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Reprising the "I don't get tree stands" post from 2013

11K views 79 replies 38 participants last post by  GF. 
#1 ·
Okay, so I am bored. I started thinking of old posts, greatest hits so to speak. And that brought me to tree stands. I don't get them. I can't imagine ever wanting to spend the day sitting in a tree. So I am going to reprise my post asking, why do you spend so much time sitting in trees and why do you find it so enjoyable. The post is from 2013 and I have to admit, I still don't get it. Think of this like all the sports networks replaying old games while they wait for new games to come back.

https://tradtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42263
 
#3 ·
Ive always enjoyed my tree stand time .
Seen a lot of wildlife from the stand other than deer .
My favorite type of stands were the lock-on , strap on type . I’ve still have my old Summit that straps on and Has the folding padded seat .
I used rope on stick ladders to get up and down .
With a good safety harness , about the safest I’ve found .
I’d have to sneak it to the woods from my wife if I were to use it now .
She freaks out when I say I’m going to clean out the gutters here at the house .
 
#5 ·
What JParanee said.

But I think a better one is - I dont get blinds.

If you enjoy in the woods hunting - then you can enjoy sitting in a tree stand(unless your afraid of heights.) You have a wonderful view of everything. You feel the breeze, you feel the sun, you smell the forest.

On the other hand - blinds(I mean tent blinds). They ruin pretty much every wonderful thing about hunting except getting the game.
 
#6 ·
In a busy and stressing life, hunting a tree stand is a kind of contemplation time. There is almost nothing better than falling asleep in the tree stand, a sweet breeze licking your face along with the rising sun and being woken up by the cracking noise of dryed leaves trampled by the light feet of the critter coming.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Here is where I get my great views. There is nothing like the view from the top of a Yosemite Valley climb. The view from the top of Smith Rock in Oregon is pretty good too.

Sometimes we have to climb trees while on a climb. You would not believe where trees manage to grow.

Click to expand.
 

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#9 ·
Here is where I get my great views. There is nothing like the view from the top of a Yosemite Valley climb. The view from the top of Smith Rock in Oregon is pretty good too.

Sometimes we have to climb trees while on a climb. You would not believe where trees manage to grow.

Click to expand.
That looks fun but it seems like your real consideration isant about tree stands - its about hunting while sitting still. .
 
#8 ·
I have been hunting for 40 years and still never seen one in real life ...
Us Aussies are behind the times ������.
I get it though, great way to kill game.
Maybe one day ...

( but I think I’d get bored - I spend way to much time stumping , roving and I’d fidget like a crazy man )
 
#10 ·
tree stand hunting is relaxing.......it's why when this topic comes up, invariably some will speak of naps.
Being relaxed is enjoyable and a great diversion, in the fast-paced go go go cram-a-lot-in-your-day world we live in.
AND, being up in a tree, out of the traffic / animals' paths, and given a few hours or an entire day, you'll see a lot of birds and animals you won't see moving around.
I know guys that tree stand hunt and really don't care if they fire a shot.
A niece's husband hunts from the roof of his house and eats sandwiches all day up there.
 
#11 ·
All though bow hunting is a short range game being in a tree gives you the benefit of sight.My ears are not what they use to be and a whitetail deer for its size can move through the woods quieter than a squirrel.I just can't stay put on the ground,alway wanting to move to a better spot.The trouble with that is the same way you see deer they see you and they have much better sences of sight and smell.
 
#13 ·
Tree stand story. 1967, we built a 3' by 6' permanent tree stand in the 'Y' of a very large maple on private land. We built a padded seat against each side of the 'Y'. We decided to take turns using the palace in the sky. One day I was heading for it, a scruffy older man said lots of naughty words and threatened to shoot me if I got any closer. He had no idea what he was in for. At that time I was body building and had three years of intense American Karate training, I had every intention of making the ugly bastard a lot more ugly, so I waited. About 8 in the morning, i heard snoring. He was sleeping up there. About 8:15 I saw a horizontal ugly guy about half way to the ground, then a short waffling yell with a thud. Then I saw a group of deer coming across the field, heading for a shallow open hill side ravine, I went to head them off. Never saw the ugly guy again. Years back, I was one of the people that pushed the DNR to ban permanent tree stands on public property. That law needs to be tightened up to a 'leave no trace' policy for most public lands.
I have sat for many hours in tree stands and saw many interesting things and let many deer pass by, I have never killed a deer from a tree stand, although I did miss one with the first compound that i ever owned, missed it three times. I shot a deer later that year on the move, still hunting, with a Bear takedown autographed by Fred Bear himself.
For all who want to use tree stands on public land, I always suggest the Lone Wolf climber. My son uses them, they are safe, comfortable and light weight.
 
#14 ·
Some years back, I thought it would be fun to try a tree stand again, I bought a Saber climber. My son called it, 'the widow maker'. i left it hang on public land over a noon hour, I went to town for some lunch and when I came back, some nice person stole the seat and left the base, which did not have the wing nuts, double nutted with a lock washer, which required the use of two wrenches, the seat still had the wing nuts. One question, how many people have the problem of peeing on their boots from tree stands?
 
#15 ·
I agree. I can't imagine sitting precariously up a tree on a little shelf for hours on end. It is also the #1 source of bow hunting injuries. I put it in the same category as ice fishing. I would much rather take up curling.

As a fellow hiker, I do not find much pleasure in sitting around. That may be the source of it. That and being in So Cal where hunting is rare and dense forests are even rarer.
 
#16 ·
I use them less and less as I get older. I also spend less time in them each sit too, a few hours at the most. Most of my deer in my hunting life have been shot from one. For rifle hunting in our swamp/marsh terrain, they are a must but we use spacious box blinds with old office chairs so we are comfortable and out of the rain with a heater if you are a wuss.

But I get it that the non-hunters don't get them.
 
#17 ·
Funny, I am a brand new to archery, started on a whim 4 months ago. I have never hunted. I have never even thought about hunting. But since I've started archery, I have started thinking about hunting. I've read a lot online. I've watched Youtube videos. I've spoken to friends who do hunt. Through all that I have decided that I am not interested in hunting. BUT... I AM interested in sitting in a tree stand at dawn for a few hours quietly observing nature. I AM going to do that.
 
#22 ·
Being able to hold still and observe everything that's happening around you is the essence of bowhunting, no matter how you do it: The first step in getting close enough to a wild animal to kill it with a bow is to see or hear or smell it before it knows you're around. When you're moving, your own senses are degraded x 10 or more by your own noise and motion, and at the same time it's at least 10 x easier for the animal to see or hear you. So...

The essence of spotting game is sitting still and watching for long periods of time.

The essence of stalking game, once you get within a hundred yards or so, is choosing the least observable route from you to the game, and then moving so slowly that the game doesn't hear or see you. That often means remainin motionless for hours at a time.

Still hunting is essentially stalking game without knowing precisely where the game is located ahead of time.

Hunting from a stand - gound blind or treestand - is holding still and waiting for the game to come to you and present a shot.

Even calling involves lots of sitting still. Sure, that big bull will sometimes come crashing blindly through the timber, but much more often they either run the other way or come in quietly and nervously because they know that responding to a call, and bugling themselves, exposes them to extreme danger. I've had cougars come in to elk bugles a couple of times. Being consistently successful in calling elk (and other animals too) often requires extreme control over one's movements, albeit for shorter amounts of time.

As others have pointed out, one of the most enjoyable aspects of sitting still for long periods of time, no matter how you do it, is all the other wildlife that you would never have seen otherwise, and all the things you learn as a result.

Having said that, the degree to which you have to hold still does depend, to some extent, on the game you're hunting: If you're good enough to shoot birds on the wing or running rabbits, you may not have to hold still at all. If you know that rabbits will often sit tight if they think you're going to walk past them, and spend your time watching to the sides instead of focusing on the ones that are breaking cover ahead of you, you can move a bit more than if you try to spot and stalk the rabbits.

The bottom line is that if you ain't got the self-discipline and patience to be motionless and observant for long periods of time, you ain't gonna be a very successful bowhunter.
 
#24 ·
There are spectators and there are players. Spectators view from afar. They enjoy what they are seeing but they are detached from the dynamics they view. Players take an active role in the dynamics. When we hunt, and particularly bow hunt, we are active participants in the dynamics of our environment. All the elements become more focused. The plants and animals we see, the wind, the weather, the terrain, sounds, smells. When I sit in a stand or blind, I begin to focus on all the activity that takes place around me. Songbirds that come and go, insects, the flora that surrounds me, rodents, reptiles, amphibians. If you don't take time to sit and be still, you would never see, or interact with these things.
 
#25 ·
How true

Most people never sit still enough to see the beauty in nature unfold

I've had hawks land on branches a few feet from me with squirrels in their talons to eat their meal

Ive also had squirrels that were a few feet from me be snatched up by hawks

One of my most memorable days in the field was in BC sitting on the side of a mountain glassing for hours

I watched a pack of wolves chase some sheep up a mountain through my binoculars and spotting scope

The rams would hit snow pockets and the wolves would gain until the sheep would get to some wind blown rock and than they would get the advantage

It started at the Boytin and i watched them all the way till the rams went over the summit

If i was not sitting there observing i would of never seen it

What non hunters dont understand is the amount of time hunters spend watching

In the mountains you gain height and than let your eyes do the walking through good glass
 
#26 ·
First time shotgun hunting in IL had a tree stand. Was up in the stand early and the wind started blowing. The tree and stand started swaying more than I felt comfortable with. Climbed down and found a spot on the ground where I could still see the trail the stand was setup for.

About an hour later, here a deer run past me behind me and run into the ladder for the stand. NEver got a shot on that trip.
 
#27 ·
Its weird - I have really bad ADHD. But I can sit still in the woods and hunt. But I think its because I have a pretty expansive awareness of of my surroundings.

I notice everything and pay attention to every noise. I hear a noise and figure what animal it probably is. And that in turn informs me on the chance of a deer being around. I pay attention to any changes in the wind and think about how deer will respond to that. Im thinking about the weather and how animals will be responding to it. Im thinking about the mast and foliage and how animals are responding to that. And I just find the coming and going of other animals in and of it self to be interesting. And of course sometimes I just get distracted and thing about theoretical physic or TV shows.

Theres a lot going on in a forest. But maybe you have to more or less grow up in one to really look at it that way.
 
#29 ·
Because I like to eat venison and my "happy hunting grounds" are in the Blue Ridge mountain hills, valleys and ridges where the wind constantly changes direction, pools, eddys...you get the picture If I religiously observed the adage "hunt the wind" I would literally do nothing but move my stand. I could still hunt from the ground but if I maintain an effective pace I'd cover maybe a 50 yd. square, circle or straight line over and over as the breeze does a 180 deg. This doesn't even count the thermals which I get busted by in the tree regularly. Depressing? Nahh, you couldn't pay me to hunt the flatlands.
 
#30 ·
Growing up in Northern NJ it never really occurred to me that you could hunt deer from anything but a tree stand. It was pretty typical to have a handful of stands set up along a corridor and for groups of hunters to be successful on the same day.

Out West I wouldn't even think of stand hunting, but I have found myself sitting in a big juniper a few times.
 
#31 ·
I think the people who like hunting from stands probably also enjoy fishing. For me I get bored doing either, i have a literal fear of boredom. Its probably got something to do with the way my brain works (ADHD).
I also tend to struggle to get through training plateaus, but that might be another topic.
 
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