The only stand I have ever used is a knockoff of a Baker I got in 1981. I neglected to get the hand climber so I had to hug the tree to climb. That was an experience. When set if you shifted a little it would still tilt to one side or the other, so I started setting it a few feet up the tree, climbing in, and staying there. I probably haven't used it since the 90's. It is still hanging in my garage. For years now when I get a chance to hunt I just sit on the ground leaning back on a tree.
Yep, my first Baker style tree stand was home made. At my bosses recommendation I studied his Baker Stand and took measurements from it, so I used his as a guide.
I didn't even know what a hand climber or safety harness was. I welded the stand up out of heavy angle iron and the platform was made out of 3/4" plywood. It was not foldable. I asked a young and wild country boy that I worked with if he happen know where I could find any old seatbelts. He said, "go out and get the ones out of the back seat of my car, I don't use them anyway". So with my old trusty pocket knife in hand I went out in the parking lot of the sawmill were we worked and cut the seatbelts out of the back seat of his old car and used those for foot straps.
When completed I would reckon that stand didn't weigh much over 50-60 pounds. But I was young and dumb, ran a sawmill and was strong as a mule. So I simply bear hugged the trees and up I would go proud as could be. I made a small stool to sit on out of wood and would hoist it up with a cord.
Well, one day after work I arrived at a tree I wanted to hunt out of. It was an white oak or burr oak. Tied my bow to the pull up rope, tied my little wooden stool the the other cord, and up I went like a squirrel. Got up to my preferred height of about 28 feet and just when I let go of the tree to turn around, that stand cut lose and down I went like a rocket in reverse. All I could think about was my bow leaning against the tree at the bottom so I hugged that tree for all I had. I managed to stop about 4 feet or so from the ground. That world class magic stunt had taken several layers of skin off every finger on both hands and my chest looked like a bad case of motorcycle crash road rash. I was bleeding like a stuck hog.
The next morning when I showed up to work the boss man asked me why every finger on both hands was all bandaged up. So I proceeded to tell him my story. He asked me if I had sharpened the comping bars on my stand sharp enough? After a few seconds I gave him that deer in headlights looks and replied "what do you mean". No one told me that the chopping bars were supposed to be sharpened and I had overlooked that step when examining his stand as a pattern. A large chunk of oak bark got between at least one chopping bar and zip, down I went. Never fathomed anything, man nor beast, could descend a tree so fast. Needless to say, the next day I got a grinder out and proceeded to sharpen both chomping bars on that self made, high quality Baker style tree stand. One thing was for certain however, I did a good job on the camo paint. So it looked good anyway.
The next year I was in a sporting goods store and saw this strange looking device. As I stood there studying it, it finally dawned on me. Ah ha, it was one of those new fancy hand climbers I had heard about but never seen. Now I was really styling. No more bear hugging trees. I was now way too smart and experienced for such foolishness.
Still took me a couple more years to get one of those other things that I had caught word of.................a safety harness.
. Make sure you've got a good harness and tie it off high.
