Tailor these stand sets to the terrain and cover where you bowhunt. Elevated Ridge Stand    An ridge that is situated uphill and 100 yards or so from a field of corn, soybeans or alfalfa is one of my favorite spots for the pre-rut. Like most early-season setups, it is killer for the afternoons. But if access is good and the wind allows it, you might be able to sneak in and hunt the stand one morning too. If you have a flat of oak trees on your property that runs up a ridge from an ag field, jackpot. Does will come from back in the cover and move through in the afternoon on their way to the field. Some [...]

Praise the deer gods, it won’t be long now until you put the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic behind and head out for some much-needed rejuvenation time in a tree stand. But don’t wait until the last minute to get ready. To tie your tag to a big whitetail, the advance work you do right now is as important, maybe more so, as the hunt tactics you’ll employ in a couple of months. Here’s your plan. Chart a Course On your kitchen table with the A/C cranking, check topo and aerial maps, either old-school paper ones or on an app like Onx Hunt, of the lands you’ll hunt this fall. Study the contours of crop fields, pastures and woodland [...]