How do you cope with spending x amount of hours in a hunting stand when there is no apparent action? For me, what I bring to the stand makes all the difference.

I have spent literally thousands of hours on my butt in various forests, waiting for game to appear. Usually I´ve been waiting for roe deer, moose or wild boar, but foxes are also welcome although they are more rare and much harder to spot. Some hunters just don´t have the patience to sit still for very long without any action, but I was brought up this way and I thoroughly enjoy it. Seriously: how can you not enjoy the fresh air and the sounds of tranquility in the forest?

One way of making sure I enjoy long hours in a stand is to bring plenty of coffee - I wouldn´t leave home without it! But you can also indulge yourself with equipment that simply puts a smile on your face. In the picture you´ll see two definite goodies: one is the Blaser K95 Luxus kipplauf chambered in 7x57R. This rifle is just a joy to use and sure beats any feeling you can get using a sad mass-produced bolt action with plastic stock. Sure, they are good but sooo dull. The K95 is a connoisseur´s choice and it really heightens any hunting experience to a new level, and the fact that they are real tack drivers sure helps too.

The other tool of excellence are the Swarovski Swarovision EL 10x42 binoculars. These binoculars are simply too good to be true! I´ve tried both the Swarovski SLC 7x42 and the SLC 8x56, and even though they are very very nice binoculars, the Swarovision sure excels! You just get happy by looking thru them and seeing the world in a totally new way. An added bonus is that the focusing distance is quite close which means that you can observe butterflies and other things with an image brilliance, clarity and color that must be experienced. It is simply breathtaking!

This is not meant to be an advertising kind of blog entry, but I just need to share my thoughts on this subject. With the right equipment, hunting becomes so much more fun. And it doesn´t need to cost an arm and a leg, although the example above is unfortunately not exactly a budget proposition. But you certainly get what you pay for.

PS. As you can see from the picture, I regularly "cheat" and bring game calls to increase my chances of success. In this case a Primos mouse squeak and a Buttolo roe deer call.