Spend the night in the stand

ALPHAMAX

Senior Member
How many of you have spent the night in the stand or gone in around 2:00 or 3:00 in the AM?
Was it fun? & did it pay off or not?
I've always wanted to do it just haven't yet-seems like it would kinda be neat to hear everything that may be runnin around,could proly handle it frm 2-3 on would be alittle tiring but.....
 

Lukikus2

Senior Member
Hit my climbing stand at 3 am one morning trying to get the sneak on a mack daddy. It was in the 30's that morning. Seemed like an eternity before the sun ever rose and my back and rear end were killing me before 9 am that morning. Once was enough for me.
 

shaynepaul708

Senior Member
I have done it twice and had two good encounters i was busting deer out of a stand everytime i hunted it in the am so i took my summit hunted the evening befote sat till 830 the following morning and actually with just a little moon you adapt and begin to be able to see pretty good i watched numerous deer and even deer that got down wind didnt spook at daylight i had 4-5what decoys in front of me and had a nice buk not sure if it was the one i was after but he skirtted the does and i guess the right one wasn't in the crowd cause he eased off. The other time was on a food plot i went to stand about 12 midnight and saw numerous deer throughout the night and a really nice buck fed thru about six am and hung around until 5. MIN!befor shooting light i was already standing with bow as he eased off it was really awesome but took couple days to recover so each his on
 

littlewolf

Senior Member
I have thought about taking a sleeping bag to a shooting house just to hunt the a.m. without busting em out of the plot on my way in.

But there's no way I'd want to be sitting in a climber in the cold dark for that long. Unless I knew EXACTLY where a monster was bedding and I thought I could sneak in while he was gone and wait him out. Like Lukikus2 said. But it would have to be a monster!
 

irishredneck

Senior Member
Went in at 3am a few weeks ago, got lost in the dark and walked around my stand for 25mins before I found it.
I got a glimpse of the big one I'm (still) after but he was walking between the trees too fast and I couldn't drop the hammer. Had a small buck and 2 does feed around my stand.
Went in about 3:45am last weekend, straight to my stand and I didn't see a thing.

I would do it again if I knew where the deer are bedding down so I could sneak in close and when the sun rises they would be coming to bed or already bedded down in front of me.
 

Ohoopee Tusker

Senior Member
I have a stream on my property that is surrounded by about 75-100 yards of the nastiest, thickest stuff you would ever want to see. 20 yards on each side of the stream is open with oaks. This place is dynamite but. It's impossible to hunt in the afternoons unless I stay all day. In the mornings I have to beat the deer in there. So I will head in about 4 a.m. I will have my backpack on and 2 ground blind skirts, and a camp chair attached to it. I'll get through the thick stuff and then set up a blind. Once I have everything set up I set my phone to vibrate, put the alarm to 6:15 a.m. or so and then slide the phone in my glove so that it's against my hand. Than I take a nap until it goes off. Over the years I've killed a number of deer out of this area. Doing just as I described.
 
I did this also got in stand a 3:45 as that was the only time on my camera deer hasn't been around. At 5:45 the camera flash went off with a deer at it and I about jumped out of the tree scared the bajesus out of me ! Did kill a doe at 730 am
 

RipperIII

Senior Member
I have a friend in Alabama, owns an awesome piece of riverbottom land, he's got a shooting house with a drop down bench/bed, small deck on back with a grill...I've never gotten to try that, but he's had quiet a bit of success...I think it would be awesome!
 

papachaz

Senior Member
my question is this, are you hunting before the allowed legal time? wonder how hard it would be to convince Mr Green Jeans when you're up in the tree stand 4 1/2 to 5 hours before sunrise.....
 
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aslong as you arent shooting and dont have a spotlight. i dont know if thats considered hunting.. after all it is dark
 

papachaz

Senior Member
aslong as you arent shooting and dont have a spotlight. i dont know if thats considered hunting.. after all it is dark

so you walked in without a flashlight? you have a gun in your possession? you're sitting in a treestand over a well used trail or a food plot or an acorn tree? you wearing an orange vest?

what constitutes hunting and differenciates it from sitting in a tree?

I just wonder what Mr GW would say if he was out and about and somehow managed to find you? to those who have openly admitted to being in a tree stand with a gun several hours before the '30 minutes before sunrise' that's stated in the regs, what would you say to him/her?
 
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hancock husler

Senior Member
Did it once and will do it again . Just got to make sure you are empty when attempting this (gut and bladder) . Took a swiss army sleeping bag, left my gun on the ground. You don't really need an alarm the woods will wake you up often. It was a full moon and I was over looking a oak ridge that met a swamp and privet thicket. Saw a ton of deer very early just not one I was after.
 

fishbum2000

Senior Member
Spent the night on a sand bar in the middle of the Tar River, had deer blowing all night and one Jumped off the high bank onto the sandbar, almost landed in my tent. Unfortunately I caught a migraine and spent the night waiting for daylight so I could go home and get in bed
 

papachaz

Senior Member
I can see leaving the gun on the ground, BUT.....not sure that would get you out of a ticket.

years ago hunting Oaky Woods WMA, we got stopped in the truck heading out of the woods. They asked if our rifles were loaded, and of course they weren't, so we told them so. They wanted to check, so we let them. Then they wanted to know "where are your cartridges, are they in close proximity to the rifles?" my shell case was buried in my back pack, my buddies was in his jacket pocket buried under climbers, gun cases etc in the back of the truck....in talking to the GW during all this, I was informed that even with bullets in close proximity to an unloaded gun they could still, 'at their discretion' give a ticket for hunting from a vehicle.

no way I'd take a chance on it myself, I know several GW's, and they're nice guys who have a job to do. BUT there's always gonna be the chance you'll run into 'that one'.....
 
wma laws are different than private land as far as a loaded gun and a road goes.. it also states legal shooting light etc in that case everyone that enters the woods before daylight is illegal if you take that measure papa
 
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