Night time tripod use.

J

Jonny88

New member
Hey all! I've been night hunting for a few years and always shoot a few a year, this year [beeep] a friend was telling me how alot of guys use a standing tripod at night to see better. So I looked into it and use a tripod I have, it works good. Holds my gun by itself and everything, but I live in northern Wisconsin and hunt in the winter. I've found it extremely loud to walk around the tripod, so I bought a monocular scan device. It's better but if I have to swing my gun around because I see one off to the side its extremely loud. The question is do any guys stand in the snow, or should I go back to sitting?
Another guest on is coyotes sight, does standing effect that or would you recommend sitting on brighter night?
Thanks all
 
Snow with moon is tough. Pretty much gotta stand on an edge with trees or brush. Walking around a pod can be noisy. If it is like that I will cover one direction and my partner the other.
 
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I am absolutely in the minority, but I sit on 98% of my night stands. Crunchy snow can bust a hunter for sure. My partner and I had two coming straight in last night. They were on my side, so I told my partner to slide to my side. Granted it was a full moon, but as soon as he slid so he could join in the fun, the coyotes changed course and started quartering away from us. About 80% sure they heard him, or 20% chance, they saw his movement. This was noise occurring while we both were sitting.

When sitting, you don't have as much range to swing, so although you won't be moving your feet, you may be moving your tripod or your butt, so either way it is noisy.

I sit because I feel more stable for the shot, it is warmer, and my back and knees can't take standing on lots of stands a night. On top of this, I hunt some wide open areas, so on nights with more moon, it does help with concealment.
 
Me and my hunting partner here in Pa just added tripods into our night hunting April of 2019....and our success rate this season has more than tripled. The areas of mixed ag and woodlots here..throwing in nearby houses and small 15-40 acre fields makes a sitting set-up quite difficult at night. Yes we can do it..but are very limited with visibility/ safe shooting direction. Currently we can use only (red)lights for night hunting predators which makes it even harder.

We get some decent snow here along Lake Erie...and with thaw / freeze cycles makes walking to setup painstakingly slower ...we try to clear and much snow as possible and keep feet movement to minimum..and hand scan with lights...that's all we can really do. I loved the comfort of sitting..at times too much LOL..but even with the noisy snow, we prefer the tripods.
 
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