By Alex Comstock
Have you ever been up in your treestand and had something clank against metal, and it just made you cringe? Let me tell you one thing, those noises you make in the stand, and on the way into the stand matter. And there's a way to help prevent it as well.
Earlier in the year, I had a friend up to hunt with me for a weekend. He goes to the extreme when it comes to his stealth, and at first one might think he is a little too extreme, but the results he yields shows it's worth. He hunted with me in the same area I was hunting, and had been hunting all year, yet for the couple days he was here, he would consistently see more deer than me, shooter bucks included. What was I doing that he wasn't?
The answer could be a combination of things, but the easiest to point out, was his gear was silent, and mine was not. He had his lone wolf stand, sticks, even the zippers on his backpack all taped with hockey tape. His gear didn't make a sound. There was no worrying about metal to metal contact with any of his gear whatsoever, and I think it made a sizable difference.
So what can you do to silence your gear? Wrap it in hockey tape, or electrical tape, something along those lines that will eliminate the metal to metal contact, and deaden the noise. I've now wrapped any metal on my harness in electrical tape, parts of my camera arm, zippers, and I will wrap a designated stand and sticks for a run and gun setup. Not having those metal to metal contact points greatly helps in being able to stay as silent as possible.
Being quiet is important. There isn't anything much worse than trying to sneak into an area, be halfway up a tree while hanging a stand, and having your stand brush up against a climbing stick, and alert seemingly every deer in the county. Wrapping and silencing your gear won't take much effort or time, but it will be well worth it to take those few minutes and dollars, it could just be the deciding factor on whether you eat tag soup, or send an arrow through a mature buck.
