How to Name, Tag and Map Your Club’s Deer Stands
By Cisco Sanchez · Updated
Give every stand a short code that tells you roughly where it is, put a tag with that code on the stand itself, and record its exact location, type, height, the winds it hunts and how to walk in. A club whose stands are named, tagged and mapped this way can book them, find them in the dark, and keep track of their repairs.
Use a naming scheme, not nicknames
“The big oak” means something different to every member. A short code that combines an area with a number — RDG07 on the ridge, CRK04 by the creek — tells a member roughly where a stand is before they have looked at a map, and leaves room to add stands without renumbering. Keep a friendly name too, like Oak Ridge Ladder, but book and sign in by the code.
Put a tag on the stand itself
Mark the code on the stand where a member sees it as they climb: a weatherproof placard on the ladder or the blind door. Stands that look alike on a map can be close together, and in the dark the tag is how a member knows they are in the stand they booked.
A QR code on the tag lets a phone confirm the stand automatically. Print the code under the QR as well, so a torn or iced-over tag can still be read.
Record what a member needs to choose a stand
For each stand, keep:
- Its exact location, placed on an aerial or topographic map.
- The type — ladder, hang-on, tripod, box blind — and the height.
- How many seats it has.
- The winds it hunts, as compass directions.
- How to get in: where to park and which trail to walk so you do not cross the area you are hunting.
Record the winds honestly
The winds a stand hunts are the most useful thing you can write down about it, and the easiest to get wrong. Record the directions that carry your scent away from where deer approach, not the directions that are merely comfortable. A stand with no wind recorded should be treated as unknown, not as good on any wind.
Keep the inventory alive
Stands move, get damaged and get pulled. Make it easy for any member to report a problem with a specific stand, take unsafe stands out of use until they are repaired, and update the map the same day a stand is added or removed. An inventory that is a season out of date is worse than none, because members trust it.
How Back by Dark keeps your stand inventory
In the Back by Dark web console, a manager places each stand on satellite, USGS aerial or topographic maps and records its code, name, type, height, seats, access notes and the winds it hunts. The console prints a QR tag for every stand with a typed backup code underneath, and can issue a replacement that retires the old one. Members see the same stands on their phones, with today’s wind checked against each, and report problems that go straight to the club’s upkeep list.
See how Back by Dark works