When I was younger I could sit a stand all day long,but now I can't wait to see what is ahead.Anybody else feel this way,it just feels better to be moving along slow and enjoying what I see.
It is often hard to sit, but I find i see more when i am patient, other than waving flags.
I have no problem sitting until I have meat in the freezer.
After I have been hunting for a while, I can find myself wandering.
I'm good for a couple hours, maybe longer during the rut and then I have to stillhunt. I've pretty much always been this way. I love to still hunt. Move slow and then move slower. The view changes with every step :)
I believe impatience is contagious. I have caught it from my elementary students. I use to be able to sit for hours. 15 minutes max now!
I'm like a figgidy kid in a stand can't seem to keep still so yea I can relate.
I've been known to sit for a few hours & then on occasion sleep but then I've been known to still hunt to look for new areas or oporatunaties.
I think sitting on the stand is like any other aspect of life. I can't just sit all day on my first day out. It takes a couple of sits of a few hours to get me "conditioned" for the all-day sit. That said when I get in the tree knowing that more than likely my feet won't hit the ground for 11hrs I mentally shut the system down. I try not to think about much, I'm just on scan mode! picking up the little sounds or movement that doesn't fit. Time seems to fly by. I'd love to still hunt, but in our area with thick spruce swamps and no elevation changes sitting is FAR more productive.
if the conditions arent exactly how i want it then i got to be on the move. i have been able to get very close to game this way. just take really slow steps and when u think ur going slow enough, slow down even more. it seems more questionable what ill run into making it very exciting. i LOVE turkeys. hearing them gooble back start struting. something about them makes my hair stand on end. so where they go, i just follow to see what i see.
steven
As it gets later in the season I find myself unable to stay as long on stand for two reasons:
1) It's getting colder.
2) After the crops are harvested I don't see very many deer where I hunt because there isn't much cover to hold deer in the area very long. So I get impatient sooner and find myself on the ground "prospecting".
I never was good at sitting still. I usually evening hunt for deer so I try to get at least 3 to 4 hours in before dark. That's about all I'm good for... unless there's deer moving, then I can sit longer! :D Jason
I love scouting out a great location and then planting myself down. I've hunted a lot of the same farms for years and know where to start and then fine tune from daily observations of deer movements. I'm not patient enough when I'm on the move. I always seem to end up watching were I step, not out in front of me.
GLENN
As long as something moving to watch (squirrels, birds, deer etc) I'm good for 3 or 4 hours. On those DEAD days when nothing is moving at all; I'm done in an hour.
I have blown many opportunities the past few years do to fact of gettin out of the stand to walk around. I keep saying I'm gonna control myself and try to hang out more in the stand then get out of the woods but I can't do it. I don't have a problem sitting still I just feel like I might be missing something on the othere side of the hill or in the bottom so I take off. Now when it comes to blinds I can't stand it at all! I feel like I'm missing something because I can't see like I can when I'm in a stand. I guess I'm just always "HUNTING" around!!!!!
I have tried to sit in a stand, but just can not do it. So much to see that I have to keep moving. Our archery season is August to Sept, the best time to see the country here in the Rockies. I just move slow, glass and keep my eyes open. Also the biggest thing is I have fun.
When I'm bowhunting deer, I sit. When I'm bowhunting rabbits, I still hunt. When I'm bowhunting javelina, I still hunt and if I find one, then I stalk.
When I gun hunt I prefer to sit, when bowhunting I like tracking and stalking/still hunting. Guess thats why I am the worlds must unsuccessful bowhunter lol.
No problem sitting. I end up playing mental games though. I'm always saying, just 30 minutes longer. Just one hour longer. I can't tell you how many times I have had deer show up just as I'm lowering my bow to the ground, packing up, unhooking my safety strap etc. Missed out on a great shooter this year in just such manner. I try to remind myself of this often. It's sort of an ironic mental trick I'm playing on the deer. I'm leaving in 30 minutes...... Fooled you!! I'm staying. I know... I need mental help. ;)
i have never hunted in a tree but i can sit at the Bottom of a tree and get chiggers no problem other than that i spot and stalk.
I am working on sitting more.
I don't have a tree stand, but try to use ground cover.
I just got a bush in a bag, and am practicing with it some now. My wife is amused no end by that, so I am accomplishing something already.
Hard to sit for more than a couple hours when the action is slow. My old muley chasin legs just got to get going and see whats over the next hill !
The older I get, the longer I can sit.
QuoteOriginally posted by John Scifres:
I'm good for a couple hours, maybe longer during the rut and then I have to stillhunt. I've pretty much always been this way. I love to still hunt. Move slow and then move slower. The view changes with every step :)
That's me to a "T"
Ha! Owlbait I hear you. I used to be better at it in my 20's and 30's than I am now in my late 40's. Maybe my middle school students have rubbed off on me.
I'm the opposite.The older I get the more I realize that staying put is the key to killing deer.
Had I realized this fact when I started as a kid I would have killed alot of deer instead of taking foolish shots at 20-40 yards after trying to sneak up on them.
Patterning the deer and setting up and waiting for a shot is far more productive for me.
Only way I can sit in one spot for any amount of time is to climb a tree and even then there have been times I just felt like I was in the wrong spot and had to climb down and move to another tree.
I'm good for 2 or 3 hrs. max. I don't still hunt. I'm like a bull in a china shop. I dig out a book to read. I'll read a paragraph, then look around. Everything looks new then. I might get made on occasion but, not nearly as much if I sat there fidgeting around.
Walk real slow with the anticipation of finding the perfect spot..... but end up sitting only a short spell...... get antsy and start walking again...........been walking for over half a century this way..... been lucky to get real close to alot of deer, and seen some beautiful country.
I love to sit, I normally sit for a few hours in the morning and then in the afternoon. When the hunting gets hot I can sit all day. Still hunting in western NY has never panned out the way sitting has for me so I sit.
I heard someone say...........When I was young I stood until my legs hurt......Now that I'm older I sit til my butt hurts!!!
Red Green says we're all in this together....
I say.............
What ever works for you is what's right for you.
Having several stands to change up where you hunt even if they aren't that far apart helps. f
I have trouble staying on a stand calling for 15 -20 minutes. Another not so good deer hunter.love to spot and stalk wabbits and fuzzie tails.
I can still sit in a stand dawn till dusk, and almost 56 years young. Providing the seat is at the right height that my knees don't lock up on me. If the seat is just a half inch low my knees will lock and legs begin to cramp. When this happens I'm lucky if I last 2 hours. And getting down is a real pain in the a** too.
Standing I'm good for 3-4 hours in morning and again in afternoon.
Like to still hunt but generally where I hunt it is just to heavy of cover to move through and see anything, so taking a perch is most desirable.