Okay, this goes against the grain for me but....

[Hermit Tim]

I decided that I was too old for tree stands a few years ago. I have used tent type stands since coming down out of the trees, with some success. The tent blinds are great for rainy days and days with a lot of wet snow fall. Towards the end of last season I gave Ghost blinds a try. Ghost blinds are like mirrors that reflect what's in front of them. The Ghost blinds seem to have promise but I think where they are set up and being still is key to success.
As much as manufactured ground blinds are fun and offer some degree of comfort, I have been more successful just hiding in natural cover and sitting very still.
When I did use various types of tree stands, I seldom climbed up more than15/16 feet. Again, being very still on stand was key to success. But, the older I get the harder staying still and quiet gets to be.
Getting old offers many new challenges, it is harder to sit still, harder to see gun sights, harder to drag out deer after the kill and sometimes just damn cold. But come November, there's nothing I would rather do than hunt.

Don't forget having to pee alot more than thirty years ago.

 

[TDM]

My experience has been that it’s not the type of stand or how high it is, but how long it’s been there. Deer notice new things, just like you would in your own house. Best to build or erect a couple of new stands and let them sit for the season, next year they’ll just be part of the scenery.

 

[ETipp]

You don’t have to get real high. I’ve killed a bunch of deer with a bow out of stands as low as 12’. Never over 16’. Good background cover and no fast movements are most important. I did try to set up so that the deer were most likely to be downhill of me in really steep country.

Downhill is an asset. Some of the country I hunt I can be at my preferred height up in a tree to where it looks like I'm 50 feet up on the downhill side. But when I look behind me the deer and/or trails are above me.

However, being a hardcore bowhunter 40 years now I have proven that in the mountainous terrain tree stand height does matter. And a lot, too. Flatlands, not so much as the winds are fairly consistent. I am not referring to being spotted. Its all about scent control. No one knows this better than a well seasoned bowhunter.

In the mountains there are often breeze changes from one minute to the next. Scent goes up and down, swirls around, and from every direction. I used to attach a piece of thread to my bows to detect wind changes and I learned real fast like that it can and does change more than 180*.

Ever since I learned to climb higher, I have not been busted the first time. Not once in many, many, years. I do scent control and I wear camo. Always have. My late dad would only climb to about 15 feet or so and was always complaining of being busted by deer noses.

I think 16 feet is doable in the location I have put this new to me ladder stand, but I don't like it being so low. Time will tell I reckon as bow season opens in one week. ML season doesn't open until Oct 16th.

One thing is for sure. I shouldn't be climbing right now with such a bum knee. Not to mention some other health issues. But I absolutely love being mobile with a climber and following the deer around as they change what acorn trees they eat under.

 

[ETipp]

Don't forget having to pee alot more than thirty years ago.

I carry a pee jug in my day pack for just that reason.

 

[ETipp]

My experience has been that it’s not the type of stand or how high it is, but how long it’s been there. Deer notice new things, just like you would in your own house. Best to build or erect a couple of new stands and let them sit for the season, next year they’ll just be part of the scenery.

True, TDM. Which is another reason why I much prefer a climber and get up higher. They never know I'm there.

However, I have used ground blinds that I erected one day and killed deer out of the next day.

I would really like to have this ladder stand over at another happy hunting grounds but its just too far in there and too darn difficult to put up, especially by oneself. So its either going to be a climber or a ground blind over there for the up coming ML season.

It likes to rain here during the fall, especially during the crazy orange army season so I have learned to like ground blinds in that aspect. I fully plan on hunting with my ML during this coming crazy, orange army season if I'm not tagged out by then.

 

[Jay Templin]

In the woods here in Tidewater Virginia, I’ve taken all of my deer from 16-20 foot stands, home built and store bought. I’ve done right much hunting from the ground (how I came up in the Adirondacks) and a climber, and seen plenty of deer in both circumstances, but my luck seems to live up a ladder.
Jay

 

[Jay Templin]

In the woods here in Tidewater Virginia, I’ve taken all of my deer from 16-20 foot stands, home built and store bought. I’ve done right much hunting from the ground (how I came up in the Adirondacks) and a climber, and seen plenty of deer in both circumstances, but my luck seems to live up a ladder.
Jay

 

[longcruise]

I actually peed on a cow moose from my stand that was only about 12 feet off the ground. They just don't look up. I know this sounds like a BS story but it's true.

Not surprising that you were able to do that but on the other hand, WHY!!!

 

[Thingamajiggy]

Like you, my younger years saw me using climbing stands exclusively so that I can follow the deer. Now I mostly only use ladder stands and ground blinds and still find myself successful. Here in PA, we have mixed hardwood and coniferous trees and even though I've been successful in open ladder stands, I usually like to hide my ladder stands in pine (hemlock usually) trees. Especially for archery since once the leaves fall off, you kind of stick out like a sore thumb in a hardwood tree, especially at 15 or 16' that most ladder stands are. In muzzleloader and rifle seasons, I don't find it being as much of a problem being open in a hardwood tree since most shots are 50yds plus, don't seem to mind me there at those ranges.

 

[kelljp]

I've always took my climber 35 feet in bow season and never been busted. If you can get above the thermals you have it made. With age slowing me down I have put up a couple of ladder stands for conveniences in cold weather, normally about 20 yards from the game trail for powder season. Movement seems to be the biggest thing that gives me away in these, but they still keep me anchored and I don't get the moving after my butt gets numb syndrome sitting on the ground.

 

[Des52]

My best deer stand was six feet high. I can walk up and put my gun in the stand before I clime in. Shot more deer from that stand than my buddy in his ladder stand fifty yards away over the fence line. I think deer have a blind spot around that hight.

 

[Mike in FL]

I don't do it anymore. Height is definitely an advantage though. I'm getting weird with age: I've come to think tree stands are cheating. I sure don't mean to push that mindset at anyone else, no sir. Last bow season I was hunting in SC on the ground. There baiting is legal, another method I don't like. Anyway, a buck came along and was checking out a place where someone had put corn days before. It was all gone but it was obvious that's what he was looking for. I had the wind. Broadside at 12 yards. Came to full draw. Picked a spot. His head was down in the leaves. I couldn't do it. I had practiced all year with my longbow and wooden arrows I had made. I have since worried about myself in that regard. But I will be back there this fall with my flintlock if for no other reason than just to be in the woods.

 

[azmntman]

I dont have time to drop blinds around where I hunt (and they would be stolen before I got back to town). I have noted a few real cautious animules. Herd of elk came in and the MONSTER MONARCH 8 PT lead the cows in to about 120 yds and stopped. They drank 2-3 at a time and left. Bull KNEW and would not come in. I was just after deer so he twernt so smart and could have safely drank. But HE KNEW. Many deer and turkeys ignore the blind 100%. The lil coues deer (most wary of all I hear) literally RAN into the tank and stopped on the rim and looked at me.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

For a long while I taught hunter safety. The dingbats at the state bought a packaged course after a while, which made it possible to pass the test 100% and not have been taught that modern powder will blow you and your muzzleloader up..., I objected and gave them proof of why it's a problem but they wouldn't change the teaching points nor the test so I left..., but I digress....,

In this area we have on average a dozen annual "hunting accidents" including fatalities, but over many years only two were as a result of shooting. One was with a shotgun, one with a crossbow. ALL of them, all the rest plus those two I mentioned, were from getting into or out of tree stands. So I figured that the best way of not falling out of a tree stand was not to get into one. So I don't. That's just me, but all of my deer have been taken from secluded positions on the ground.

Now where I hunt there are guys in stands, and I've seen them as low as 8 feet off the ground and as high as 30.... yes 30 feet. The guys that use them are successful, well except for the dude at 30 feet has trouble when there is a good wind. Even though he doesn't use that stand until the leaves are all gone, that tree sways a bit in a good wind....

LD

 

[bronko220002]

Tipp that ladder stand is fine and you have lots of cover to help break up your outline.
16' is plenty. I've had elevated stands as low as 10-12' and was able to harvest deer with archery gear. Put it in a good location, stay as scent free and motionless as possible any you'll be fine. But you already know that I'm sure with your experience.

 

[Va Hunter]

I’ve killed many deer from a ladder stand only 10 feet tall. Got older and needed to be more comfortable so I use a red neck blind. I even run a propane heater.

 

[Patocazador]

I've used a climbing stand since the 1st Baker stand came out in the '70s. If that thing didn't kill me, I don't think the sturdier and better-built stands that followed would have and they didn't. I used a climber several times last season and plan to use them again this year.

When using a climber with a rifle, I face the tree and look around it from both sides. It camouflages movement pretty good. I think movement and scent play a much larger role than height. Many times I put up a stand in a tree where I could only climb 10-12 ft. up and killed a deer the 1st time I sat there. I also scout using a climber. I pick what looks like a good spot and climb. If deer are moving too far away, I just move the stand to a closer tree. It works great. BTW, I am now 80 y. o.

 

[kelljp]

I've used a climbing stand since the 1st Baker stand came out in the '70s. If that thing didn't kill me, I don't think the sturdier and better-built stands that followed would have and they didn't. I used a climber several times last season and plan to use them again this year.

When using a climber with a rifle, I face the tree and look around it from both sides. It camouflages movement pretty good. I think movement and scent play a much larger role than height. Many times I put up a stand in a tree where I could only climb 10-12 ft. up and killed a deer the 1st time I sat there. I also scout using a climber. I pick what looks like a good spot and climb. If deer are moving too far away, I just move the stand to a closer tree. It works great. BTW, I am now 80 y. o.

If you survived using a Baker tree stand, you must have the luck of the Irish!
I remember several hunters with injuries from falls using them.

 

[ETipp]

I’ve killed many deer from a ladder stand only 10 feet tall. Got older and needed to be more comfortable so I use a red neck blind. I even run a propane heater.

I see you have your stand in flat country. Different story then in the mountains. But congrats to you for keeping on going.

A small propane heater can surely be nice. I've used on a few times in my ground blinds.

 

[ETipp]

If you survived using a Baker tree stand, you must have the luck of the Irish!
I remember several hunters with injuries from falls using them.

I happen to be one of those Baker Slide type tree stand survivors. Not a fall, but one of those "Break the speed of sound" slides all the way to the bottom of the tree from about 28 feet up. Never even heard of safety harness back then.

Wasn't pretty but I survived to hunt another day.