whats the best stand Type on average?
Are ladder stands best for safety?I know they can be quiet to get in and out.
Whats the lowest you will hunt out of a stand?Anyone ever fall out or drop the bottom platform and get stuck up a tree?My state has many accidents every year from stands.........Always wear a safety belt please.
I still have a old warren and sweat climber but havent used it in several years,Hate makeing all that noise,Thinking about getting a ladder stand this season,any suggestions on a nice safe ladder stand?One as good as the other?
I allways have better luck if i just sit still in a stand -instead of tracking all over the woods on foot!Most times hunting on foot all i ever see is the white flagg as the buck runs away because he spotted me first,oldtimers say around the campfire-Thats why they got the name whitetail,cause thats all you ever see of them!Plus you cant sneek up on a old buck in dry crunchy leaves!Better to take a stand and be still!
Ever sit in a stand all day?
What extras do you take to your stand?Food, water,coffee thermos,pee bottle,binos,portable tv for football game?
Ever shoot a buck you would not have got without a stand?

blackbearhunter,

Ladder or tower stands are virtualy the only type of stands used here in the UK or Europe for that matter. We are seeing a couple of climbers being advertised, but I don't know anyone who has bought one..

As an observation from reading various American magazines and these forums, I would say the average stand hunter in the States wants to get far higher than we do...I would guess most folks who use climbers seem to aim to get at least 15' high, with 20' and higher not being unusual. In the UK, most ladder stands put the seat of the ladder 9' to 10' off the ground...the taller ones go 12' and the shorter ones only 8'...All these stands work fine for us providing you stick to the usual rules ie they are located correctly and you don't move about in them ect..

Although I suspect that American deer are subjected to more hunting pressure and are perhaps better "educated", many folks still take deer from ground blinds, so I would say that a 10' or 12' ladder stand should still work..

The advantage of these is that they can be relatively portable..some 9' models fold very compact and come in at under 30lbs..Put them up in one spot for a few days and then move them..just make sure you chain them to the tree though!

Regards,

Pete

I use climbing stands because of their ease of transport. I have found that the tree lounge is by far the most comfortable stand i have ever been in. The main draw back is that it is a little heavy, i bring it in to an area before opening day and use it for only 1 to 3 days at the start of rifle. After that i still hunt because most deer are out of their normal routines due to all the human traffic in the woods.

For bow hunting i use a summit broadhead stand, its light, and easy to set up so i pack it in and out. For bow hunting i try to get at least 15 feet up but prefer 20plus feet. For gun any where from 12' and up is o.k.

I always bring a pee bottle and thats it, i dont eat while in the woods. Wheter its all day for gun or bow i just dont get hungry and i never have to crap. I guess its my metabolism but it makes it easier than packing food and toilet paper and stinking up the woods.

The stands are great in the really thick stuff that whitetails and black bear love to travel and bed in. You can see down into the tangle and usually the animals are not spooked by my presence.

Blackbearhunter, I would say the type of stand that is best would depend on the hunting area, i.e. terrain, forest canopy (or lack thereof) ground cover etc. You are sure right that it is great to use a ladder type to get in and out quietely, mine are also very comnfortable.

I use a portable a fair amount, a Summit Viper XLS and a couple of other Summits. On our land I'll leave a portable attached to the base of a given tree and just walk in and out and climb, without the attaching to the tree process.

I always take something to drink, at least--usually some Gatorade. Occassionally when hunting in a box type stand (ladder or not) I will bring something to munch on--usually something that doesn't crunch, some pop-tarts or chewy granola or even a sandwich/doughnut.

I've sat for the whole day 10 or 12 times, definitely had some grub then--wish I had fgulla's metabolism or whatever.

In closing, I will admit to a climbing treestand accident when I was younger. I was not inexperienced--I was coming down after having shot a pretty large spike with my bow on a management hunt, and I 'set in' my climbing portion of my stand -unknowingly- on a knot on the tree......
When I took the handclimber off of the tree to lower it and begin the next movement down, which is when you have your total weight on the bottom platform, the knot gave way and the stand bottom went plummeting down about 20 feet before it re-engaged with the tree...

The hand climber part stayed up there at about 30 feet and when the bottom platform set back into the tree, one of my legs blew right through the bottom between two of the 'bars' on the platform. Fortunately my hunting partner was pretty close to me and he heard the ruckus, I don't know how I would have gotten down the final 14-16 feet without him. I had to grasp the outside of the stand with my inner calves and he would pull on my bow pull up rope (which was fortunately tied to the end of the stand farthest from the tree) and thereby re-set the platform into the tree, as I grasped the tree.

And yes, those heights are right, I was hunting on the side of a hill, so getting very high was necessary, my pull-up rope is 45 feet long and my bow was swinging off the ground for the last 3 or 4 'pulls' on the way up.

When I first began to fall, instinct took over and I grabbed the hell out of the tree, which was evident that I was clinging to it pretty tight, as the entire left side of my face was ground off by Hickory bark burn! The inside of my thigh that went through the base platform had a brutal bruise on it, but other than a heart rate that went to about 300 for an hour or so, I wasn't severely injured. I'll say one thing, the guys in camp sure laughed their asses off at me, and had a lot of fun putting mercurochrome on my face!

I always wear a safety belt, and even have learned to climb with one attached to the tree or handclimber now.

I sure agree with you, for whitetails at least, the stand is a significant advantage.

quote:

ocmullgee swamp

Blackbear hunter, I use and like the two man stand made by Gorilla stands. I take everything for 12-14 hours of sitting, including a "piddle bag" to take a leak in. Where I hunt, I can leave the stand up year 'round, so once it's up, I don't have to worry about it.

FALLS: last December, while working here at home, I fell twenty feet. Luckily, I landed proned out, with my arm extended, and got my rib cage busted up pretty bad, but no spinal cord injury or head injury.

You do not want to be alone hunting and take a hard fall. If My wife wasn't close by to give me mouth to mouth, and call the rescue squad, I probably wouldn't be writing this.
Whatever you decide on, be careful!

Best regards, River Rat 1969

I normally hunt from treestands which a bunch of us built, but they are all wood, about 20' tall. I'd really like to get something in the 10' range that would be nice and portable, something I can set up a few days before and just chain/padlock to the tree. Close shots from 20' up are a reall pain. All I need is a padded seat or a seat I can throw a pillow on, and maybe something I can hang a small pack off of for my binocs and some granola bars and a bottle of water and small coffee thermos, compass, map, knife, and so forth.

Blackbearhuter. I have been building my own climbing stand since 1986. Have had one incident with it and that was my fault, I knew better than to climbe a sycamore without sharpening the rails. No injury, just got a quick reminder. Have used ladders, towers, climbers, and tent-ground blinds. Fish30114 put it into perspective, depends on the area you are hunting. I am partial to the climber and have used it from 10 ft to 30 feet (ALWAYS wear a safety harness) have fallen asleeep in them, once decided to adjust position of V rail and dropped the wingnut (Left the rifle in the tree hanging from my safety strap, dropped down, retrieved the nut, knocked the foot climber down, reassembled all, climbed back up, strapped in and killed a 4 point about 15 minutes later. Took one very large spike with 45 seconds of reaching the height I wanted. Spent more time gutting the deer than I did in my climber. Have harvested deer because I was in a climber and have missed because I was in a climber. Reason I build my own, I have a hearing loss and open type hang-on or climbers give me the willies..feels like the treee is moving, have to have something around me.
Food stuffs; I always carry something (partial to cut up apples to help cover my breath, and I take a good paperback when in the climber, keeps me awake.

For rifle hunting I use a Tree Lounge I don't think you can beat it for comfort and with a rifle I go fairly high 30-45 ft. For bow hunting I use fixed stands with ladder sticks but I never get above 15 ft. I don't like the angle of penetration the arrow has if I go higher. It is hard to get both lungs.

The last couple years I've used the API Grand Slam climbing stand.You could sit in this stand all day fairly easy.It has chains that grip the tree instead of cables that make it very stable.
I take some water,apples and had candy.