Post by dreamrider on Apr 27, 2020 21:18:45 GMT -5
TREE STANDS, KIWI STYLE.
In New Zealand where the bush is thick and the terrain mostly hilly to mountainous, Spotting and stalking have been the only way to hunt. Until recently when a few of us decided that our American cousins may have hit on a good idea with the use of tree stands. Particularly when hunting the Fallow deer which tend to be similar creatures of habit to the White tail. Plus it’s a hell of a lot easier to sit in one place with a good book while waiting for an unsuspecting deer to wander in, which is appreciated by us older folk.
My friend Kevin Watson first mentioned that he had imported a stand a couple of years ago and would I like to borrow it some time. “Na” I said “It’s a sissy’s way to hunt” and left it at that. Then early last year I stumbled on a deer highway. This game trail came out of the bush, traveled around the edge of a tiny swamp then disappeared under a fence and out into the farmer’s choice grazing area. Sitting there looking at the trail I noticed a gnarly old willow tree struggling to survive out in the center of the swamp. Five feet up the twisted old trunk was a huge fork in the branches. An idea started to form in my mind, would it be big enough for me to stand in and would it be high enough. I put the first question to the test, and yes I could stay in it for a short duration. I decided to put the second question to the test that next evening’
The next day an hour before dark I was standing in the fork of the tree feeling slightly foolish, after all I was only five feet off the ground. No self-respecting deer would be fooled I was thinking to myself. When coming straight towards me were four deer walking single file without a care in the world. They passed by me no more than twenty feet and ducking under the fence ran joyfully out into the pasture. This happened faster than it took me to write. Talk about being caught with my pants down, I hadn’t even had time to pick up my bow much less shoot. OK, time to work out a game plan. I placed the bow closer and moved my feet around more in line with where they were coming from. I had only just settled when a young doe and a spiker headed along the same trail. I reached for the bow just as they turned towards the hole in the fence but inexplicably they veered into the swamp straight for my tree and started to feed on the young shoots sticking out above the swamp. Heads down they came closer until the doe was only 12 feet in front of me. I resisted pulling the bow back as I was sure any movement from me would have had them in full flight out of there. She continued to graze around my tree, at one stage lifting her head and looked at me, but looked straight through me. I was amazed that because I was not on the ground she saw no threat. Continuing around the back of the tree, she and the spiker never knew I was there. This is going to get interesting when they cut my scent, I thought to myself. Sure enough their heads came up and with a snort they both headed for the hole under the fence. Arriving at the same time the Spiker head butted the doe out of the way and shot under the fence. The doe never made it as she hit the deck a few seconds later with an arrow through her heart. As I gazed over at her I could not believe how easy it had been. While all this was happening I swear my boots were only a few inches higher than her head, hitting home to me that these deer had never been taught to look up.
I was hooked and excitedly phoned Kevin asking him if I could borrow his tree stand. “Sure” he said “come and get it any time”. Which I did and with “how to” instructions I headed out into a pine plantation and started to set up this Lone Wolf hang on stand, but nothing had prepared me for the degree of difficulty in setting it up cold turkey. Eventually I had to give up and head back home. “I will come over in the weekend “said Kevin in response to my cry for help which he did by giving me an insight on “how to” as he set it up. Next morning, an hour after day light I was excitedly watching a young spiker thrashing out his last death throes not more than thirty yards away. Ho ho this tree stand hunting is an easy lark I thought. Not keen on this diabolically uncomfortable lone wolf seat though, I might have to do a google search on something more comfortable for these old bones
Several months’ later two Big game ladder stands arrived from the States. However, with the exchange rate and freight costs I nearly had to mortgage the house. But I was happy and couldn’t wait to set them up in my favorite hunting area. I soon found out they were the opposite in comfort to the behind numbing Lone Wolf, making a sit and wait a real joy.
Roll on a year and several more deer in the freezer; I was finding that as deer movements altered during the differing seasons, the ladder stands were impossible to move to another locality on my own. Why not build one I thought, it will save me the cost of purchasing and freighting more out to NZ. I built a nice platform at one end of the old pine windbreak and with a ladder stand at the other end 500 yards away and I had the area covered, or so I thought. After spending several fruitless evenings in the ladder stand and each time bumping deer half way between the two stands while walking out to the vehicle. I decided to build another one where they were coming out. This was in an area where I had limited suitable trees but I eventually chose a tree which had a nice fork in it 13 feet off the ground.
Job completed and the next evening I was debating with myself whether to sit in the first platform stand or the one I had just completed a day earlier. No, the deer have been coming out regularly by the new stand so it was there I was going to sit. With a perfect breeze blowing into my face I settled down to wait for the late evening when they usually emerged. Half of an hour of daylight left and out popped a group of bucks. But as luck would have it they were right in front of the original platform stand and proceeded to graze right under it. Darn it I should have been in that one. Sitting there rueing my earlier decision when three more deer came out right in front of me. At twenty yards they were perfect shots. Trouble was when I tried to pull the bow back, I found I made a rooky mistake as I had built the stand too close to the huge tree and no matter what I did, I couldn’t pull that bow back. My elbow kept bumping the tree. I tried everything but to no avail, eventually all my gyrations alarmed the deer back into the bush. While sitting there utterly peed off two bucks came ambling along only 14 feet from where I was sitting just to rub salt into the injury.
Later that evening while driving home I came to think this Tree stand lark is not as easy as I thought. After all the Americans have perfected the art of hunting from tree stands so why was I trying to re-invent the wheel. Best to learn from them, and I have.
I love to hunt by spotting and stalking in our tight native bush, but over recent years I have taken a lot of deer from the “Kiwi style” tree stands. I have learnt the sheer pleasure of watching them undisturbed in their natural element. In fact, as the years roll by, I find myself finding excuses not to shoot just so I can watch and film them.
In New Zealand where the bush is thick and the terrain mostly hilly to mountainous, Spotting and stalking have been the only way to hunt. Until recently when a few of us decided that our American cousins may have hit on a good idea with the use of tree stands. Particularly when hunting the Fallow deer which tend to be similar creatures of habit to the White tail. Plus it’s a hell of a lot easier to sit in one place with a good book while waiting for an unsuspecting deer to wander in, which is appreciated by us older folk.
My friend Kevin Watson first mentioned that he had imported a stand a couple of years ago and would I like to borrow it some time. “Na” I said “It’s a sissy’s way to hunt” and left it at that. Then early last year I stumbled on a deer highway. This game trail came out of the bush, traveled around the edge of a tiny swamp then disappeared under a fence and out into the farmer’s choice grazing area. Sitting there looking at the trail I noticed a gnarly old willow tree struggling to survive out in the center of the swamp. Five feet up the twisted old trunk was a huge fork in the branches. An idea started to form in my mind, would it be big enough for me to stand in and would it be high enough. I put the first question to the test, and yes I could stay in it for a short duration. I decided to put the second question to the test that next evening’
The next day an hour before dark I was standing in the fork of the tree feeling slightly foolish, after all I was only five feet off the ground. No self-respecting deer would be fooled I was thinking to myself. When coming straight towards me were four deer walking single file without a care in the world. They passed by me no more than twenty feet and ducking under the fence ran joyfully out into the pasture. This happened faster than it took me to write. Talk about being caught with my pants down, I hadn’t even had time to pick up my bow much less shoot. OK, time to work out a game plan. I placed the bow closer and moved my feet around more in line with where they were coming from. I had only just settled when a young doe and a spiker headed along the same trail. I reached for the bow just as they turned towards the hole in the fence but inexplicably they veered into the swamp straight for my tree and started to feed on the young shoots sticking out above the swamp. Heads down they came closer until the doe was only 12 feet in front of me. I resisted pulling the bow back as I was sure any movement from me would have had them in full flight out of there. She continued to graze around my tree, at one stage lifting her head and looked at me, but looked straight through me. I was amazed that because I was not on the ground she saw no threat. Continuing around the back of the tree, she and the spiker never knew I was there. This is going to get interesting when they cut my scent, I thought to myself. Sure enough their heads came up and with a snort they both headed for the hole under the fence. Arriving at the same time the Spiker head butted the doe out of the way and shot under the fence. The doe never made it as she hit the deck a few seconds later with an arrow through her heart. As I gazed over at her I could not believe how easy it had been. While all this was happening I swear my boots were only a few inches higher than her head, hitting home to me that these deer had never been taught to look up.
I was hooked and excitedly phoned Kevin asking him if I could borrow his tree stand. “Sure” he said “come and get it any time”. Which I did and with “how to” instructions I headed out into a pine plantation and started to set up this Lone Wolf hang on stand, but nothing had prepared me for the degree of difficulty in setting it up cold turkey. Eventually I had to give up and head back home. “I will come over in the weekend “said Kevin in response to my cry for help which he did by giving me an insight on “how to” as he set it up. Next morning, an hour after day light I was excitedly watching a young spiker thrashing out his last death throes not more than thirty yards away. Ho ho this tree stand hunting is an easy lark I thought. Not keen on this diabolically uncomfortable lone wolf seat though, I might have to do a google search on something more comfortable for these old bones
Several months’ later two Big game ladder stands arrived from the States. However, with the exchange rate and freight costs I nearly had to mortgage the house. But I was happy and couldn’t wait to set them up in my favorite hunting area. I soon found out they were the opposite in comfort to the behind numbing Lone Wolf, making a sit and wait a real joy.
Roll on a year and several more deer in the freezer; I was finding that as deer movements altered during the differing seasons, the ladder stands were impossible to move to another locality on my own. Why not build one I thought, it will save me the cost of purchasing and freighting more out to NZ. I built a nice platform at one end of the old pine windbreak and with a ladder stand at the other end 500 yards away and I had the area covered, or so I thought. After spending several fruitless evenings in the ladder stand and each time bumping deer half way between the two stands while walking out to the vehicle. I decided to build another one where they were coming out. This was in an area where I had limited suitable trees but I eventually chose a tree which had a nice fork in it 13 feet off the ground.
Job completed and the next evening I was debating with myself whether to sit in the first platform stand or the one I had just completed a day earlier. No, the deer have been coming out regularly by the new stand so it was there I was going to sit. With a perfect breeze blowing into my face I settled down to wait for the late evening when they usually emerged. Half of an hour of daylight left and out popped a group of bucks. But as luck would have it they were right in front of the original platform stand and proceeded to graze right under it. Darn it I should have been in that one. Sitting there rueing my earlier decision when three more deer came out right in front of me. At twenty yards they were perfect shots. Trouble was when I tried to pull the bow back, I found I made a rooky mistake as I had built the stand too close to the huge tree and no matter what I did, I couldn’t pull that bow back. My elbow kept bumping the tree. I tried everything but to no avail, eventually all my gyrations alarmed the deer back into the bush. While sitting there utterly peed off two bucks came ambling along only 14 feet from where I was sitting just to rub salt into the injury.
Later that evening while driving home I came to think this Tree stand lark is not as easy as I thought. After all the Americans have perfected the art of hunting from tree stands so why was I trying to re-invent the wheel. Best to learn from them, and I have.
I love to hunt by spotting and stalking in our tight native bush, but over recent years I have taken a lot of deer from the “Kiwi style” tree stands. I have learnt the sheer pleasure of watching them undisturbed in their natural element. In fact, as the years roll by, I find myself finding excuses not to shoot just so I can watch and film them.