Editor’s Note: Using a black magic marker and a gray work jumpsuit, Jim Crumley of Buchanan, Virginia, drastically changed the nature and purpose of camouflage when he created the first sportsman’s camouflage – Trebark. Crumley’s idea that vertical patterns best represented objects in the forest and created an illusion of a tree stump or the trunk of a tree brought into being a new term, “sportsman’s camouflage.” Crumley has been in love with bowhunting deer all his life.

Different terrains and various strategies will dictate what kind of tree stand is best for your type of hunting. Although I’ve hunted from a variety of stands, my favorite is the hanging stand. I use a minimum of 12, screw-in or strap-on steps to get to my stand. I want to be 15-20 feet high in the tree to keep my human odor well away from the ground and above the deer’s nose.

But do remember when you climb up in a tree stand not to get so high that when you take aim you’re shooting straight-down on a deer. You need to be high enough so the deer can’t wind you but low enough not to be shooting vertically at the deer. Another advantage of climbing higher in the tree is to lessen the chance of a deer seeing me. When a buck walks down a trail, he looks up as well as around himself. Although many hunters believe deer don’t look up, if you’ve hunted long enough, you know they do. Also if you’re hunting in areas with intense bowhunting pressure, you realize how quickly the deer adjust to that hunting pressure and search for bowhunters in the trees.

I mostly hunt in the mountains of Virginia where I live. The hardwood trees there are much-more conducive to using a hanging stand rather than a climbing tree stand. Many hardwoods have limbs too close to the ground and too large to saw off, which will keep you from going up the tree in a climbing stand. If I’m fortunate enough to find a poplar tree, then I can use a climbing stand instead of a hanging stand. But when I hunt in the South, especially in pine plantations, then a climbing or a ladder stand becomes very convenient, since big pines don’t have limbs close to the ground.

However, I think the hanging stand is much-more versatile than either a ladder stand or a climbing stand. You can put the hanging stand in many-more trees than you can the climbing stand. With the hanging stand, you don’t have to cut as many branches. You even may be able to use low-hanging branches as steps to get into your stand. Usually a hanging stand is also smaller and lighter, making it much-more portable and allowing me to go further into the woods without having to carry so much weight. Most climbing stands are two-piece systems and weigh more than the hanging stands do. I prefer utilizing screw-in steps in the states where they’re permitted, because I believe they’re much-more stable than the belt-on steps. I’ve never had a screw-in step break. As long as the tree’s not rotten, I feel very safe using screw-in steps.

Deer Tactics for Hanging Stands

I like to drive as close as I can to the places where I’m planning to put-up my tree stand, especially if I’m hunting in farming country. If at all possible, I prefer to have someone drive me to my tree-stand site and drop me off. Or, I’ll drive my buddy to his tree stand and drop him off. Then he doesn’t have to take more than a few steps and leave odor to reach his tree. You may think I’m lazy, don’t want to walk or like to hunt close to the road. But I want to drive as close as I can to my tree stand to eliminate as much of my human odor as possible. Also I’m replacing the sights and the sounds of a hunter with the sights and sounds of a vehicle. I’m convinced a hunter parking his vehicle on a road and then walking several hundred yards to his tree stand is making a mistake and alerting deer to his presence.

If you hunt in an area where logging activity or farming takes place, or human activity already is in the woods, you’ll notice you usually can drive close to deer without spooking them. As long as you don’t stop your vehicle and get out, the deer often will stand still and watch you. Deer in many places are conditioned to vehicles and have learned that danger doesn’t come from a vehicle. Therefore, when they hear a truck or a car rolling through the woods, they’re not frightened of it or, at least not nearly as frightened as they are if they smell and see a human. Not only do I prefer to be dropped-off from a vehicle when I go to my stand, I also want to be picked-up by a vehicle at dark. Otherwise I’m leaving more human odor in the region I want to hunt when I climb out of my stand and walk out of the woods.

Also, if you’re in your stand at dark, and deer are around your stand, then when you start climbing out of that tree stand, the deer will spot you. They know where you’ve been and will learn to avoid that region. However, a vehicle will run the deer away from your stand, which allows you to come down the tree without the deer’s seeing you. By using the truck to spook the deer away from your stand before you climb down from the tree, the deer won’t realize you’ve been in that stand. You will increase your odds for success when you hunt from that stand again.

To learn more about hunting for deer, check out John E. Phillips’ bowhunting book, available in Kindle and print, “Jim Crumley’s Secrets of Bowhunting Deer” at http://amzn.to/XYTCEY and soon to be available in Audible. You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser. (When you click on the book, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read 10% of the book for free). To see more of John’s bowhunting books, visit www.amazon.com/author/johnephillips.

Tomorrow: Jim Crumley – Ladder and Permanent Deer Stands