If you read this blog often, you may be aware that I love deer hunting. Here in the NYC Watershed, muzzleloader season came to an end on January 1. After New Year’s and up until spring green-up, I like to scout for deer sign in preparation for the next hunting season. This usually involves bringing home trail cameras, reviewing old trusty spots, and checking out a few new ones. When I’m walking the woods looking for a good deer hunting spot, I’ve learned to keep an eye out for other hunters’ treestands and ground blinds, which are usually a good indicator that the deer traffic is high in that spot.
Maybe it’s because of a terrain feature like a bench or a saddle, a transition between cover types, or a trail leading to some wild apple or oak trees.
My favorite is to find old, dilapidated treestands that no one hunts anymore. It’s like you are rediscovering a deer haven. To clarify, I don’t use other people’s stands for safety reasons. Some of these stands you’d have to be plum crazy to get in. Anyway, I’ve come across all kinds of treestands on my scouting missions. Some old, some new, all of them unique. I thought it was worth sharing some of them with you.
This treehouse-type stand is one of the more unique ones. It needs a few fresh boards, and how in the world does anyone even make it to the ladder? With several beat-down deer trails within sight, this was probably a very productive rifle stand. I think it was still being used up until a few years ago.
A better look beneath the treehouse stand.
I’d been coming to this spot for years without noticing this platform stand. Probably because there are no less than 5 stands on this 50-acre piece of public. The platform is only about 6 feet off the ground. There is a wooden ladder, painted green and stashed nearby in the brush for climbing onto the platform. This stand looks down through open woods to a bench / transition zone below. It’s been here a while. Just look at the straps cutting into the tree.
Whoever set this hang-on stand was not afraid of heights. There is another stand just like it on the wooded hill in the background. I used to steer clear of these spots for fear of bumping into someone, but I’ve never seen either stand used. If you look closely, you’ll see screw-in steps going up the tree.
This ladder stand features a wooden frame rifle rest. It was placed where open hardwood forest meets a dense, dark block of spruce. The stand overlooks a steep hillslope with several mature red oak trees.
A relatively old ladder stand. The snow obscures the rock wall, but this stand was placed just across the private land and onto public. It watches a field corner with a heavy deer trail.
Sapling-diameter steps screwed in a large red oak tree. I’m guessing the hunter stands in the crotch on the left. But then there are also steps leading to the limb on the right? Seems like a precarious balancing act. I couldn’t do it. This spot is on a ridge with good visibility below.
