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I received my new Lonewolf climbing treestand in the mail last week and was very anxious to try out this new piece of engineering. I decided to come down to St. Cloud and hunt some of the old stompin' ground for the weekend. Since I moved to Bemidji a friend of mine has been nice enough to hunt my area for me. They got a nice 7 pt. basket and a very nice 8 pt. with a 19 inch spread out of the stands I hunt. The latter was 230 lbs dressed by the way.

I got into the woods at 2:00 p.m. and climbed my tree of choice with the new climber. Wow, this stand is fast, silent, light weight and has the smallest profile when strapped to my back. Less than 20 pounds by the way. I was 25' up in my tree in less than 5 minutes.

The weather was a light mist, 50 degrees and a SE wind. I sat until about 6:00 with no action. At 6:15 I looked over and an 8 pt. was working into my Wildlife Research Center Trails End #307 scent formula. He came right under my stand and offered a perfect shot. I drew back and took one last look at the rack before deciding to let him walk (nice buck, but still immature). Boy did that take some discipline. I thought of the big boy my friend had shot 10 days prior and knew that I wouldn't get my chance at a buck like that shooting basket racks.

Ten minutes later I saw movement coming from the same direction. It was another 8 pt. of the same caliber. To make along story short I let him walk as well.

My hunt did not end with me bagging a buck, but I still consider it a great success. Having shot opportunities on two 8's is great! Maybe they will be around next year.

By the way, I was also doing some rattling with my rattle bag.

I think that the moral of my story is that a successful hunt does not always result in a harvest. My success on this hunt was do to my low impact stand setup (thanks to my Lonewolf sit and climb) and scent control.

Let the small ones grow for another days harvest and shoot a skinhead if meat is what you are after.

Nathan "HogEye" Kestner
JustNorth Outdoor Columnist