Deer Stand Situation

[Musky Buck]

Not a major post here, but you guys and gals that think your deer stands are secure might want to check them again this weekend or you might be on a stump come opener if the deer don't land in Michigan by nights end. Your shooting lanes may be a mess, trail camera's crushed. Very violent outside as I type this. Wow And just drove by a round 1 playoff HS football game, you have got to be kidding. 12 nights of sleep to go and it's game time. Couple days from now and someone can delete this one, thank you.

[paceman]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. This weekend I will check out a few to make sure they didn't fall or blow down....Man I sure hope not.....

[Bear55]

After a wind like that we usually have to cut down 10-20 trees just to get into our camp. I won't be able to check my stands before season so I will just have to make due opening morning, shoot lanes should be a mess. If a tree took out any of my stands I do have backups.

[bigbucks]

My Saturday morning bow hunting plans might have to change. A long trail through the woods with the truck, before starting the walk to the stand. Pretty likely she's not going to be open without some saw work.

[Bear55]

Good thing you mentioned that bigbucks, might be a good idea to bring a saw bowhunting this weekend.

[Musky Buck]

The few stands I notice on the way to work daily, are definitely not upright today. The cleanup job might be tough, I'm hoping a few shooting lanes survived it. This could change deer traffic/trails that might be impassable to them now.

[machohorn]

I am heading there this weekend, after 3 weekends of clearing, I was hopeing to take this weekend off.

[Musky Buck]

I hear that machohorn, was hoping the same, in my main area this is like the 4th major weather event to do damage in the last 6 seasons. 2 straight line winds, 1 tornado on June 17th, and now last nights fury, glad to see it has simmered a bit today so far but like you figured I was home free to opener keeping human scent out of my locations, will have to scent up etc. and head in, what stinks....I hunt 3 separate properties so I'm hoping for the best. Here we had that 29 day stretch drying up swamps,creek and river bottoms noticed the river overflowed it's banks again. Hope your areas are alright.

[Nightcrawler]

last weekend we put up two walltents . went up today and everything was OK. only tarp blowen off wood pile and one dead jack down 50yds from one tent. lots of water. ready to move in fri for 3 weeks. good luck everyone.

[mrklean]

haha didnt even think about the blinds we have out might not be there anymoe

[Boar]

I'm thinking about flooded river bottom, by opener the rivers in our land will be surging an most likely affect deer movement in teh river bottom. I'm lucky to have put up new blinds an stands on the side with crop land that was ratated in beans this year. boar

[SETDAHOOK]

Great topic! I don't post much, but musky buck brought up a good point, so I thought I would add my experiece.

I happened to be headed up to my deer land yesterday morning and was glad I went up there. While none of my stands blew over, I did lose a door on one and had to clear a medium size tree from directly infront of the main shooting lane... Well worth the 8 hour roundtrip. Needless to say, of the 600 pictures on my trail camera, only a few were of deer, the rest were from the tree swaying (in 5 years I have never had that happen).

I do have a funny story....I drove by a piece of land on the way up, and they had 4 new platform stands...Instead of the shack being built of wood, they thought they could get by with putting a pop up blind on top of the platform....Well, I drove by about 11am on Tuesday and they were still all intact....About 1pm today they were all gone!!!! Too bad.

Good luck!

[Boar]

Ben der don dat, oof da.

[nofishfisherman]

I was just thinking about this today. i have 2 stands built onto different trees, one is built using three tree and the other is built using 2 trees. I was thinking with these crazy winds the stands might have been pulled apart if the trees didn't sway in unison.

I won't be able to get up there before opener so I'll probably bring a portable along that I can set up either the night before or early before shooting hours. Not a good situation to have but I do have a few back up plans.

[InTheSchool]

Check out the swamps before you start crossing! In my area the ankle deep ones are now mid thigh!

[lakevet]

100% lightweight portables, carry in and set up each time at best spot (which can vary), don't cut shooting lanes (use what is naturally available), leave no trace on our own land or public for other people to use for "scouting" (or to be an eyesore when someone leaves the stand in the woods/doesn't clean it up), don't have to visit our stand sites and stir up woods because of a little wind, (those who do push deer into our undisturbed woods). If trees are down, we have more natural shooting lanes! I do feel for those who had their ground blinds blown away, kinda like porty fish houses tumbling across the lake!

Years ago a tornado went thru alot of the public we hunted. Could walk across down mature trees for 1/4 mile in some spots without touching the ground. What a mess! The deer didn't use that area for 5 to 6 years.

Also been in woods when trees were blowing over. Saw deer, but not fun worrying about what tree was going over next!

lakevet

[Tripleplay]

I put a call out to the neighbor who is going to check the stands that I put up last weekend. We have a couple of good sized stands that most would consider permanents but the gentleman I lease from won't let me leave them on site so we load them in a horse trailer in pieces and play by his rules.

I've got a sneaking suspicion my bigger one is heading for Oz! A few years ago it was vandalized when the property was for sale and I've got a "jimmy-rigged" anchor on it--kicking myself for not making a better effort on an anchor setup after the vandals. Wife will love a couple of tanks more of gas to get them back upright and to fix anything that may have broke.

Well here's to hoping I luck out but I'm doubting it bigtime.

[paceman]

I checked all my big stands last weekend and they were all just fine. I have them anchored really well. But I saw a few of the neighbors tipped over. I called them and let them know. The tractors were out there soon after putting them back up.