Deer hunting is a pursuit defined by moments of intense action, punctuated by long periods of absolute stillness. The life of a hunter in a treestand often involves hours of patient waiting between those fleeting opportunities.
While focus is of the utmost importance, the human mind inevitably wanders, and hunters develop some interesting, and sometimes questionable, ways to cope with the boredom of an all-day sit.
Here’s a look at the most common, and perhaps most honest, activities hunters engage in when we find ourselves in a lull in the whitetail woods.
Playing on Phone – This is the go-to silent distraction, whether it’s tapping away at simple mobile games, organizing your digital files, or reviewing photos from previous hunts. Time on the phone can definitely help us pass the long hours in the stand, but they can always be the very distraction that causes and opportunity at a deer.
Scrolling Through Social Media – Checking platforms for updates on other hunters’ success or just catching up on the non-hunting world outside the woods. Again, our phones can quickly be the tool that cause us to miss out on the action we’re truly after.
Checking Emails and Text messages – Silently handling quick personal or work communications. Taking care of work chores can certainly help pass the time in stand, and it seems help make us feel less guilty about being away from the desk at work.
Nodding Off/Sleeping – The quiet and solitude of the woods combined with an early wake-up time make it difficult to fight the urge to catch a few quick, light-duty z’s. Just make sure you’re properly strapped in to your stand or blind!
Staring Into the Abyss – Allowing the eyes to glaze over and the mind to wander, contemplating the great questions of life and calculating all the chores and responsibilities being avoided back home.
Reading a Book – For the truly dedicated patient hunter, a physical book or a digital reading app can make long hours in the woods seem to melt away.
Hallucinating/Thinking You’re Seeing a Big Buck – Fixating intensely on a deadfall, stump, sticks, or corn stubble, swearing you’re seeing a deer. You watch it for so long that your brain convinces you it just moved or looks exactly like a trophy rack. It’s frustrating when the reality materializes, but a good way to pass time, nonetheless.
Eating Snacks & Lunch – Knowing you have food or snacks crammed in your pack just might be the ticket for helping you stay in the woods longer. The planning of what to eat – and when to eat it – can certainly help take your mind off the lack of action in the deer woods. Plenty of food and snacks in the pack is always a good way to help pass time in the tree.
Sipping Coffee – A close second to food and snacks is a Yeti bottle full of hot coffee. And when you’re in a treestand, it really dosen’t even have to be great coffee, just something hot to sip on as the hours slowly move along.
Counting Gun Shots of Rifle Hunters – An old classic when it comes to passing time in the tree is to count the number of gun shots you hear from rifle hunters in the area. This may or may not be an indicator of deer activity for the day, but some hunters seem to think so. “Man, the deer just didn’t move this morning . I only heard 3 shots all morning.”
What about you? What’s your favorite thing to do to pass time in the treestand?
Comment below, and let us know.
