I finally got my last 3 treestands up for the Michigan deer hunting season and tried a new technique you may want to try using ladder stands.

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Deer Hunting in Michigan

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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I love to archery hunt for Michigan whitetail deer. Ever since I started bow hunting when I was in high school I have been hooked.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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Hunting a lifetime for whitetails has given me a lot of time to monitor deer and their behavior in a variety of hunting situations as well as visual scouting.

I tried something last year with a few of my stands and noticed something with the deer and thought, let's try this idea on the 3 new stands I put up this year.

New Technique for Using Ladder Treestands

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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For the last 10 years or so I have switched to using ladder treestands exclusively other than when I am ground and pound hunting trying to fool an older deer who is hip to where I've been sitting.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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Something I have noticed is that mature deer seem to notice those ladders and then look up. As you can see in the picture above how easy it is to spot the stand.

I have walked several properties and state land and will not even be looking for a ladder stand but be able to spot them a long way away. If I can do it and don't live in these woods, it must be pretty easy for deer to spot them as well.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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As you can see in this picture above, you can hardly tell there is a ladder treestand there at all. What I started doing is finding sticks and branches nearby and weaving them into my stand. I do it so nothing pokes me as I'm climbing up so I don't get poked in the eye in the dark.

I was able to hide this stand really well using some branches I had to cut down to get it in the tree. I can do this because it's my land. If you are putting up a stand on state land you are not allowed to cut off any branches, but if you look around, there are plenty of dead ones you can use.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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I have 7 stands up on this piece of property and they are set up for every possible wind direction and some are in spots for different times in the season when the deer movement changes.

I hid five of the stands last year and not one mature deer noticed the ladders. So this year I moved a stand and put two new ones up, I did those ladders and stands much better than the other 4 that are up.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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This may not be a new idea but I had never seen it done and if you've ever put up a ladder stand, it's a lot harder to hide them than a tree climber or a hang-on stand.

I'm going to go back out and hide the other 4 stands a bit better but I will say last year I got close to a lot of decent bucks and doe's most people would have shot and my stands were undetected visually.

Tommy Carroll/TSM
Tommy Carroll/TSM
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Give it a try and cover up those ladder stands to make them as unnoticeable as possible, play your cards right with the wind, and you might be surprised about what walks by.

As a quick note, I normally have all my treestand stuff done by or preferably before Labor Day weekend. I do this to not disturbed my area. If you have some big ones you know of in your area, it's a good idea to get things done months before the opening day of archery season, even for firearm season as well. This year I was late because of other projects, life events, and being able to have some help getting the last stands up.

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