?

Do you still employ this tactic in-season?

I guess, naturally, I envision evening sits for observation purposes. Do you also use this tactic for morning observations?

I can see from my last couple of scouting trips, that some areas are significantly better suited for using this method, so one needs to use caution in tighter situations so as not to educate the deer of your presence.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[dan]

There are a lot of different ways to use observation stands. You can use them in summer before hunting season the see what is on your land. July is a great month for this because mature bucks will visit isolated fields and food sources in daylight at this time frame.
It probably won't help you pattern one for killing it. But it will help you decide whether or not to shoot when a certain buck comes by... Lets say the biggest buck your seeing is 130's... You might decide to move to a different property, or stay there and try and shoot that one... But what if you see a huge buck scoring near 200... Now you might consider letting 14 or 150 class bucks walk, especially early, and if you only have one tag...

Right before season is a good time to get a visual of bucks still feeding on summer patterns. Especially in areas like Wisconsin where the season opens in early September.

This buck was shot opening evening after watching him from a distance the days prior to season.


This one was watched during the summer and just prior to season and also killed opening weekend.


During the season is probably the best time to sit an observation stand. When you have a bucks bed pinned down, but don't know exactly how he is getting in and out, glassing him the day before the hunt from a safe distance is a great idea...

I killed this one by glassing it from a road in season and waiting till wind and conditions were right.


It also is pretty productive to have a stand position where you can see a very long way into feeding areas and try to pinpoint bucks you did not have knowledge about...

The best hunter I know spends probably 75% of his time, if not more, in observation stands. He don't mess around getting his scent into an area until he has a buck to kill.

[Schubox1265]

Great reply Dan, thanks. Ever use this tactic in the morning to aid in picking-off a buck an his way to bed?

So, I guess you're the second-best hunter you know.

[dan]

Mornings are tough for me... Mature bucks are often bedded hours before daylight, so catching them from observation stands is tough.
The exception is rut... At that short window of deer season bucks move a lot in the mornings. Only it gets tough to get a reliable pattern with some bucks during rut... The old ones can still be pretty reliable though.
The guy I mentioned earlier as the best hunter I know, is Andrae, and he does a lot of morning observation sits... He does get intell from them, but not as much as evening. He claims best results on o/h or u/f moon mornings... There is a big difference though, in the ground he is hunting, and the ground I am hunting. He hunts a very large private ground, I hunt mostly heavy pressured public.

[Schubox1265]

Dan,

If nothing else, I am a student of the game, a new and very exciting game for me. I've read just about everything on this great site, so I knew who you were talking about.

I will be attempting the pressured public venue. The beauty of your hunting method is the great opportunities it provides for 'early' season, when the public pressure, I am assuming, will be much less. I am betting that the average public guy uses rut tactics year-round and probably starts hunting in mid-October (Like I USED to)

Very excited about this, thanks again.

[Stanley]

I do a lot of observation scouting. Stands, driving around glassing, walking to a viewing advantage with a camp stool and glassing. The older I get the more I seem to use trail cameras to observe for me. I always have had a rule of thumb; I hunt during season, I scout during off season. So if I have an observation stand I at least want it located to give me a chance during season. Same thing with cameras I run cameras during season but I don't check them during season. Great topic .

[GRUD]

My public land buck this year was the result of several observation hunts. Once I gathered intel I moved in for the kill. My first try my target buck didnt show band I passed two large bucks with average racks. My second try I killed one of the bucks I passed up the first time. I plan to do some observation sits before season this year to try and pinpoint this area. A buck is still using the bed and there are large tracks. Hopefully my target buck survived he was around 170 this past season.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

another type of observation that has worked well for me is some beds I have scouted, from the bed I notice a spot in the distance that I can sneak to and glass the bed to see if the buck is there before doing a hunt.

[Schubox1265]

another type of observation that has worked well for me is some beds I have scouted, from the bed I notice a spot in the distance that I can sneak to and glass the bed to see if the buck is there before doing a hunt.

Now, that is the type of great information that I was hoping to get from this thread. I have been out scouting the last two weekends and locating: actual beds in the snow (may or may not be primary), potential buck beds that are hard to determine with the snow cover and will again be checked again before green-up, possible stand locations for said beds, and possible stand locations for distance observation. I never thought to consider observation set-ups based on the view from the bed, as I had been placing that emphasis on hunting locations. Great tip, thanks.

[Redman232]

I use my observations stands for preseason scouting and anytime during the season when I don't have a spot(or the time to get there) that will work for the particular weather and wind direction. I hunt a lot of CRP ground so I can usually stay several hundred yards from the "areas" I'm watching. My observation stands are pre-hung lock on stands that I access before sunrise. My lone wolf sits at the bottom of the tree until I've got a visual on a buck or I'm comfortable moving into the area I want to hunt. My typical morning got like this: Sunrise to 8:30-9:00 observation stand, then 9:00 to whenever mobile setup. This definitely isn't the only tactic I use but I would guess I do it a 1/2 dozen hunts a year, mainly on days when I would otherwise have to stay home due to wind direction. The buck I shot this year was from one of these locations, the spot ended up being an insane rut funnel, but that wasn't my original intent. Very lucky on one hand and smart enough to not leave a "hotspot".(I killed the deer on my 6th consecutive sit). Observation stands are a very important tool in the way I hunt and I would say that they are under utilized by many of the people who hunt my area.

[basspro05]

Great info in this thread. Not only will I be scouting for beds and treestand locations, I will be scouting for observation points as well now.