Stand hunting

[Nameless Hunter]

I mostly hunt "ambush style" from the ground. Either sitting against a tree or standing behind one. Killed more from the ground than from a climber.

 

[Mulebrain]

Be careful out there, my cousins stand had a strap break on him. Fell face down from around 26', broke six ribs and into the er.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

If you are thinking stand hunting is too easy, You can make stand hunting just as arduous as other forms. Well at least I can. Hog hunting the last few years I all but lived in the blind, I'd crawl out, around 10 AM, get a shower and a few hours sleep, eat a meal and be back in the stand by 3:30-4 PM and stay till around 10 AM again. (Ground Stand)

 

[hanshi]

I've killed them from permanent stands, ladder stands, climbing stands, sitting on the ground or on a stool/chair/cushion and walking. Stopped any and all climbing years ago and carry my own folding seat with me into the bush. A lot of mine were taken from the ground while I was sitting in a seat. It's now a bit risky for me to climb and it takes me a long time to actually sit down on the ground and even longer to get back up. Generally if you're a decent hunter and know the territory you hunt on, you'll do as well from the ground as from an elevated stand.

 

[GANGGREEN]

When I was a kid I'd hunt from treestands or even tree limbs without any protection. I'm older now and there are far better safety products available. Anyone who hunts from an elevated stand without a proper safety restraint just isn't right (and I'm not directing that at your cousin, just suggesting that we're grownups now and should be more concerned with our safety). I've been on the scene of many hunting accidents including more than a few falls from treestands and I just don't know why anyone would risk it. Even with proper safety restraints and climbing devices, I become less and less interested in treestands each year, though I still use them.

Be careful out there, my cousins stand had a strap break on him. Fell face down from around 26', broke six ribs and into the er.

 

[Spikebuck]

Be careful out there, my cousins stand had a strap break on him. Fell face down from around 26', broke six ribs and into the er.

A Treestand hunter needs to get in the habit of attaching the safety harness BEFORE stepping onto a stand, or even using one of the new systems that have you connected to the tree from the first step up (of course, you're still going to make one trip up untethered with those).

A friend and I went out bowhunting one evening with him on one side of a large field and me on the other. I had no more than gotten into my stand and settled in when I heard a snap from 150 or so yards away in the woods from the other side of the field, then crashing, a loud thump, and some muted groaning that stopped. I came out of my tree like it was a fireman's pole and rushed over, but I wasn't sure exactly where he had put his stand. Finally I heard a little noise...he was just coming to. He had a safety harness on but not connected to the tree yet, when he stepped onto his stand it broke and collapsed sending him 25 ft to the ground. On the way down his leg hit one of the treesteps so hard it bent it and dug a big gouge out of his leg that was bleeding pretty good. But other than that, and having the wind knocked out of him, nothing was broken, but he could have easily been killed or permanently injured.

More and more I hunt from a turkey hunting seat right on the ground, or I've migrated to ladder stands that are not as high. I really don't like sitting 25 or 30 feet up on a small platform anymore and especially don't like that transition from tiny steps or a stick ladder to and from the stand. It's more fun being on the ground with them anyway.

 

[Ames]

It would take a tough guy to hunt sitting on the ground in the woods around my area....the chiggers and whatever crawls in the grass here would eat you alive ! I spent a little time tracking some deer in the last week, and I am itching like crazy from my waist down to my toes

Deer ticks up here. I can have 15 crawl up my pants legs while I sit under a tree for a few hours. I pass the time picking them off me and introducing them to the pointed end of my hunting knife. Passes the time, anyway.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

I have still hunted, used a climber (best Adirondack Buck of my life), stump sit ( ground blind) near trails, and used ladder stands. Have also participated in drives. All work. My most recent success (three out of four years) has been from a ladder stand 200 yards from my camp where two trails cross. I also have a portable (70#) tripod stand that is only ten feet high but effective. My ladder stands have seat belts that I employ while seated. Safety first!

ADK Bigfoot

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

moondown and the sundown I have always had good luck on a ground level tree seat.....got a few missed a few

 

[The Crisco Kid]

I finally figured out that if I just sit in a good spot and pay attention I'll see more game than if I wander around looking for it. That realization comes with age. The same principle applies to hunting for my wife in Walmart. If I go looking for her all I get is an occasional glimpse and she's gone by the time I get there. If I just sit and wait, she will eventually walk right by.

 

[bud in pa]

I hunt from the ground or from my strap on seat, which I position so that i can slide out of maybe 2 and1/2 feet above the ground. I also use either Repel or Sawyers tick spray. I have enough physical problems that I don't need lymes disease too.

 

[TCMonts]

One of my favorite stands used to be where a good sized tree blew down and pulled up a big rootball. I would sit in the stump hole and cover most of myself with some cheap camo colored burlap. I had deer and fox walk wihin 6 feet of me and not react to my presence.

 

[hanshi]

When I lived in Georgia we had hunters die (usually from falls), but one near us was bitten by a canebrake rattlesnake when he climbed down from his stand; he died in about 15 minutes according to the EMTs. Another fell from his elevated stand and his rifle barrel struck and penetrated his skull, fatally.

 

[rich pierce]

I’m hunting some public land along a river with strange topography. It was quarried for silt (I guess; they say gravel but there’s no gravel - all silt and 30 feet deep). Anyway, perpendicular to the river are lowland troughs divided by ridges 15-40 feet tall and covered with invasive honeysuckle and second growth timber. Many of the troughs have lakes or ponds in them 100-500 yards long and up to 100 yards wide.
I’ve made paths on the ridgetops and setup “ground” stands at 15-30 feet above the troughs. The troughs channel the deer. I can sit on my stand overlooking one trough then sneak up to the top and look over the adjacent trough every hour or so undetected because of the honeysuckle ground cover. It fits my personality perfectly because sitting more than an hour is tough for me in an area where I may see one deer a day, or none. Density makes it easier to sit.

 

[appalichian hunter]

elevated stands especially in or on a tree are for squirrels not old hunters. Every year you hear of hunters falling off those, years back I was deer hunting along about day break I could hear hollering went to look and there was a fellow with one of those climber type stands( how he done this I do not know) but it had him pinned fast to the tree about 15 feet up the trunk. Well he was pretty wore out, I took my hatchet cut a green hickory trimmed the branches off the trunk wedged it under his feet enough so he could sorta stand on it, finally got him loose and he fell out of the tree, landed on the ground ( his rifle was already on the ground) I thought he was a goner got him sitting up gave him a bit of water after about a hour he somewhat recovered, I ask him how long he was stuck he said about a hour before daylight, picked up his rifle and left, that stand hung in the tree for years, This was during the middle of regular rifle season on a week day not too many hunters in the woods guess he was just lucky I had a day off work and decide to hunt.

 

[Ames]

Just tagged out my second tag of the season. Haven't seen any deer in two weeks. Sitting on the ground. No cover at all, just up against a tree. The same tree I've shot 6 other bucks from.
He came in, our eyes locked. He kept walking. I raised the gun. He kept walking. Boom!
Sitting flat out expose against a tree I dropped a 8 point 200 pounder at 20'. Could have hit him with a granola bar but I think he would have gored me if I did.
Tree stands? I don't have to show you no stinkin' tree stands!

 

[smo]

I grew up hunting from the ground.. mostly stalking fire breaks in cut over or hunkered down in a blown down tree top watching a well used trail.

As my hunting styles changed over the years , I’ve used home made stands, climbers, lock ons,
box blinds and shooting houses..

But as Spikebuck says, “ It's more fun being on the ground with them anyway “.

 

[FishDFly]

Interesting reading. Definitely this is an over 60 crowd.

Know 2 who fell out of trees, long recovery time after the hospital.

I use to sit on tree limbs, no longer a squirrel.

 

[smo]

Unfortunately we had a hunter killed in Tn. last week from a tree stand accident...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Unfortunately we had a hunter killed in Tn. last week from a tree stand accident...

For a couple decades I taught hunter safety. We always got an "update" prior to hunting season of the previous years accidents.
It was rare that somebody got shot by bow or gun.
The vast majority were folks falling from tree stands, with the rest tending to injuries from blades when field dressing or applying tips to arrows.

So LD doesn't get into a tree stand.....

LD