Considerations for tree stand placement v/s time of year

It's that time of year again. Stand hanging, tree trimming, sweating like crazy to get the perfect early season set up. Many of us have already begun preparing and hanging stands for the upcoming season...or at least preparing and reconditioning stands to hang. Regardless of when you hang your stands, SAFETY is the most important. Make sure all straps are tight and secure and never assume a stand is safe because you used to hunt it last year. Get all your straps and safety gear on now...so when it's time to hunt, all ya gotta do is HUNT.

My question to you is this...what are some of the considerations you have when hanging a stand in July verses hanging a stand in late October? Are there differences? Why?

Some of my experiences over many years in the stand have made me think of such things. For one thing, the sun is up for a long time and that sucker gets bright and HOT in the evenings...so depending on the main flow of deer traffic I try to place my stand so that I'm not highlighted or blinded by the sun. Also...I don't particularly like being fried while I'm 30 feet off the ground.

Other thoughts or concerns anyone wants to share about stand set up and considerations in regards to the time of year which it is hung?

Good to see you posting. The Whitetail Mafia still reigns.

My thought would be stay out of the swamps and avoid the mosquitos. I hate bugs in the early season. And like you said, always consider the sun. Almost all my stands face west and most times I hunt evenings. On almost every hunt I have about a 15 minute window when I have a hard time seeing. Thankfully Nov. is usually fairly cloudy.

well to me, hanging a stand in july , a loc on or any type besides a ladder stand is a NO NO, way too long to be up a tree
just read what MFG"S recommend on how long a stand should be up, and your not days past it your months past there safety ratings
next, as for things I do
I WILL hang a stand to see the view, trim back branches, but will NOT leave up till hunting season, will come back a week or two before season starts and hang them for hunting out of
NOW<
well, I will make/ get set ups ready , in places ,
I have fall plots going in, meaning in places I have no current food source I will keep come fall
will plant a fall planting, and thus place new stands over these new food source area's

2.), I will take advantage of the leaves still in trees to help hide a future stand site, as in early season, many trees still hold a ton of leaves, so try to take advantage of that while there still hanging on!
3.) I will hunt close to water, due to I know here deer tend to drink before feeding in my plots, only problem is I have water 360 degrees surrounding the property, so a therma cell is a must have item in early season, or till cold chases them away!
4.) I will go to all my ladder stands and add a lot of Pine tree branches and camo material, to blend them in better
fresh pine tree branches cut a few weeks before season, will hold green for aweeks at a time, and I feel help add scent control/cover scent to me up a tree!, I have tons of pine trees in my area so they work great and are free to me!
5.) perfect time, to mark yardages, over the yrs I began using surveying tape, comes in all sorts of colors
I use same colr for 20 yrds-30-40, on all my stands
in food plots I take sticks and tie on like a streaming flag above the crops, and shove them in the ground, sticks are free, and to be honest, I found bucks really like to rub on them in the food plots? drive me nuts some times as when they fall over or break, I cannot see, but again free and cheap
and I can disc them over the next yr, or pick up after season
in woods sets, I simply wrap the tape arround tree's
make for much faster and less worry about mixing up a yardage when a moving buck comes in
I also have used same color spray paint to paint Small but easy to see Dots on tree's as markers
ONLY do this in places I am not worry about others finding of course, and with land owners permission!
have use white spray pain, and then 1 dot for 10 yrds, 2 for 20 and 3 for 30 and so on
easy and if done now, by fall, deer never notice/smell!
6.) prime time to be scouting in now for me, as come when the velevt comes off I loose many bucks, so knowing what I HAD before season, is nice to know, and hope one makes it!
and last,
7.) building my fall food plots, and come late sept, any last minute set up on current big buck feeding sites
I like to scout and hang stands on any Possible places, to know what tree's work and what don't, should I need a fast set up!
I am lucky I can drive my atv to most places I hunt and bring a 20 ft ladder, super fast up, hang see, and move on, and then mark any possible trees that are good!
nice to have back ups if you can!
thats my summer plans

We like to hang ours early. Several of our hang on stands are the bigger sling style seats that require quite a bit of effort to hang. The earlier in the year I can do it the less I worry about making all kinds of noise, sweat and tears LOL! The other benefit by doing it this time is you can also get the limbs trimmed out of the way and prep that stand perfectly. Then you are out of there for several months, long before they would have any inclination that you are poking around that spot during deer season.

The closer I get to October and eventually November the more concern I have that I may be alerting deer to what we are doing. I don't like to do much if any trimming around the stand which can be the biggest down fall to hanging that late. Some stand locations I have made a lot of noise on purpose to run deer out so I can set the stand up without fear they are watching my every movements and others I have snuck into set up quickly and somewhat quietly and get out of there. Hopefully the set-up is followed by rain to help wash away my scent.

As for the actual set-up my main concern is being concealed and having cover. Hopefully the tree I have picked has been scouted back when the leaves were off the tree, that's one of the best times to see how that stand will look in early to mid November. If not or if I have any doubts then we have started using more and more bungee cords to wrap around the tree for adding leafy brush material to the sides of the tree. Just something added enough to break up our outline.

I also make sure I take plenty of pictures of the stand/tree both in the summer and if it's a stand I found when the leaves are off the tree. This way I can look things over and notice things like black straps that stick out, something shiny, whether there is enough brush in the back ground to even deciding which camo jacket/pants combination would work best for that tree.

Cover rules for me too, especially for those rut stands you hang 3 months early. I've hung some before then went back to hunt them in November and been like "oh no, this ain't gonna work"' because I stuck out like a sore thumb. I like trees at least as big around as me, or with limbs that are at stand level. Going high (22-25 ft) works most of the time but not always. Double trunked trees are my favorite. It's about that time, the excitement of hanging stands and then waiting for the perfect time to hunt them. I also typically hang most of my stands before or during a rainstorm when deer are hunkered down and all my scent is washed away because no matter if you wear rubber boots or scentlok, whatever, if you hang stands in August or September you are gonna leave tons of scent everywhere. The sweating, ticks, mosquitoes, and chiggers is the part I don't look forward too.