I went out for a few hours this afternoon in the freezing winds. As I was heading back down the mountain I figured out why the doe busted me more than a week ago.
At the right time of day, my Gorilla chain-on stand glows with the reflection of the sun. The arrow is pointing at the stand. I mean, it really glows. It practically highlights a hunter for the deer. I will definitely have to move it to the front or back of the tree. The stock paint job is going to need to be dulled considerably.
I guess it helps some times to look at things from a deers' point of view. It may look great from below, but if a deer can get above the stand the view can look a lot different.
First thing I do with anything I plan to hunt with after I bring it home is cover it with flat tremclad brown, then add detail as I move along. Nothing hits the woods for a few weeks after my "Picasso touch".
If you are not willing to learn, nobody can help you, if you are willing, nobody can stop you.
A bowhunter with a passion for shooting firearms.
WMU 91
Boo string
Funny how we usually forget to look at our location from the deer's point of view. A few years ago I got "busted" in a new stand location as soon as a buck looked my direction. I thought I had a good spot with plenty of background to break my outline, but when I went to where the deer looked at me and ran I found I was in a "hole" in the background cover with the sun directly behind me at that time of day. A dead cedar tree hoisted aloft behind me plugged the hole, and I killed the same buck from the same stand two weeks later!
It's amazing how some things we don't expect to stand out do. I was rifle hunting with a couple of buddies last week-end. I met up with one guy on a straight stretch of trail in the middle of the day and I couldn't believe how, from over 100 yards away, the satin finished stainless steel barrel stood out (and it wasn't even sunny). It was bad. He might as well have been carrying a glow stick. I could see every bit of movement that gun made. I mentioned it to him and he said he had heard that from other people before. If it was my gun the barrel would have been wrapped in some sort of tape. Any thoughts I had of ever owning a stainless deer rifle went out the window that day.
The most important blood trail leads to the Cross...
ya thats like going duck or goose hunting and not having anything come in.
then after about to or three hours you take a walk out from your blind and find the guy your hunting with thats been eating holloween candy for the last 2 to 3 hours has the shinny wrappers all around your blind. the blind is glowing like a runway at the airport.
I generally give all my stands a repaint . Grey primer / flat black / red oxide primer. Sometimes i will spring for a can of the flat camo paint . Then I will grab some cedar branches or a few leaves off some other plant and spray away. . Once done some times I will give the whole stand a spritz of flat black overspray to dull it up . I will leave them out side for a couple weeks to get rid of the paint smell .
Lots of things glint or glisten in Nature. If there is no noise, or movement to startle a deer, or scent of danger, I doubt whether by itself your stand would have that much effect.
I used tie wraps and pipe insulation to cover the outer frame perimeter on my stand. However, I was afraid of my big boots banging on metal at the most inopportune time, not matters visual. The insulation is the split stuff, a dull gray color, so it would also work to deal with your concerns.
"Gun Control Laws"--trying to nag criminals into submission.
