Hi all
My partner and I went out last week and put up a new ladder stand. We are going out again on Friday to put up two more. We have two properties to hunt totaling about 500 acers so we will have about 8 stands. Hopefully we can get them all up by the end of the first week in September. How is eveyone else doing in stand prep? We have lots of work left.
We went out last week and had a quick look at some of our stands and looks like we got lucky and only have a few repairs to do and a couple to relocate. Just cant wait for Oct 1st.
I have been going out a few night each week after work and doing some limbing and clearing around my stands, I just have one more new stand to put up and I think I will be ready for the opener.
We've been bushhogging roads and putting up stands for several weeks now and most of all, feeding deer. At the rate they're eating, they'll just be barely able to waddle down the road to another corn pile. My wife has redefined our deer stands as corn stands. Sat in a ground blind for about 3 1/2 hours last Saturday and almost got heat stroke. I'm a little afraid about climbing up in a stand until I get the arms and gun rest attached. My balance isn't what it used to be and I insisted on only putting two sections up instead of three - that still makes it about 10 feet up.
We've got lots of deer (judging by the tracks) but as a wise old hunter once said, "you can't cook tracks."
Quickshot, what kind of ladder stand do you have? How high is it?
My ladder stand is 15 feet high, also I welded and fabricated 5 steel tree stands. These are two piecers, which separate the seat from the foot stand. Their a little heavy, but I'll be locating them on my own property, and left there all year long, except for the seat. Six tree stands aren't quite enough for 810 acres but I'll be doing alot of still hunting on deer. Our property is very hilly making it easier to walk up on a bedded deer.
This will be the first time in my life I've hunted deer from a tree stand. I very excited with this new concept. This will allow me to ponder just how lucky we all are to live on this great continent, right guys??
Have fun preparing for your deer hunt or deer camp.
Now that I've passed 60, I am allowed to relate hunting tales. My last experience from hunting from a stand (tree) was in Florida. It was November and cold and I tippytoed into the swamp about 3am where a big water oak grew out over a good well-used game trail through the muddy bottom. There was a fork in the trunk about 8-9 feet up just perfect for a good strand. I managed to get up in the tree, get comfortable in the fork and promptly go to sleep. I woke up about halfway between the tree and the ground. I remember looking up and seeing my 30-30 in the air above me. Thank Goodness the ground was muddy or I would have broken something. This year will be the first time I've been above ground level since then, so that's why I'm a little uneasy about it.
Grey Owl
Sorry for the delayed response. I have two "Hunters View" ladder stands that are 15 feet. If I remember from other posts that is the same type you have. The other stands we are making out of lumber, they are 12 feet. We also have 4 portable stands that we save for the rut. These can be put up quickly if we find a buck moving in a different area.
You will find hunting from a tree stand very exciting and very different. It can be boring sometimes, but when you see that deer coming in from a distance you can't help but get worked up.
Good luck this year and remember to ALWAYS wear your safety harness
Good memory Quickshot, I even forgot what type of ladder stand I had. I to have portables and I've bought a lift of rough sawn lumber (2X4's) to build more permanent tree houses for in the future when I'm to old and scared to sit in portables. I know I'll do my best thinking sitting in those treestands. Wonder if its possible to have a labtop on my lap, take pictures with the digital, down load it direct to the forum for live caption???
August was a bit busy, we were workin on the new hunt camp, I built a new ladder stand 15ft high over lookin a about a 5-7 acre grain/wheat field on the back of the stand is a swamp the deer like to travel, and I've been keepin a eye on the results of this years food plot.
HI!! I have 5 of the tree-tec ladder stands.[3-20ft. and 2-24 ft] they are real safe and comfortable. but i never go into a tree with out a safety harness on. Any thing can happen from going to sleep to just being sick and passin out. For you and your family all ways be safe.gametrail
Ranger66, that's exactly what I want to build on our property, but I just don't have the cash. Maybe next year. Those are sure nice pictures, they sure got my adrenalin going. I just love to see other guys hunts camp's, how their set-up and have for conveniences. The pictures of Lonewolf's hunt camp he sent a while back were also very nice.
Send more pictures Ranger66, I'm a fan of pictures.
Thanks for the compliments guys, it does look good doesn't it. We purchased the board for the siding from a company that makes veneer(sp?) its all hardwood, like maple, oak and walnut, its was fairly cheap also, we paid $10 a bundle and got four bundles we still have about a bundle left over, might do something inside with it. I will post some more pics of the interior as it progresses. Hopefully we will be using it this year for the gun hunt. Here's an aerial pic of where I do most of my bowhunting.
Nice hunt camp ranger66, and I like your stand. That looks just like the ones we are building, cheap and easy.
Grey Owl, you may want to leave the lap top at home or you just may miss the shot of a lifetime. I don't like sitting in the portables anymore, I guess I have become spoiled from sitting in large ladder stands, but if it means a chance at a really nice deer I will still do it. I guess as we get older we need more creature comforts.
Enjoy the pre-season, I think it is one of the most exciting times of the year.
We are going out again on Friday to put up two more. We have two properties to hunt totaling about 500 acers so we will have about 8 stands. Hopefully we can get them all up by the end of the first week in September. How is eveyone else doing in stand prep? We have lots of work left.
Seriously that is a beauty of a hunt camp you put together there!!
I don't like sitting in the portables anymore, I guess I have become spoiled from sitting in large ladder stands, but if it means a chance at a really nice deer I will still do it. I guess as we get older we need more creature comforts.