Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Stand height

MNbuckhunter said:
Not too hard to estimate when using 4' ladder sections...
Click to expand...

I agree with you but I wouldn't be surprised at all if some of the "I'm up 25 feet" guys were a bit off on their heights. It's easy to measure a fish with a tape measure too but we all know how that goes for some guys... :D
 
i move around a lot so i try to get 25-30 ft up to help with that. when the range finder hits 13 yards to ground then the anal leakage starts.
 
nwhawk said:
You 25-35 ft guys are nuts ;) no way could I sit that high haha
Click to expand...

This from the guy who once hung a stand for me that would've taken Olympic pole vaulting skills to get into, and then said "Yeah, it's a pretty easy stand to get into…" Damn thing was a widow maker :D

NWBuck
 
anyone ever calculate the geometry involved with skyscrapper stands and effective bow range? At a certain stand height you have to be engaging the law of diminishing returns.

**update - I put pen to paper and ran some numbers.
1. 15' stand @40yds is within 1foot (120.93ft)
2. 20' stand @40yds is 121.66ft
3. 25' stand @40yds is 122.58ft
4. 30' stand @40yds is 123.69ft
5. 35' stand @40yds is 125ft

So at 40yds the stand height between 15' and 35' is off a factor of approx 1yd on the higher stand...relatively moot, ergo my original statement has been invalidated.
 
Last edited:
My stands are safe cause I use safety lines. Because of the height, most of the time the line starts 6-10' off the ground (most are Muddy Safety lines but more folks make their own). I cut my lanes months before season and might go a little lower if hanging & hunting. My entrances and exits hitting the deer are generally exactly where I want them to be, for example, a deer out at 15 yards, it's NOTHING even close to entering at the back and coming on the bottom, it's far more flat of a shot than most would realize & the entrance & exits are at perfectly acceptable angles in almost anyone's mind I would imagine, few inches difference from one side to the other generally. I've heard the "well, you're shooting farther actually" all the way to "are you frigin nuts hunting that high, dude, aren't you scared out of your mind?!?!?!?!" I have no issues with any objections I've got from others. Again, could care less if you wanna hunt from a trench BELOW the ground or 2' off the ground. I'm just going to continue what has worked incredibly well for me since I started hunting high the 2nd or 3rd year hunting (after I got busted a lot as a kid and deer that were further away spotted me often & a whole lot of other reasons). I have killed deer with a bow off ground & on rare occasion will do ground hunting or hunt really low - incredibly rare though. I get nervous being too low - I guess the height helps with my confidence as well which is important to me.

Last - I can't tell you how many hunters & hikers have walked past me in my years up in the trees. Countless. I honestly don't think I've ever been spotted by a hunter or a hiker (yes, I hunted tons of "by permission ground" where others were out there all the time). People don't see me, deer rarely if ever do the head nod unless I'm being really stupid or sloppy (happens on rare occasions :) ) Have had 2 guys having conversation below me for at least 5 mins and had a shotgun hunter shoot at a squirrel in tree next to mine almost at same height during gun season even though I was wearing orange & did start screaming. He got a butt-chewing.
 
Last edited:
Most of our stands are 18'-22' off of the ground, with one that is about 5' higher which is primarily due to the tree itself having an irregular trunk in the height range we would normally use. I also try hard to select trees that have some sort of additional concealment due to the terrain and/or adjacent trees/foliage. We rarely get noticed at this height.

FWIW, I visited a prime southern Iowa farm this spring where a well known hunter spends his "tree time" every fall and I was very surprised to see how low many of his stands were. Several were no more than 8'-10' up and at least one was low enough that I could stand on the ground beneath the stand and stretch and touch the bottom of the platform. Now that's low!

All of these "low boys" though had excellent cover and/or additional concealment. Several were cut into cedars, which provided for very effective adjacent cover.
 
I like the 20ft range. I am sure at lower heights with plenty of cover you are fine, but I just felt like at 15ft whether it was just a perceived feeling or not, but I just felt like more deer "saw" me. Again, it probably had more to deal with concealment around me, but I have since sold all my 15ft ladders and went to pretty much hang-ons exclusively and have just one stand under 20ft currently. It is overlooking my clover plot and it is very thick with just one shooting lane directly in front of you.
 
I usually go as high as three lone wolf sticks, but I'm rethinking my habits after reading this. Last year I hunted a funnel/small valley and got busted several times when I didn't even move and the wind was favorable. I think another 5 ft would have been helpful, although avoiding being silhouetted is probably most important.
 
Mine are usually 15-20" depending on the tree, climber vs. ladder, cover available, etc. I have good cover around my ladder stands and even hang burlap around the shooting rails because I take my kids in a lot of 2 man ladder stands. Don't have problems getting spotted in any of them with decent cover. I do have one ladder that is out in the open right behind my house that I do get busted from some times. Just don't have any better spot to put it where I could still take my kids so I live with it. Mind you I have taken two 160" deer from this stand in a 5 year period, so I can't say it is too bad.
 
I was once taught to hang a stand as low as the tree will allow in order to not get busted. That has been as low as 9 feet and as high as 44 feet. Most of my stands are around 18-22 feet. It takes about 16 feet to remove yourself from a deers line of sight on flat terrain.
 
BJohnson said:
Most of mine are right around 18'. Checked the straps on one of the higher ones over the weekend (probably around 22-25') and I could sense the height variance. I am just a little more careful and uneasy at that height as I get older.

I have been going to more ladders lately and they are harder to find at anything above 16'. I put one in on Sat that was advertised at 17-1/2' but it's more like 15' to the platform.
Click to expand...
If it has a shooting rail, that is probably where they get the 17 1/2'.

Daver said:
Most of our stands are 18'-22' off of the ground, with one that is about 5' higher which is primarily due to the tree itself having an irregular trunk in the height range we would normally use. I also try hard to select trees that have some sort of additional concealment due to the terrain and/or adjacent trees/foliage. We rarely get noticed at this height.

FWIW, I visited a prime southern Iowa farm this spring where a well known hunter spends his "tree time" every fall and I was very surprised to see how low many of his stands were. Several were no more than 8'-10' up and at least one was low enough that I could stand on the ground beneath the stand and stretch and touch the bottom of the platform. Now that's low!

All of these "low boys" though had excellent cover and/or additional concealment. Several were cut into cedars, which provided for very effective adjacent cover.
Click to expand...
Yep, cedars are great for cover. My grandpa once had a doe at 3 yards while sitting back in the bottom branches on a bucket. She didn't know he was there until she was broadside to him, then turned and ran off. He was hunting with a crossbow and could have just pulled the trigger when it was on his lap.

My stands are usually 12' to 16' to the platform (using either 4 or 5 4' sections of climbing sticks and hanging stand so the platform is at the bottom of the last stick so I have a handle and can get above the platform before stepping onto it; or using a 16-17' ladder stand or tripod(see above regarding ladder stand measurements)). Once place I'd like to try a stand/tower, I'd be a whopping 5 1/2' off the ground. But this would be in the middle of some cedars looking through the "V" between the adjacent trees, with just chest, head, and hopefully upper half of my bow at full draw showing! I am trying to add more cover to some of my stands this year since they are "low".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom