For nearly 300 hours, I sat in the stand on the ridge before I finally decided it was in the wrong place.  Talk about your slow learners.  We have cats that are smarter than that.  I put that stand up originally in the waist-thick oak tree in early November back in 1998 after only 20 minutes of scouting.  I quickly looked over the terrain and picked a tree that I figured the most deer would pass within bow range and up went the stand.  My mistake that day was greed. 

 I wasn’t content having only some of the deer within range, I wanted them all.  In the process I had moved the stand too far into the middle of the action and deer often got downwind of the stand and smelled me.  Despite that fact, I shot a nice buck from the stand after hunting it 12 mornings in ‘98, giving me a false sense of confidence.  Had I not shot that buck, I probably would have moved the stand years sooner.

 Finally, in 2003 after the umpteenth deer picked up a trace of my scent on the downwind side (not enough to blow out but enough to get nervous) I decided it was finally time.  Despite the fact that the tree had become my second home, and the fact that the stand had practically grown into it, I climbed down right then with the stand on my back and moved it fifty yards downwind – just over the lip of the ridge.  Here, I found a spot where most of the deer would pass on my upwind side and any on the downwind side would be so far below me on the slope that my scent would go over their heads. 

 I could no longer see the big flat top of the ridge where I had watched so many deer over the years, but the fact that I was now getting away with murder – none of the deer smelled me - definitely made up for the missing theatre.  I felt like I was cheating when the deer went by on all sides without ever lifting their noses.  After only two mornings in the new spot, I was fortunate enough to shoot a beautiful 165-inch 10 pointer came that by at 11:00 on a cool November morning for an easy 12-yard shot.

 I knew the general area was excellent, but I never felt 100% comfortable with the tree I had originally chosen.  Now I know I’ve got one of the best stands I’ve ever hunted.  It took me four years of observation (and dozens of alarmed deer) before I found the spot within the spot that is sure to become an annual producer of big bucks.  I had finally found what we all seek as bowhunters: the ultimate killing tree.

 Every property has one tree that is better than all the rest.  Nearly every buck eventually walks past that spot.  But, unfortunately, these locations are almost impossible to find using conventional on-the-ground scouting.  The only way to put the puzzle together is to log the many hours on stand that are needed to see exactly what the bucks do when they are on the prowl.  After enough time has passed and you have seen enough deer, you will start to unravel micro-patterns that you can use to your advantage.  Fine-tuning stand locations, even after years of hunting the area, are the final step every successful hunter eventually has to make to have a killing tree.

DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS

 You need to strike a definite balance when deciding when to move your stand.  You’ll be like a puppy chasing its tail if you start moving every time you see a nice buck pass in the distance.  There is too much random movement during the rut to base a lot of importance on each single sighting.  A buck can go anywhere.  When I first started bowhunting, I moved my stands all the time.  I was immature in my belief that I should be seeing the fruits of my scouting every single day.  If I wasn’t, I believed the stand was in the wrong spot and I’d move it.  I spent more time moving stands than I did hunting them and I left a lot of scent and bumped a lot of deer in the process.  There is little wonder that I wasn’t successful.

 I almost never move my core stands now.  They are like old friends.  Patience is an important part of becoming a good whitetail hunter, so is faith.  If you are sitting in a good stand, don’t be quick to move.  Wait until an overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that there is a better spot.

 A stand that sets up well for entry and exit and has a wind advantage should be hunted several times before you give up on it.  Spots like that are too hard to find to throw them to the curb casually without giving them every chance to produce action.  Four years is probably too long to wait before making the move, but one or two days are definitely not long enough.  Always remember, there is no more sinking feeling in the deer woods than to move your stand 100 yards only to see a big buck pass right under your original tree.  I’ve had it happen several times, and that’s one of the reasons I’m slow to move from stands where I can hunt undetected.

 There is no gauge that will tell you exactly when to make your move.  You have to weigh the options and sense the timing for yourself.  But, there are some guidelines that will help you decide.

 Wind advantage: Having a stand where deer are unlikely to smell you is a huge part of successful hunting.  I’m reluctant to give up a good wind advantage without an extremely good reason.  I’d rather be in a marginal spot where I never get busted than the highest activity spot on the farm where I get sniffed out nearly every time on stand.  For that reason, be very patient when leaving a low impact stand for one that might not be as easy to hunt undetected.

 On the flipside, if you’re playing a marginal wind and see deer movement that suggests a different spot could be better, don’t wait another season to see if you were right - get moving immediately. 

 Bucks vs. does: Not all deer activity is created equal.  Mature bucks travel through an area differently than does and young bucks.  That’s one of the reasons you won’t necessarily take good bucks in the obvious places where you find all the sign.  If you’ve seen a few mature bucks pass a certain tree and you can’t attribute the behavior to the recent passing of a hot doe, you should start to think about moving.  On the other hand, just because you see several does and small bucks go through an area doesn’t mean that is the best place to ambush a mature buck.  Stay in the stand your first instinct suggested and keep waiting until you see enough to come to an informed decision.

MOVING ON AN INDIVIDUAL BUCK

 When hunting a specific deer you shouldn’t be as patient as you might when waiting to unravel general buck patterns.  Individual bucks have their own personalities and their own ways of doing things – especially when they start getting old.  You have to hunt them as individuals.  My friend Jim Hill has taken many nice bucks with his bow, a good number of which he was actually hunting when he took them.  He has a philosophy on fine-tuning stands that’s probably as good as any.  “If I see a buck I’d like to shoot doing something once, I won’t move my stand,” he said.  “But, if I see him do the same thing again I’ll be over there finding a spot for a stand as soon as I can climb down.”

 It pays to act quickly on intelligence you gather when hunting a specific deer simply because they don’t show themselves very often and their patterns tend to be short-lived.  When you’ve got a line on one, don’t wait around.  If a nice buck is vulnerable, you should get on him right away before he relocates, a doe pulls him away or he changes his movement patterns for any number of other reasons.

SCOUTING FOR THE KILLING TREE

 It’s hard to find the perfect tree simply by normal methods.  Studying the lay of the land and the buck sign, you find while scouting will only get you close.  It will get you to the right general area, but not to the perfect tree.  That takes fine-tuning.  If you were hunting with a gun, it would be easy.  You would simply find the right general area, clear some long shooting lanes and log your time.  With a bow, you need the exact tree and that takes lots of observation.  But, with a little experience your scouting will become better tuned toward uncovering these stands on the first lick.  At the very least, you should be able to get closer to the perfect spot right off the bat, making it easier to fine-tune later.

 One of the primary ways to improve your odds of placing the stand in the perfect tree on the first try is to spend as much time observing from a distance before the season opens as possible.  This is especially valuable when hunting early season food sources.  Rather than try to walk the ground, hang back as you watch and learn.  Every evening that you can dedicate to watching the best food sources will bring you closer to finding the perfect tree. 

 One year I hunted the famed Milk River with Michael Waddell and David Blanton from Realtree.  It is their business to find killing trees as often as possible to make the work of filming a deer hunt easier.  On the hunt I was on, they had one nailed down.

 The pair scouted the area before the early September opener looking for trees that the biggest bucks passed when heading to the alfalfa fields to feed.  From the bluffs overlooking the river, they watched several fields as the patterns developed.  It took four evenings before they felt like they had learned enough to hang several stands – one of them ended up being in a true killing tree.

 They hunted this particular stand sparingly to keep it from burning out, but during the next three years they, or their guests, shot three dandy Pope & Young class bucks and missed a fourth one from the stand.  They chose the stand only after the bucks themselves revealed which trails they liked to use when entering the field.  The hunters were able to identify a tree nearby where the wind would carry their scent away from the trail and the field at the same time.  The stand is still producing action to this day.  They picked that tree way back in the late summer of 1997.  Spots like this don’t come around very often.

 Another way you can find a killing tree is to become an expert in your understanding of two or three consistent movement patterns and behaviors.  Then all you need to do is find the right conditions and you know the pattern will be there.  Here’s an example.  Bill Clink is a realtor in Rochester, MN and has bowhunted the bluff country of southeastern Minnesota for decades.  One of the Bill’s favorite patterns has proven itself repeatedly to the point where he knows exactly how to play it.  Bill has learned that big bucks love to travel on side hill trails found about one-quarter to one-third of the way down a steep slope on the downwind side of the ridge out toward the end of the point.  Bill has taken a number of big bucks hunting this way. 

 Another example is a ditch funnel found between two doe bedding areas.  I wrote a complete article about this pattern elsewhere in this issue, so I won’t repeat myself here, but it is definitely a pattern you can master, making it much easier to pick out the perfect tree.

 Think about the behavior you’ve watched for years.  Knowing a small number of patterns intimately is a great way to find killing trees in new areas.  Simply look for the right situation and boom; you are instantly sitting in one of the best stands.  Obviously, experience will help you identify and catalog several such patterns, making you a more versatile and flexible hunter under a wider range of conditions. 

 If you are just starting out in this wonderful sport of bowhunting whitetails, don’t be discouraged if you don’t know any of these common patterns well enough to pick out a killing tree on your first pass.  It will come with time.  Instead, focus on what you see in front of you every day of the season.  That is how you learn and how you become a truly good deer hunter.  Always ask “why?” when you see a buck do something you didn’t expect, and always look for connections between seemingly unrelated observations. 

 Ultimately, you will see enough and absorb enough from the activity around you to answer one question: which tree do nearly all the bucks traveling through my area eventually pass?  In the end, keeping your eyes open all the time is the surest way you find the killing tree.