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Treestand Suggestions?
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Picture of bulldog563
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Which is the best treestand out at the moment?

What is the difference between Hang On Stands and Climbing Stands?

Any website you could refer me to in order to learn more about the different types and/or treestands in general?

Any other info appreciated.
 
Posts: 2153 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 23 October 2005Reply With Quote
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Picture of Boss Kongoni
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Start here: http://www.lonewolfstands.com/products.asp

I've had thier climbing stick for 5 seasons. Light wt & very good quality, easy to use.

I hunt in areas were a hang-on is the better choice. When I need another stand it willbe a lone wolf.


If you can't smell his breath, your're not close enough!

 
Posts: 980 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 04 January 2003Reply With Quote
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Picture of Reloader
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Summit has the best stands on the market IMO. I've tried Gorilla, Ameristep, Hunters View, Strongbuilt, Buck shot, API, and others and none compared to a Summit.

I think I currently own 9 climbers and 5 or 6 fixed position stands. That doesn't account for all of the homemade wooden fixed stands I have.

As to climbers vs tree stands, climbers are more compact, more portable, and far easier to set-up than fixed stands. The drawback is that climbers are loud while climbing. If you are placing a stand in a location for a long period of time, the fixed stands are hard to beat but, if you want to be mobile and move alot, climbers are nice.

Also in many states the timber just doesn't suit a climber. Here in North La. the trees are tall and straight in many areas so climbers work well. When I hunted Iowa last season, I took both and had to use the fixed stand because the trees were not climable.

Good Luck

Reloader
 
Posts: 4146 | Location: North Louisiana | Registered: 18 February 2004Reply With Quote
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Picture of BBTURTLE
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Best? It depends on your situation I would suppose. I use a climbing stick with a lock on in some cases that the tree dictates. I use a ladder stand when the tree is too wide for a climber. I use a tower when there are no trees to support either one of those. My most affective a favorite is a climber. It gives the flexibility too move if you set up wrong (I do that quite allot). If you guide you need to pick something that the client can handle and is comfortable with(not easy). I will say that a “ladder setup works great too. This is a “corn field set†as we call it. Simply take a step ladder or two and make a stand in the middle of a range field. This works! Great I might add.
Good luck and scout before a stand.

Back To The Stove
Turtle Cool


Speed kills
cave canum
Cat- The other white meat
 
Posts: 1115 | Location: SE PA | Registered: 29 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Well I might have to disagree with Reloader on this one. If you had ask me a year or so ago I would have said Summit also or maybe API. Both had their advantages and disadvantages over one another. The API you could put on trees much bigger than the Summit, and the platform had more room and in my opinion was a much better stand for the Bowhunter. Course the Summit was easier to pack in and setup and climbed a little better than the API.

But now that the Buckshot Equalizer has come, out all bets are off on Summit or API as for being the best Treestands.

The best thing I can tell you to do is go to their website and download their video and you will see what I mean!!!

Buckshot Equalizer Treestands
 
Posts: 11761 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 26 November 2002Reply With Quote
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Picture of BBTURTLE
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Interesting take chopper but that was really not that question. It is not the make but what the best is. In bow hunting you have to make do with what you have…. Right? WEB sites are all over the place and if I had my choice of my stand it would be the Ol' Man stands but they must have been sewed out the yingyang to drop that line. I again say its not the make but the “bestâ€.

Back To The Stove
Turtle Cool


Speed kills
cave canum
Cat- The other white meat
 
Posts: 1115 | Location: SE PA | Registered: 29 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Picture of Boss Kongoni
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Good points.

It does also depend on where & how tyou hunt.

On publicland you typically CAN NOT do much if any trimming. Many times you need to go in set up(pre-dawn) hunt the same day...and in some cases pull your stand that day.

If your packing in a stand vs. using an ATV or truck.....every pound counts. Aluminum is the answer. However, when cold it's a bit squeeky.

For season long stand placement on privatwe land the ladder stand is a great answer.

I use an old pc. of carpet padding foam to stand on in the astand. It really helps keep the noise down. I grab scraps from dumpsters in summer and leave them in the shed. They have lost all noticible scent in a few months.


If you can't smell his breath, your're not close enough!

 
Posts: 980 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 04 January 2003Reply With Quote
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Well BBTURTLE I got “4 Ol' Man stands - all retired nowâ€, “2 Summits - all retired nowâ€, “3 API’s - all retired nowâ€, “2 old Buckshots - all retired now†even some old Baker slip-o-matic, and a number of others. Then there's the one “Buckshot Equalizer Treestandâ€, possibly the last treestand I will every buy, unless I get a hankering for a spare!!!

Get the picture??? jumping

I do understand he is asking about hangons v climbers, and there are places where hangons are Ideal but if you don’t have the time to setup most hangon are more trouble than they are worth.

He lives in Northern California so I wouldn’t think he would have much trouble finding a tree to climb with a climber.
 
Posts: 11761 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 26 November 2002Reply With Quote
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Picture of Boss Kongoni
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quote:
but if you don’t have the time to setup most hangon are more trouble than they are worth.


I think that just depends on one's experience. Like anything with experience one can set up pretty fast.


If you can't smell his breath, your're not close enough!

 
Posts: 980 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 04 January 2003Reply With Quote
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Picture of bulldog563
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I looked at the Buckshot and it looks to be an excellent stand. I hadn't heard of that one before.

Thanks everyone for all the info. Keep it comin if you have more to say.
 
Posts: 2153 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 23 October 2005Reply With Quote
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Picture of ManCannon
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I just bought a Summit... Very nice!!!


"The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country." - J. Robert Oppenheimer
 
Posts: 385 | Location: Midwestern Corn Desert | Registered: 13 November 2003Reply With Quote
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Picture of Reloader
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Chopper,

I saw one of those equalizers at a close-out sale down in South La for a good deal, I believe it was $120 they were asking. After the hurricane they decided to get out of the hunting business and only sell nothing but, sporting goods and fishing equip. I guess I should have bought it, I could have probably made even if I didn't like it.

Reloader
 
Posts: 4146 | Location: North Louisiana | Registered: 18 February 2004Reply With Quote
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I have 5 climbers.

Modified Buckshot Bigshots are the ones I like best. (modified to weigh 20pounds).

My favorite is a prototype bigshot, made over 20yrs ago before the company started. Still use it the most.

Setting up a hanger is the most dangerous thing you're likely to do this year.
 
Posts: 3167 | Location: out behind the barn | Registered: 22 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Some of the most unstable platforms I ever crawled my butt up in were hangon. And then there are the steps or ladder you have to lug in. You got to get up that tree some how!!!

Don’t get me wrong here, there are some places that only a hangon will work but in the hardwood, pine, mixed woods down south finding a tree for a climber just ain’t that hard.

Early in my hunting life I tried the Lockons, Back then you just about had to be trapezes monkey to get one up the tree, and then get in the thing. Man there has been some scary stuff put out for hunters to play in trees with over the years. I decided right off the bat it I was going to use a lockon type stand I would have to build them myself. Believe it or not the best lockon is a modifyed bottom climber of a Climbing stand that you attach a swingup seat on. Or just climb up the tree the way you would with a lockon and place the Climber on the tree.

Most of the time for bowhunting I try to get up a tree just below the canopy Line of the forest I’m in. Some times that’s 12 feet, and some times that’s 15 to 20 feet. Most gun hunting around here is done after the leaves fall and I may climb 20 to 30 feet. That just ain’t practical with a Lockon.
 
Posts: 11761 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 26 November 2002Reply With Quote
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Picture of Boss Kongoni
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Chopper - You got it pretty sweet down there. Smiler

I hunt hedge rows & edges of red & white oak savanna in Northern Ill. Some bottoms too.

I've got to deal with 200+ yr. old oaks with 4-5' diameter trunks or or junk wood growing at an angle.

I hike in everyware so if it ain't light & moble, it don't hunt.

Yes, there is saome spooky junk out there for us to waste money on. I went through several climbing sticks before I bought these Lone Wolf steps.

I lost my last farm lease to developers & civilized "Progress" a few years ago. For now, it's public land or stay home & work on the honey doo list. Eeker


If you can't smell his breath, your're not close enough!

 
Posts: 980 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 04 January 2003Reply With Quote
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Boss Kongoni I feel your pain thumb

I got one place I hunt that’s about 500 acres of old growth hardwood swamp and most of the trees are 30 to 48 inches in diameter. Here I found a ground blind is about as effective as a treestand.

I also have a lightweight ladder stand that’s made out of lightweight tube that’s only 6 foot in height but has a 48†x48†platform. The whole thing can be broke down into a pack-in size, and once I assemble it and place it, I have camouflage netting that goes around it and makes it like a box stand.

The 6-foot in height is to just get a little elevation. I’ve got three or four of these in the woods close to where I hunt so I can move them around for hunting and by them being there all the time the deer kind of get use to their presents.

One thing I found out early about Ladder stands is you must move them often because the deer will avoid them if their on a trail after a few days. Often you don’t have to move them but a few hundred yards and you will start seeing deer again, often the ones that were avoiding the Ladder stand in the first place.

Truthfully thou, we transport most of our gear down south on a fourwheeler close to location, so weight isn’t the major factor. Often after a morning hunt we will move stand location, go out and eat lunch and then hunt the new location that afternoon and maybe the next morning.

With a four month long season we do a little more prep work on things like food plots and permanent type stands. Some even have heaters, easy chairs, propane refrigerators, and TV’s to watch Nascar and the football games.

Course you know how Rednecks enjoy Comfort!!! jumping

 
Posts: 11761 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 26 November 2002Reply With Quote
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Picture of BBTURTLE
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quote:
Well BBTURTLE I got “4 Ol' Man stands - all retired nowâ€, “2 Summits - all retired nowâ€, “3 API’s - all retired nowâ€, “2 old Buckshots - all retired now†even some old Baker slip-o-matic, and a number of others. Then there's the one “Buckshot Equalizer Treestandâ€, possibly the last treestand I will every buy, unless I get a hankering for a spare!!!

Well? What do you say Confused It is about how and where you hunt.
I have more stnds than you can think of and all have the place in the grounds thumb
Make yor choice and go with it.
Back To The Stove
Turtle Cool


Speed kills
cave canum
Cat- The other white meat
 
Posts: 1115 | Location: SE PA | Registered: 29 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Best out at the moment? I haven't tried all of them, but for bow hunting I like the Equalizer best because you sit above all the parts and have a relatively comfortable seat. Not as comfortable as Summit and API but better than Lone Wolf Hand Climber and all the loc-ons I've used. Been using them since before they were commercially made..back when we used pole climbers to get up and down trees and to hang them.
The Equalizer is a little on the heavy side is my only complaint with it..and that's because of the seat they use.
The old Loc-on brand loc-ons were some of the easiest stands to hang..and getting up and down a tree with todays climbers is as quiet as you want to make it. Have had plenty of game walk up while climbing up and down. I have Lone Wolf, API, Summits also along with some hang-ons. In my opinion they have their own good qualities.
 
Posts: 239 | Registered: 23 May 2005Reply With Quote
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Picture of Eland Slayer
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In my opinion, the best stands on the market for bowhunting are made by Key Hunting Products. They are also reasonable. We use their lock on's, ladder stands, and also their "quad pods" (like a tripod but with 4 legs instead of 3). All of their stands have seats that swivel 360 degrees so you can shoot comfortably in any direction while sitting down. Also, the quad pod has adjustable legs that make it easy to put the stand on the side of a hill and still have a level platform. This is ideal for hunting in South Texas and the Texas Hill Country, where we do most of our hunting.


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Posts: 3106 | Location: Hockley, TX | Registered: 01 October 2005Reply With Quote
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I personally like ladder stands (Grizzly is the manufacturer of the ones I presently own), but regardless of the stand used, ALWAYS keep yourself tied to the tree going up, going down, and while hunting. A full body harness is recommended that will keep you upright in the event of a fall. The Fall Guy Retractor is an excellent safety device that will keep you tethered to the tree and provide security while climbing and descending.
 
Posts: 55 | Registered: 12 August 2005Reply With Quote
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