Make sure your stand blends in with the environment and deer probably won’t detect you.
No child has ever been successful playing hide-and-seek if the child is easily found and never learns to hide. Likewise, success for those that hunt deer from a blind, stand or elevated position hinges as much on an ability to hide as it does knowing the direction of the wind and food sources.
While hunting from a stand or hidden inside a blind may offer the hunter an advantage in hiding, any gains sought from height and disguise are negated if it is not properly hidden or blended into the environment.
Two seasoned hunters from Durham, Mark Waller and Jamie Barnhill, understand the concept of hiding. Over the course of a season, the two — who have killed plenty of trophy bucks with archery equipment — spend countless hours hiding in tree stands and ground blinds, hunting and observing deer.
“I learned a long time ago that there is much more to hanging a stand or hunting from a ground blind; you’ve got to nestle yourself within your surroundings,” Barnhill said.
Waller agrees; he takes the concept of hiding very seriously, saying,
“You absolutely must use natural cover to break up your stand and blind site.”
In 2012, Waller arrowed a 130-inch buck late in the season, and he is confident the combination of being at the right height and having cedar limbs and oak branches affixed to his stand allowed him to blend into the tree — while the deer checked a scrape just below his stand.
Waller and Barnhill use ladder and lock-on style stands, but they recognize the importance of using ground blinds, both pop-up tent style and natural, in their pursuit of deer.
“I learned from a seasoned mentor that when you hunt from the ground, you must nestle into the environment,” Barnhill said.
Ground blinds have gained popularity with the advent of lightweight blinds that are efficient to set up and take down.
“I use a ground blind when hiding a lock-on or ladder stand is not possible, such as when the available tree cover is not tall enough or (when) it doesn’t make sense to climb a tree,” Waller said. “Blinds are good to use around entrances to fields or pastures or on the opposite side of a hill or creek, when the deer are going to travel.”
Barnhill prefers to use a ground blind when time is limited or when he expects the deer to be funneled into range.
“I can get into a blind after work, quickly, without making the noise that is native to climbing a stand. A blind is also good to use around seasonal crops like corn or soybeans,” he said. “A pop-up tent, alone, is an object that is not natural to the environment. However, when you blend the environment into the tent, you in turn blend with the environment naturally.”
Both hunters agree that pop-up style tent blinds do not work in all surroundings.
“I shot a huge 8-point buck from (inside) a blown-down tree, on the side of a hill, one November morning,” Barnhill said. “A blind would have been out of place. However, by cutting branches and building a blind using limbs and sticks, I was able to almost completely disappear.”
Waller believes there is no substitute for natural vegetation against a pop-up tent or blind.
“If, for example, you are hunting by a cornfield, then find a pocket where your blind fits within the surroundings and place cut stalks against the blind,” he said. “If you are near a hay field, and have permission, locate your blind between two round bales of hay; the blind will look like another hay bale.”
Barnhill likes to hide his blind in spots where the surroundings help to camouflage it.
“Use ditches, low areas, natural breaks in a creek bank, or beneath a tree with low-hanging branches to hide your blind. Remember, if you can see it easily, then certainly the deer are able to notice it, too,” he said. “Ground blinds are also really good places to take a kid and teach him or her to hunt; they are easy to get too and if well camouflaged, the child can get away with some movement.”
When these two hunters hunt from a ladder stand or a lock-on stand, concealment is also very important.
“Once I locate a place or places for a stand, the first thing I look for is a tree that has detail, such as limbs and other natural features, that break-up my outline,” said Waller, who knows not just any tree is going to work, suggesting that hunters look for trees that get you off the path where a deer is likely to travel.
“l learned the hard way that if you are too close, it doesn’t matter how much concealment you have, it is possible to be seen,” he said. “So I get off a path or travel route, and I have a buddy look at my stand or set-up and give feedback (about) how concealed the location is. Once I hang the stand and attach brush or netting, I at least feel confident from the eye of someone on the ground that the stand is reasonably concealed.”
Barnhill is a stickler for hiding his stands, and he would rather be well hidden than in the prime spot in a given area.
“I use lock-on, climbing sticks and screw pegs, because I want to be able to hide in trees that will give me the most concealment. I love smelling like a cedar tree, and I love tucking my stand into a cedar as it really is forgiving with my movement,” he said.
Both hunters agree that a straight tree with no limbs on the lower reaches of its trunk should be dismissed as a good stand site.
“Choosing the right tree also means it has to have adequate cover to allow for year-long use, including late season when the leaves have dropped. This is where a tree with forks or large limbs will be beneficial,” Barnhill said. “And, if you choose oaks or beech trees, some varieties hold their leaves well into the New Year.
Barnhill hid one tree stand well enough that he arrowed a mature Durham County buck from it in 2011.
“I combined all of these tactics one October evening and took my best buck ever,” he said. “It was a massive, main-frame 8-pointer that scored 131 3/8 Pope & Young. He came in with five other shooter bucks and had no idea I was there, perched 20 feet up in the fork of an oak tree. The wind was in my face, and the leaves behind and below me gave me cover to stand, draw my bow, and (make an) 18-yard shot.”
For Waller and Barnhill, hunting is not just about climbing in or stepping into a blind. They take all considerations — including wind, travel patterns and food sources — very seriously. However, they both agree that a good set up or location is only as good as great concealment. When it comes to hunting deer, these hunters know that hiding is not just camouflage and counting to 10.
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