How well are you able to shoot (how open is it) from your sets?

[crankn101]

I cant get it to flip right side up, but you can see my stand completely skylined in the pic.

[may21581]

9 out of 10 times I'm climbing branches in addition to my sticks. It amazing how good a deers eyesight is and I try to stay concealed as much as I can as often as I can given there are trees around that offer such cover when I'm on to a good buck. When in the tree it may take minimal twig twisting or leaf clearing to offer you a shooting lane and comfort when standing at full draw. It takes some practice and trial and error but after awhile these types of trees can be easily spotted. And then sometimes you think you have a good one picked out until you get up in the tree and you realize it's horrible for shooting. Its alot of trial and error and learning as you go.

[Lockdown]

I’ve thrown my two cents in on this subject quite often...

Dewey, to me the pics you posted don’t look all that bad. Thick, yes fairly, but not horrible. It looks to me like you have adequate lanes to shoot and can pick spots here and there.

The first thing I noticed when I hunted WI last fall was every time I hung a set I had adequate shooting. It felt weird to be able to cover everything without trimming. I think I trimmed 2 branches in the 3 sets I hunted and one was just so I could stand on my platform without it being in the way.

This is my opinion, but in your situation Dewey (don’t take this as me singling you out... it goes for everyone) there seems to be MUCH to gain with a nipped limb here and there. It’s not only about a higher chance for success, it’s about having a clean ethical shot to start with. We can all agree we owe that to the deer. I don’t understand why anyone would want to thread the needle when trimming one finger sized limb would open things up nicely. For me the positives of discreetly trimming a couple branches far outweigh the negatives.

Here’s what I get to deal with often enough.

A 30 yard shot with a gun would be very questionable, maybe impossible. Forget about shooting a bow at pretty much any distance. There are spots on the property where you could hang a stand and have SOME shooting. But those aren’t the spots where I need to be. So thick you have to crawl at times, or put your arms over your head/face and push through. That’s what I’m used to.

Those pics I posted are far from the worst I deal with. Just recent examples to give an idea of how I pic a spot and make use of what's available. I have been there where I set up in the dark and had zero shot options. In that case your better off just moving instead of wasting a hunt. Often times a tree sometimes only 10 yards away will open up more shot opportunities. One thing I will not do is try to squeeze a shot into thick cover. That's just asking for trouble. If a branch is in the way I will not shoot. Simple as that. Most times that is fixable just by adjusting your stand up or down a few feet to clear the obstacle. It's all about knowing where the deer are coming from and planning ahead of time which shooting lane to use. It doesn't always work out as planned but helps a lot to visualize everything ahead of time so your ready when it happens. Problem is when guys have no idea where the deer are coming from so they trim everything wide open. Last thing you want to do is open it up so much that you expose yourself. I like have plenty of cover to hide me in the tree.

Some of the best cover I have had was when bear hunting with Mike Foss. These tunnels were incredible and could get away with so much in the tree because I was hidden so well. Obviously hunting over a single bait makes this so much easier but still real cool set ups.

The bear setups are perfect, Dewey. I usually end up with lanes that look pretty similar, if not a hair smaller. It depends on the situation, but I would typically say I have one decent lane if I just hang a set and don’t trim anything. The problem with that is a good portion of my sets are in dogwood and willow thickets where the deer just filter through. I know direction of travel but there’s typically 2-3 trails they could be on plus they don’t always follow the script. The bedding areas are usually pretty large and I’ve had deer come in from the opposite direction that I was expecting.

I just make sure I can shoot where I need to shoot. I’m respectful about it, as technically I’m not suppose to trim plus I don’t want anyone to find my sets. If it was private land those sets would get trimmed out much more aggressively.

[Lockdown]

One thing that I doubt I will ever do in my area is a blind hang and hunt in the morning. It’s highly likely I’d have little to no shot opportunities.

[raisins]

If prescouting trees for morning sits ahead of time, what tricks are you using to make sure no one else spots your human sign? I dont want to leave reflective tacks and I don’t really want to trust that my phone GPS will get me right back to the same tree. With as many trees as I will likely have picked out there is no way i will remember what they all look like in the dark unfortunately.

I mark on my ONX using the gps coordinates and give that waypoint a number. I then take a screenshot of that number and then take a picture of the tree so that the number is right before the tree and associated in the phone, so I can go to the spot and pick out the tree. I only use tacks in some combo of the following 1. tacks will be temporary (removed after a hunt in a 1/2 week or so), 2. if I'm in an area where getting turned around will be dangerous and easy to do, and/or 3. pressure is so low in the area that the chance of another hunter seeing my tacks in an entire season is low (less than 5%).

I'm curious how other people do this.

Another option is to mark your stand tree with something that other hunters will not take to be a sign. For instance, a piece of camo paracord wrapped around the base or a few stones piled at the base.

[Twenty Up]

One thing that I doubt I will ever do in my area is a blind hang and hunt in the morning. It’s highly likely I’d have little to no shot opportunities.

I feel your pain. I have to bring my 900 lumen LED Maglight just to navigate to my pre-scouted spots for AM hunts...

Makes you question your sanity at 5AM

[SplitG2]

My food source and cruising setups I usually have 3-5 solid small holes I can shoot thru but my bedding spots I usually have only one hole, 2 at the most.

I have only cut shooting lanes twice, ever and I will never do it again. My dad told me years ago to never cut shooting lanes and learn to shoot holes because if someone removed a limb, a sapling or branch in your backyard you would notice it everytime. Just in my personal experience, I have seen shooting lanes hurt me more than they’ve ever helped me. I’d rather pass a buck and just try to catch him in there again than to remove anything at all from his backyard.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

Blind Morning set in mature hardwoods I’ll do. I’ve always had shots. In mixed cedar and conifer swamps I would never do it.. maybe from the ground but still probably not.
There may not be a lot of places where you can kill a mature animal in open hardwoods but in bigwoods when there’s virtually no pressure it doesn’t seem to me that mature animals stick to the heavy cover as much as they do elsewhere..

also even when I hunted more of the generic high pressure mid west terrain I did find a few spots where I did blind morning sets in mature Hardwoods adjacent to Thick dogwood marsh or autumn olive points and such in river systems and lake sides. Had some opportunity that way Especially late oct early nov when you know something wanting to check that bedding or leave it has to stroll through the hardwood.. These were areas you Primarily needed to access by boat or cano though so these small areas weren’t receiving pressure in bow season.

[Boogieman1]

If legal I trim if needed. I do this in the spring. Some of the worst stuff I hunt as far as clear shooting gives me one small shot opening and it’s normally super close. Have had to watch many deer over the years walk by without a shot due to thick ungodly cover. But if I have a window of opportunity no matter how small I will give it Atleast one chance a season. However, I refuse to sit a spot no matter how great it is if it doesn’t provide a shot opportunity.

[EllieTheChubb]

One thing that I doubt I will ever do in my area is a blind hang and hunt in the morning. It’s highly likely I’d have little to no shot opportunities.

I totally agree with this.