What do you like to use for a deer stand? I look for 3 trees close together and build a platform with rails. I like to use 2x10s for rim joists and deck it with 2x4s. The rails will be arm pit high when sitting on a 5 gal bucket. Then there is another set of rails to be used for stand shots.
------------------ From my cold, dead hands! Thanks Chuck!
In Texas it is easy. I carry my hatchet and hack out the lower branches of a cedar tree. Makes a perfect ground blind and the cedar covers your scent. Twenty minutes and it is ready to go. I have had coyotes come within 10 yds. only to finally smell my scent on the ground where I walked in.
If I lived where there were tall straight trees, I think I would want one of those portable tree stands.
I use a BuckShot climber.This way I have the freedom to move it to other spots.They have serve me well over the years.You can get really high off the ground,if you have the right trees in your area.I throw it on the back of my four wheeler and of we go. 1geejay www.shooting-hunting.com
Hunting on the river I mostly use ground blinds. If you are in a tree all you see is more trees. I hunted in East Texas a couple years and a lot of hunters used the climbing stands. 40 feet up in a pine tree in a strong breeze will make you appreciate the ground.
Good luck and good shoting
Posts: 849 | Location: Between Doan's Crossing and Red River Station | Registered: 22 July 2001
Never seen one used here. The trees are more than tall enough, but as a rule in our western Oregon brush, it is not always so easy to find a place open enough to provide a decent shooting lane, and if you do it will be head-high brush in a couple of years. Most of the people I hunt with or around walk and stop as there only technique, and would not have the patients to sit still that long. Here, it is not dificult to get where the deer are, but to see them.
My favorite stand is on a large cottonwood that forks about 10' up. I just put a 2X6 joist on either side of the fork and put on 2X decking, a ladder, and about a chest high wall, which doubles as a rest. I also have a portable that I can move around as conditions dictate. I've gotten a deer with it set up against a telephone pole.
Posts: 196 | Location: MN, USA | Registered: 03 March 2002
A tree house like I used to build when I was a kid.
------------------ Doug Humbarger NRA Life member
Posts: 8352 | Location: Jennings Louisiana, Arkansas by way of Alabama by way of South Carloina by way of County Antrim Irland by way of Lanarkshire Scotland. | Registered: 02 November 2001
Well believe it or not I sit in the middle of an open field on the side of a hill. I watch the woodlines and other hill sides. Of course I get many deer run right past me often. I have found deer trails are deer trails even if they are in open fields. If you sit still enough it don't seem to matter.
I go out, sit down at the base of a tree so I have something to lean against, arrange my clothes so I and my revolver will stay warm, and wait for the deer to walk up a draw toward me. When they get nice and close, I shoot.
When I was more active, I'd use binoculars to glass the fields and if I saw deer feeding, I'd scamper from tree to tree to bush when they were busy with their heads down, until I was within revolver-range, usually 70 yards or less. Then I'd shoot them. Well actually, just one, to keep the game warden happy.
The trick is to avoid being seen. Dry leaves make a lot of noise, but if the hunter scampers right, he'll sound a lot like a squirrel scampering through the leaves and the deer will ignore the sound. Just don't scamper too far for too long.
We tend to use semi-permanent wooden lean-to highseats. These are basically a 10'-12'wooden ladder with a seat at the top. This seat has a shooting rail at the appropriate hight. These are tied or chain to a suitable tree as using nails is a big no-no with the forestry people over here.
Posts: 5684 | Location: North Wales UK | Registered: 22 May 2002
