Deer Hunting Stand

If you are going to hunt for deer in northern Minnesota and you are lucky enough to have a wooded area to hunt in, you will need a deer stand.

What is a deer stand? A deer stand is a place that you can 'stand' in or sit in, that is up in the air, where you can see for some distance.

Some men have been deer hunting for thirty-five years or more. Some are fortunate enough to have a father and many uncles who are avid hunters. They spend every fall, traveling 'up north' to Floodwood, Minnesota to hunt for the elusive deer.

Now, the men have purchased eighty acres of woods and have since built a Morton building with four bedding areas and a large room for sitting and cooking food. The cabin is insulated, has heat and a kitchen area and is used year around for other recreation.

Over the years, they have brought four wheeler motorcycles to this cabin and have let their kids drive them around on the trails to make paths. The kids had fun and they saved much time on tamping down the trails. The deer like it too, since they like to run along on trails.

The trails had deadfall on them, so the hunters would bring a chain saw to clear the trails. They purchased a log splitter and would spend time splitting the wood and stacking it to dry. The hunters would then use this wood for fire to keep the cabin warm when they'd be there in the fall for deer hunting.

All around, it has been a win/win situation for all.

Deer are funny creatures. They almost seem to know when hunting season begins. They seem to disappear.

Up until hunting season officially opens, you will see deer, and usually many deer, frolicking freely in the fields next to woods. They will usually be seen standing or dipping their heads to eat whatever it is that they find to munch on.

Once deer hunting has started, you would almost swear that a switch had been thrown, turning off the sightings. Some people personally think that deer 'know'.

One man was observed building his stand this year. He selected three trees that were close to each other; and cut some four inch logs and nailed them to two of the trees to create a ladder. He nailed some more four to six inch logs across to the third tree and proceeded to nail logs across the top of the cross pieces. In previous years, he'd be satisfied with just the logs across. This year, he had a pallet that fit across the top of the stand and made quite a large area to stand on. By the time he was finished, he had a flat area to stand on, a railing and a ladder to climb up into this stand.

He had purchased a camouflage tarp from Wal-Mart and he tacked it to the outside of his railing. He was able to sit in his stand and the tarp was effective in blocking the wind, which made sitting in the stand all day more comfortable.

Once you climb up into this stand, you can see quite a distance. It puts you up in the air and put your line of vision up over the smaller trees and leaves down below, definitely at an advantage 'over' the deer, parden the pun!