A tree stand is unnecessary at my place. I have a full width deck on the back of my house. With a daylight basement, the deck is one story up and commands a view stretching downhill about 200 feet. The hill out back used to be BT I-5 connecting the lower forest with the ridge that is forested on neighboring back yards. Since I landscaped and fenced (in self defense) my back yard, the hill remains a main thoroughfare, but there are a couple alternate "collector" route trails to my immediate north, leading into my neighbor's yard. So I get a lot of deer traffic.

I should get a game trail camera - oh, something for my X-mas list - for the entertainment. The trail along my fence line is so well used, I would probably be surprised by just how much traffic goes by while I'm sawing logs in bed.

That's an interesting theory Nick, that the 3-pt (I think there are 2 of them, but since I never see them together, I can't tell for sure) isn't the biggest big daddy out there. Last year a forkhorn had a harem of 5 does in the side yard. It would be fun to learn more about the local BT population.

I live near a large neighborhood association that has long been a no-shooting area. That's logical because there are probably a couple hundred homes. The mixed forest and yard land use creates tons of "edge" habitat favored by BT, so I think that accounts for so many deer around here. I noticed that the neighborhood assoc. this year adopted a "no hunting" policy, probably because someone reported a deer walking around with an arrow sticking out of it. I think the policy is mis-guided, and the deer might be out-stripping the available winter range. Of course I'm not sure of that. But there's far less forage available now and for the next 3 months, and it seems like the population could use some thinning by hunting. We have coyotes, but I never see any cougar sign, the most logical predator species.