So far this season, I’ve regaled you with a collection of stories about my outdoors experiences… most of those have been singular in nature – meaning, each story has been about one topic, i.e., turkey hunting, or growing up in the outdoors, or chasing public-land bucks. I thought I’d change it up this time and throw out a hodgepodge of tips and tricks for you guys to consider. Take them or leave them as you need! 
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Author: Greg Staggs

​A tip!
 
As a long-time moderator on one of the most popular bowhunting forums on the internet, I consistently see two questions come across the screen from beginning bowhunters: How many pins should I use, and what colors should they be? Given that the large majority of bowhunters harvest their quarry at a distance of around 20 yards, I offer up a system that has worked extremely well for me chasing whitetails across the Midwest...

Author: Greg Staggs
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“Hey, I’m hunting over here,” called out the voice from above. I stopped and quickly scanned the skyline before spotting the figure perched atop the platform in the tree. I closed the remaining distance between us and we quietly greeted one another before he dropped the bombshell. “Just so you know, my buddy and I are accessing this area through that field” he said, pointing past the low-water creek and in the direction of a cut bean field.

“THAT field?!” I asked incredulously...

 Author: Greg Staggs

The icon alerting me that I had an instant message waiting to be read lit up as innocently as all the other times it ever had when someone messaged me through Facebook. I stole another glance to my left and identified the squirrel shuffling through the crisp November leaves, periodically burying his nose deep enough to hide his eyes from the still morning air. A pair of wood ducks raucously lifted off the slough to my right, and I scanned the water’s edge where it came up and lapped at the trees that marched out into its depths with extra care, looking for an animal that may have spooked them from their floating perches.

Satisfied I was alone for the present time, I turned my focus toward the phone in my hand and tapped the little button to open my message folder. A few seconds later that aforementioned innocence was gone. “Hey man, I think I’m pretty sure I know exactly where that spot is… Good luck to you.” Or something like that. It could have said I want to send you a million dollars; frankly, I couldn’t see past “I know where that spot is…”

Author: Greg Staggs

The question probably came from as far out of left field as she would have ever expected. It was more of a statement, actually.
 
“I grew up hunting. I bowhunt. I’m going to have mounted animals in my house. I’m not saying this relationship will ever get to that point…” I trailed off. Then I picked back up again, diving full-steam ahead. No sense in stopping now. “But if it ever does,” I began again, “Is that going to be a problem?”
 
She thought for the briefest of moments before giving her answer. “As long as you don’t put them in the bedroom, bathroom or the kitchen.” I paused just as briefly. “Fair enough,” I answered before we both started scanning our menus in prelude to the meal on our first date.
 
It had been the second question of the night for my future wife, right after the one asking when she wanted to have kids. We were both a bit older: She had been in the work force for a while and I was in my last year of graduate school. We had both been in enough relationships to know what we didn’t want, and neither one of us danced around issues important to us. We dove headlong into a beautiful relationship that after 24 years of marriage and counting has continued to provide me with the most supportive bowhunting spouse who doesn’t hunt that I could have ever hoped for.

Author: Greg Staggs

​The twin set of taillights quickly gained speed on the gravel road, disappearing in a cloud of dust and leaving the darkness to quickly envelope me and the gear stowed beneath the bridge. The water quietly lapped at the side of the boat, making soft plinking noises, and I managed to make out its form below me in the soft moonlight. I plopped lazily onto the concrete bridge, settling in for what was sure to be a thirty-minute wait as Dad drove his white pickup to drop off at our destination. Mom was following in the car so she could bring him back to the boat, then she would go home – her night over even as ours was barely beginning.
 
A chorus of insects slowly gained volume to accompany the cascade of fireworks hanging in the distance over town. I swung my feet slowly to the rhythm of the screaming cicadas and katydids and enjoyed the show until my parents returned.
 
“There’s a pretty big one sitting up that way about sixty or seventy yards,” I told Dad after we said our good-byes to Mom. “I may have spooked him off, though. I walked up that field row to see if I could place him a little better when y’all guys first left. I haven’t heard him since.”

Author: Greg Staggs
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It was eerily quiet… yet another morning offering little hope of success. I stared out into the murky grayness of the sky as my surroundings were caught somewhere between darkness and daylight. I should have heard something by now if it was going to happen. Out west, they would have been hammering for a good 20 minutes now...

​Welcome to the very first Tactical Tuesday from Wild Edge Inc.  Here’s what you can expect…
 
Tuesday evenings at 8:00 PM EST, a representative from the WEI team will host an Instagram live video.  This week we were joined by one of our favorite podcasters, Walter of Chasing Tales Outdoors.  As the weeks progress, we’ll be hanging out with experts from across the industry.
 
Later in the week, we will post a quick and dirty, written recap of what you missed.  So, here’s what you missed on our very first Tactical Tuesday…

Q: @rhienhart: “How do you attach [the Steppladder] to your pack for transport?”
A: Andrew: My system changes drastically depending on how I am accessing the piece and what kind of topography I am walking in to.  Often times I’ll be strapping a set of stepps directly to my kayak and throwing them over my shoulder when I access public land by water. 
 
On short hikes they’re always right around my shoulder.  I’m a big proponent of keeping things simple.  When I walk into the woods, I want to be able to start my climb immediately.  This means I don’t have to pause to take my backpack off.  My sling is already on, my Bowhanger is in my pocket, my lineman’s line is tucked into my sling and my bow is clipped to the other side of my sling.
 
If I have a long hike, I’ll often attach the stepps to the outside of my pack.  This way, I can move through the woods more effectively.
 
 
Q: @topnockbowhunting: “How long does it take you to get up and ready to shoot? And how long to get down and all packed up?”
A: Andrew: My motto has always been, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  We’re not fighting to be the fastest system on the market because I don’t see the advantage to sprinting into the woods and blasting up into the tree.  This isn’t a reflection of the stepps either; it’s my personal style.  I can throw up a set and climb 30 feet in 3 minutes, but I think we all need to remember to slow down, take our time and hunt on the way in.
 
Walter: It’s important to note that the faster you move, the hotter you’re going to get. No matter what the temperature is outside, you’ll have to manage your core temperature and your layers.  It is also extremely situational.  It took me 17 minutes to climb 16 feet into a cedar, but it was littered with branches. 
 
It’s best to approach this from a woodsmanship mentality, and I think the true answer to this question is, it does not take too long to climb.  It depends on where, when and how you’re hunting, and how much you’ve practiced.
 
My goal is to be in the woods, quiet an hour before I want to be hunting. I’ve gotten up into a tree an hour before sunrise and decided that it wasn’t perfect.  I had the option to get down and choose a new tree because I gave myself enough time to slow down and think.
 
 
Q: @Ugly_step_kid: “How heavy is your set up?”
A: Andrew: This is another one of those questions that is not an easy answer.  Each step weighs 11.7 ounces, so you’ll have to do some math. The tough part is the fact that my set up is always super specific to the piece of land that I’m hunting.
 
So many guys are so weight conscious down to the ounce. And honestly, they’re overestimating how far they’re traveling.  In Connecticut we can’t walk a mile without leaving a property!
 
 
Q: @whitetail_legacy_podcast: What is the comfort level for all day sits?
A: Walter: I like the way my platform relieves some stress on my ankles during long sits.
If you’re using a ring of stepps, you need to increase your angle from the tree to relieve some of that pressure.
 
Andrew: I’ve never sat all day in my life!  I’ve hunted all day.  I’ve never sat all day.  For a couple hours I’m super comfortable!
 
Walter
When you kill deer as efficiently as Andrew you don’t have to sit all day!
 
 
Q: How many do you personally use?
A: Andrew: The only way to answer this is by saying that I never use the same amount of stepps, ever. If I’m setting up a spot for my family to use all season I might use 18 of them spaced one foot apart.  If I’m run and gunning and going in blind I might grab 5 stepps and an aider.  It really depends on the situation.
 
The one thing that is a definite is a preseason set up.  I will always walk out with no less than a set of 16.  Of those 16, 3 of them will have 8-foot ropes.  I would much rather not use them all than be a few short.
 
 
Q: Walter: Okay, you’re on a brand-new piece of property and you’re going in blind, how many stepps are you taking?
A: Andrew: Depends on the topography.  Let’s say it’s a swamp. I may only need 3-5 get above cattails and phragmites.  If I accessed by boat I would definitely have an additional 10-12 stepps in the boat that I could go back for after my hunt to create a better future set up.
 
 
Q: @bowhunterchronicles_podcast: “Are you using a knaider, swaider etc. what’s your preferred setup personally?
A: Walter: I use the Etrier, which is a rock-climbing aider.
 
Andrew: I use the Wild Edge Aider. It’s easy to use and adjustable.  Plus, I’d rather do a pull up before I start attaching ropes to my feet. All that knaider, swaider stuff gets clumsy and complicated.
 
 
Q: @Louis_bowhuntingnz: What bows are you guys shooting?
A: Andrew and Walter: Matthews Triax and New Breed respectively.

To be honest I don’t think of my style of hunting to be defined as run and gun. I feel like it is more than that. It is the evolution of the savage and predatory instinct that drives me to be a hunter and to harvest prey.  We all see it these days in the social media driven, “Look at me” world we live in. Everyone is a big buck expert. No one hunts deer anymore; they grow them, feed them and have 24-hour surveillance on them with the finest technologically, advanced gear, and gadgets on the market! That’s not me.  I don’t have a scent eliminating air conditioner, a scent proof closet worth over $600.00, or trail cameras texting me pictures! 
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​Don't get me wrong, I love technology; however, I have seen how something as simple as a trail camera has both helped and hindered me.  I found myself relying too much on a picture with a timestamp.  I trusted the camera that the deer were not showing until dark. I believed that there weren't deer in the area simply because they didn’t show up on camera. It wasn’t until I took a step back and returned to hunting basics, that I saw a change. I began to enjoy myself as much as when I was a kid and applied 15 years of experience to that same excitement and passion.
 
Success came when I looked at the bigger picture. If you are like I was, you would find an area that is tore up with sign. You hunt the first time and declare it an amazing location. You hunt it again and again, each time seeing less sign and less deer. You begin to get frustrated and blame the moon, mass crops, or the hunting pressure from hunters on neighboring properties. Sound familiar?
 
At this point, you know something has to change. You move trail cameras and wander through the same section of woods scratching your head. Yes, I’ve been here. The deer have us patterned. It’s time to move!

​Run and Gun may sound fast to people, like it’s a race to walk miles to discover far-away honey holes. It’s marketed as if you have to carry gear lighter than dental floss and ascend a tree in a matter of seconds. That’s not all true! Run and Gun can be slow and methodical. It can be planned or totally done on the fly! It's time to get back to the basics.  

One day, after leaving one of the same small pieces of private land, where I’ve consistently killed mature bucks, I stopped at the edge of the field. I needed a new perspective. I forced myself to sit down and look at the same topographic map that I’ve stared at one hundred times before. What was I missing?
 
I had to think like a deer. Where would I feel safe? Where would the average hunter not have the ambition to go? This led me to look beyond the property boundaries. Eventually, it led me to a piece of public land accessible only by kayak.

​With a fresh outlook, new research and scouting led me to the edge of a river. We tend to forget that deer swim. For a deer to plunge into a river and swim a few hundred yards is not out of the norm. I strapped my bow to my kayak and approached the island without a sound. It was then that I realized, the nearly impenetrably thicket would severely limit my shot opportunities. I’d have to be elevated in a tree.
 
I couldn’t find a way to strap a tree stand to the kayak and haul it through the undergrowth. This is when I began saddle hunting.  It became vital to simplify my gear. What is absolutely necessary to kill a deer from a tree, and how can I bring it all in and out with my kayak and carry it through the scrub?
 
I had to reevaluate my entire set up because this location didn’t allow for anything superfluous. The landscape was far too impenetrable to roll up with the duck boat and place 10 stands around the island. I also did not want to do this. This was an opportunity to move through the woods like a predator, not a herd of cattle. I had the chance to start fresh and be invisible.
 

​It was Veterans day, and it was the perfect morning to be hunting.  I slid my kayak out of the bed of my truck, stepped into my sling, strapped a set of Stepps and my backpack on the back and my bow to the front.  After a short paddle, I arrived at the shores of the thick jungle, threw my backpack on, slung the Stepps over my shoulder, and grabbed my bow without a sound.
 
It took 30 minutes to walk 100 yards as the brush grabbed at every inch of my clothing. I took my time and setting up in a scrubby oak only 12 feet off the ground.  Once the sun came up I knew this was the ticket. I could now shoot over the thick brush and actually see what was coming.  
 
This was only the second time I had stepped foot on this island and the first time in a tree.  The night before I visualized the scenario on repeat. I planned everything from wind direction to access time, from packing my gear into my kayak to setting up in the dark. I immediately began seeing deer the first morning.  A doe snuck by with a nice buck on her tail.  A few short grunts later and he was playing cat and mouse with me. It wasn’t long before a nice 8 pt. came looking for a fight. 

​Like all the “professionals” say on tv he wasn’t the biggest deer, but I was happy with him.  I don’t judge a good deer by his age or the size of his rack I judge it by the experience and the hunt itself.  This deer was the first legitimate deer I killed from a sling and the first deer on public land accessed by a kayak.  The hunt got even more interesting when I then realized this deer would not fit on or in my kayak, nor would I be able to carry or drag him out of this thick island.  I always carry contractor garbage bags for this reason! I deboned him and took his head just as if I was packing out an elk.  I did all I could to fit the meat in every square inch I had in the kayak and paddled back with 80 extra pounds than I had on the paddle in! 

 ​This hunt was more than a public land hunt.  It was the realization that hunting from a tree doesn’t have to mean setting up a tree stand in advance of the hunt. It was proof that scouting can be done while hunting.  Now, there is rarely just scouting or just hunting, I am always hunting.  I did not have trail cameras taking surveillance, no shooting lanes trimmed or preset stands. I trusted my gut instincts and just hunted! As corny as it may sound, I always think like a predator, as if I am a bobcat or coyote.  How often do you see a bobcat or coyote aimlessly walking with no care in the world and no interest in their surroundings?  That is how many hunters walk to their stands.  On the way to my stand, an arrow is always knocked, and I am alert.  The run and gun set up I have established allows me to carry everything I need on my back and around my waist. It allows me to climb any tree I see fit, without stopping to make adjustments, or reorganize.  To me there is no reason to go into the woods and scout during the hunting season without hunting, I just hunt. The first time in is always the best time so why spread your scent and give the deer a fair warning you are there and coming back!  Just Hunt!