To put yourself on the cusp of a good deer-hunting situation, sometimes you have to move right into the middle of the action. This may mean placing a portable stand, tripod or ground blind a little too close for comfort to where deer travel.
Two seasons ago I opened up the wallet and bought two Millennium T-100 10-foot, portable tripods. It was an easy deal, because the Mississippi-based company is located right in Pearl and you can make arrangements to buy their products at the warehouse.
With the lightweight stands, I changed the course of my season.
By lightweight, I mean less than 40 pounds. With the three legs folded in and secured with the bolt-secured nylon snap strap, I can carry the T-100 over my shoulder by balancing the seat just over my back. The hunting flexibility afforded by these stands is amazing.
I popped up one of the T-100s along the woods line of a pipeline that traverses our property. I cut limbs and covered up the tripod legs and it worked great. I took a doe from the stand the opening weekend of the early doe only season and the deer never knew I was there.
The other stand I put in the woods at a place I call the T-Bone. It is a long open trail running north and south between two thick stands of timber. Intersecting the trail is another 20-foot wide trail coming in from the west, thus the T-bone configuration.
I set the tripod up right at the intersection of the two trails.
From that position last season, I saw more deer than anywhere else at any time across our entire 600-acre property. There is something to be said for hunting in the woods and not just sitting over a food plot all the time.
Early in the season I had two small bucks come out of the woods right into the trail not 20 yards from me sitting in that 10-foot tripod. They began to push and shove like trophy bucks, but both were too small to shoot.
Even so, the five-minute show made my entire season. I only wish I had had my camera.
Hunting on the successful side of the cusp means to push the envelope a little, or hunt outside of the shooting house as it were.
Sometimes you have to make your own luck.
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