Got three stands up over the weekend.
This stand is at my feed site. I only hunt it during the seeking/chasing phase of the rut then maybe a few times late in the season, probably no more than 3-6 times all season. I only hunt it with N, NE, and E winds, either morning or evening. I prefer mornings during the rut and evenings in late season. It's in a big poplar at a little more than 27 ft, higher than I normally like to go but I like to get up where there are some limbs to further break up my outline. Deer are very weary around feed and you gotta be concealed or it won't work. I'll add some oaks limbs around the stand later in October for even more cover, while the leaves are still green so they stay on the branches for awhile. I've killed one buck from this stand and a few does.
This stand is in an oak grove in a corner of my property where there are several white oaks, pin oaks, and red oaks. It's about 25 ft in a red oak. The old drag road you see to the right of the stand runs up a ravine from a creek. Deer use the road to get to and from a primary bedding area about 100 yards across the creek. I hunt this stand quite a bit, but no more than 10 times all season. I hunt it with W, NW, and N winds either morning or evening. I've killed one buck from this stand and many does. The key is getting to it quietly. During the rut bucks travel through here a lot to check the bedding area for hot does, and all deer obviously feed off the acorns.
My almost 4 year old helped me with these two stands, and here's his project he worked on while I was setting the oak grove stand!
No photo of the third stand but it's in a large red oak in a saddle that separates a bedding area from a stand of large timber. It's about 22 ft and sits exactly 20 yards from a bush hogged path through the woods that deer use to travel through the saddle. I hunt it with SE, S, and SW winds both morning and evening. I killed a doe off the ground here last year and saw one of the oldest, gnarliest bucks I've ever seen traveling near here several years ago. I was using my LoneWolf climber about 100 yards from here and had him at 25 yards but there was a little brush in the way so I waited for a better shot and he never gave me one! Made me sick.
That's the first three, several more to go.