Mid-July is a great time to get a jump on the upcoming fall hunting seasons.

From securing new property to hunt to making sure all of your equipment is ready for opening morning, we all have a huge list of projects to get done around the house before Mother Nature starts her annual shutdown. I have found a good break from the honey-do list — Yes darling, I will get the deck done before the leaves begin to fall this year — is to break out hunting gear and give it a once over to make sure it’s ready. Of course, it’s never a good thing to purchase new gear just before the hunt, so there is no better time than now.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get out and walk a couple pieces of possible new hunting ground. They did look just as good as all my maps had shown me, but there is nothing like getting out doing a little foot work to confirm what I had suspected.

On each piece of ground, I was looking for new setups and any sign of old stands. Taking in account wind direction months in advance, proper height, the right tree and tree diameter can be just a handful of things one needs to put together in a gameplan for the fall.

We all have our favorite areas. Whether you’ve found success at a certain hunting site, or you just simply love the view from a particular knob, it’s enough to keep you coming back. Factors like easy access, forgiving winds, being in the middle of picturesque country and a high success rate help cement that love affair.

Unfortunately, playing favorites can hinder your success rate and create hunting pressure. With repeated exposure to a specific area, wild game can pattern your actions.

Continuing to be successful in the fall woods and never giving up the freedom to enjoy your favorite hunting sites should be something we all strive for this coming season. Animals like whitetail deer that are focused on survival are acutely aware of their surroundings. Despite taking great precaution to eliminate scent, reduce noise and cloak your movements, you will undoubtedly leave evidence of your presence, like vehicle activity and residual scent.

It is no secret that using various access routes to hunting stands will avoid leaving scent trails. Also, accommodate changing wind conditions. Now is the time to map out your access routes and do any trimming that is allowed by the landowner.

The simplest answer to not getting busted, is your access trails should be a rotation of said trails, while it may not be the easiest depending on your property situation. In the perfect world, we should have at least two different points of access, but three for me is a minimum when I am targeting a big buck.

The same goes for the actual tree stand location itself. Attempt to have more than one stand location and use them intermediately or how the wind dictates.

To ensure the buck of a lifetime you’re pursuing can’t pattern you or your favorite vantage point, please consider changing it and playing the wind this fall. Work hard to secure another location or two so you can rotate between them. We have been using the one-three approach for many seasons now and it works.

The one-three approach, is quite simply, hunt a stand for a day then let it sit for three days. Visit the different properties on a rotational schedule or simply based on what site works best for the day’s wind.

In certain areas, hunters are forced to park at marked access spots or gates, causing wildlife to pattern the hunting flow going to and from these areas. Find at least two routes — if not more — in and out of your favorite spot.

If you must hunt the same area over and over again, vary the sounds you use to call animals. Vary the use of decoys. You can mix up the approach too. For instance, instead of calling or using decoys, go old school, climb into your stand and sit quietly.

There’s nothing wrong with playing favorites, unless you do it with such frequency that every wild animal in the area knows your playbook. Mix it up, and your success will increase.

For years, I have been a huge fan of not over hunting a stand for more than two settings — one day/morning and afternoon or afternoon and morning, equals one set. Keeping these flexible different locations will do many things for your season.

Of course, stand locations have to be huntable in regards to the travel patterns and stand location. This is tough when we are hanging stands in July and August. I use the general rule, if you have a travel trail that is going to be affected by summer winds, then do just the opposite, because the wind will be 180 degrees opposite in the fall. Do your homework and understand the prevailing wind during the times you are hunting that stand.

So, you have chosen a good spot, you have a stand in the perfect tree, but if a deer walks by can you make the shot? Take the time to trim some shooting lanes or windows where you can sneak an arrow through. Often you can do everything right and have a buck pass within easy range, but you can’t get a clear shot. An extendable pole-pruner is the best tool for clearing arrow deflecting brush.

On the other hand, a mature buck may notice a lot of cutting and things that are out of place or disturbed. I believe they will react more negatively to foreign scent at the site than something simply out of place, but I’m always conscious of either.

Wear clean rubber boots and gloves when trimming lanes to reduce scent transfer. Many hunters put off using this extremely effective scent-elimination spray until just before the actual hunt. However, if you deposited human scent at the site when setting up or trimming branches and the buck you’re after shows up before you hunt, I promise you won’t see that deer from that tree for quite some time unless it’s a fluke. Every time you touch something — a tree, branch, weed, anything — it’s like you’re “pushing” your scent into that object, and it’s especially obvious to a sense of smell we can only imagine.

I can’t tell you how many monster buck encounters I’ve had in my mind’s eye. I believe visualizing big bucks approaching your site in your mind’s eye helps you to react much more like a robot when the real thing happens. No matter where I’m hunting, from the ground or from a tree stand, I like to envision big bucks approaching my site. I find that when a record-book buck is closing the distance, it helps me to react more clearly. When my leg is shaking and my heart is about to explode out of my chest from excitement, it makes it much easier to get the job done and “arrow in the boilermaker.”

This positive mental attitude extends further. Visualizing might help on slow days. When I was young and stupid, I would get impatient and disappointed if I wasn’t seeing a lot of deer. The Guides’ Guide taught me the lesson, “it only takes one.” Seeing loads of does, fawns and young bucks really doesn’t matter if I’m not hunting for them. It’s that one buck I’m after that matters. The positive mental picture helps you to keep alert and want to put in the time.

Remember, there is nothing wrong with a ground blind, when done properly. When in pursuit of whitetails, however, you’ll need to set the blind well in advance of the hunt or you’ll need to “brush it in” and camouflage it to blend-in with the surroundings. A turkey will walk right up to a newly placed blind in the middle of an open field, but a whitetail is much leerier. Blinds have some advantages that tree stands don’t; there aren’t any severe shooting angles, your scent stays somewhat confined in the blind, and you can use one pretty much anywhere.

I trust you all understand what’s necessary for tree safety and using a safety harness. It’s sad that every article or video done about hunting from a tree stand has to have some sort of mention or disclaimer about it. In my view, that’s wasted space because we should all be smarter than that. It should be obvious.

More whitetails are harvested while using tree stands than by any other method. If you choose a stand that you feel safe in and use basic tree stand rules, you’ll be on your way to harvesting more deer, bigger bucks and maybe that trophy of a lifetime.

Now is the time to begin getting prepared for the fall, don’t be that guy or gal who waits until the last minute and complains about not seeing game when everybody else is tagging out, because they did their homework and got jump on the season months before it began.