Skirts aren't just a fashion statement

[Rembrandt]

Skirts aren't just a fashion statement.....they serve a practical application as well. Have a stand that's been in place for nearly 20 years, over time the surrounding tree cover has changed and left the stand more exposed. Becoming more difficult to keep from being made by deer. This stand has been a solid producer of some nice bucks every year.

Came up with a way to skirt the portion that needed more cover. Installed stake pockets and used 1/2" rebar for a framework to hang to camo on. Multi-piece frame slips in place like tinker toys and locked down with set screws. Figure the $20 camo is expendable and can be replaced each year.

Seems like deer hunting prep is a year round job. Start mowing trails next week.

 

[Armored farmer]

Skirts aren't just a fashion statement.....they serve a practical application as well. Have a stand that's been in place for nearly 20 years, over time the surrounding tree cover has changed and left the stand more exposed. Becoming more difficult to keep from being made by deer. This stand has been a solid producer of some nice bucks every year.

Came up with a way to skirt the portion that needed more cover. Installed stake pockets and used 1/2" rebar for a framework to hang to camo on. Multi-piece frame slips in place like tinker toys and locked down with set screws. Figure the $20 camo is expendable and can be replaced each year.

Seems like deer hunting prep is a year round job. Start mowing trails next week.

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Nice work.
A sat in a skirted tripod stand down in Tx in march. I liked it....alot!
Well done and best wishes for the upcoming season.
We will start mowing trails soon here too.

 

[Rembrandt]

We will start mowing trails soon here too.

Need to get cameras out, but tall grass and brush keep triggering the motion sensors non stop. Hope to mow it back this next week.

Were you gun hunting or archery on the tripod?

 

[Armored farmer]

Need to get cameras out, but tall grass and brush keep triggering the motion sensors non stop. Hope to mow it back this next week.

Were you gun hunting or archery on the tripod?

I was gun hunting for hogs

 

[FL-NC]

If that is the cloth type netting like what is sold at academy, you may want to take it down and wait until it is closer to season to put it up. UV and other weather effects break that stuff down in a hurry. By the time your season starts, it may look like a pile of greenish tissue paper laying on the ground under your stand. If you can get the US mil issue netting with the plastic camo strips, that stuff will last for YEARS.

 

[Dibbs]

{OP} Rembrandt "Seems like deer hunting prep is a year-round job."

THIS. So. this. I fear that, at the onset of each new season, many hunters renew their license, buy some fancy, new tipped ammo, throw on some camo, and dash out in the woods, only to be met with disappointment.

Deer hunting has to be viewed as more of a process, which starts at the END of the hunting season. Basically, there's two types of hunters.
1- They ones going into the woods, 20 minutes after the hunting season starts.
2-The ones coming out of the woods, 15 minutes after the hunting season starts, with the trophy buck...

 

[Duster340]

I like it. Gonna have to rig up something similar for my stands.

Thanks for sharing

 

[mcb]

We started putting skirts on many of our blinds and it really helps hide your motion from giving you away. That said I shot both my deer last year from naked stands. One was only a 12 ft high stand and I was actually shooting up hill despite being in that stand due to steepness of the bottom it was in.

As for brush triggering cameras I have taken to mounting the cameras about 10-12 ft in the air and pointing them down on the target area. Make them far less likely to get triggered by brush or the sun. Does require a section of ladder to check cards but it makes them much less likely to be stolen or even seen by man or critter.

 

[entropy]

If it's plaid, is it a kilt?
Ya dinna wanna goo 'Commando' in that wee sark, laddie!

 

[Rembrandt]

Aye Laddie, don't need people peeking up ones kilt.


FL-NC, trying to find some military camo netting, some difficulty getting it in smaller sizes....don't really need enough to cover a tank or aircraft.

Tried this one a few years ago using burlap, it was too high and not the best stand location. Tree was in the way of a new fence and had to come out.

 

[Ks5shooter]

You will love the concealment. I use similar.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

For my first year of deer hunting at the age of 28 I sat in my tree stand with nothing covering it. I got busted by the only 2 deer I saw from that stand. It was in the woods and everything was very close so it was pretty easy to get busted.

After that year a coworker and friend that's hunted for over 40 years, took me under his wing and showed me some stuff and taught me alot. First thing we did was take the camo burlap and hang it on the stands to give some concealment. It works like a charm and I won't set a stand without it.

I buy the camo burlap stuff from Wal-Mart, Academy, etc it's like $9 and will last 2 seasons then it needs replaced.

 

[mustanger98]

{OP} Rembrandt "Seems like deer hunting prep is a year-round job."

THIS. So. this. I fear that, at the onset of each new season, many hunters renew their license, buy some fancy, new tipped ammo, throw on some camo, and dash out in the woods, only to be met with disappointment.

Deer hunting has to be viewed as more of a process, which starts at the END of the hunting season. Basically, there's two types of hunters.
1- They ones going into the woods, 20 minutes after the hunting season starts.
2-The ones coming out of the woods, 15 minutes after the hunting season starts, with the trophy buck...

Basically, there's two more types. Patient and Impatient. How long or short a time to get the trophy buck depends on plenty of factors.

 

[mustanger98]

Funny thing about camo... I can wear my regular stuff and do just fine leaning on a tree, but as soon as I wear camo and start rigging stuff, the deer spot me and leave.

 

[Meeks36]

Anyone who calls it a dress will be kilt.

 

[mustanger98]

Anyone who calls it a dress will be kilt.

Running with bagpipes could get you kilt too. Actually, I recall hearing they call it a kilt because the first guy who wore one kilt the first guy that laughed at him for it.

That said, and we all know it's off-topic to rigging a blind, but Highlanders were hunters too, on both sides of the Atlantic. Some of the same guys who wore kilts were the gamekeepers who invented the ghillie suit.

Did y'all know that, while the English and some American Indians used longbows, the Highlanders were using recurve bows until nearly 1700?