[ReadyontheRight]

Please post some picks of your favorite deer stand.

I am going to build a new one this season. I'll probably put on walls, roof, window openings and enough room for two shooters. It will be a first in our deer woods.

My thought is to make it 4'x8' with two trees on one end and 4"x4" posts on the other end. Plywood walls w/ window holes on all four sides and a shingled plywood roof. Painted camo to match conditions. Add a nice sturdy ladder, some shooting lanes, maybe even a portable heater. Throw in a good location and there will be only a few reasons to ever leave.:D

I'd like to see some other deer stands for ideas, so post your favorite.

[Mr. Chitlin]

We use stands that are welded out of 2" steel pipe. The sides and base are 3/4" plywood.

This is my son looking out of one. They are about 12' to the floor.

http://photos.imageevent.com/brobert/bobdeer2002/websize/DSC00004.JPG

Another pic. We have a couple of these on the edges of an 80 acre field.

http://photos.imageevent.com/brobert/bobdeer2002/websize/DSC00001.JPG

[ReadyontheRight]

Nice stand Mr. Chitlin!

I'll be building mine in amongst the trees, and I need a pitched roof and more walls to keep out snow accumulation.

Any other great deer stand picks out there?

[Smoke]

I don't have pics.....

Neighbors of mine built one a few years ago that impressed me.

They built it on 4 telephone poles. bottom of the stand is 35ft off the ground. Plywood construction, the "room" is 8' x 12'.

Features:

Sliding windows all the way around.
Gun racks.
Wall to wall carpeting.
Poker table.
Heater
Refrigerator
Seats four comfortably.
Overlooks small wheat field.

[Keith]

You guys should try deer hunting some time...

Keith

[Smoke]

You guys should try deer hunting some time...

Agreed. There are no "Hunters" around here. They are all waiters. Sit in a stand and wait for the deer.

But when a wheat field loads up with 50+ deer at sundown every day there is no need to "hunt" them. Pick the one you want to shoot and go home.

[Keith]

There is no need to hunt anything, it's just more challenging and fun!

Couldn't you just shoot at metal silhouettes and get the same pleasure?

Keith

[auschip]

Couldn't you just shoot at metal silhouettes and get the same pleasure?

Keith

The metal silhouettes don't taste as good.

[BluRidgDav]

Or, you could go out to the local slaughterhouse, drive around back by the holding pens, point your monster-magnum out the window, and blast a cow. You don't even have to get out of the truck. Then, go back home and watch football until they call you to come pick up your wrapped meat. Beef critters sure do taste good, too!

[Keith]

Well, whatever... I'd just get bored with that pretty quick.

It just would be a lot more fun to get down on the ground and stalk them in the thick stuff. I didn't mean to criticise, or maybe I did... but shouldn't have.

Anyway, good luck to you this season - may your freezers always be full, and your shooting chair comfortable!

Keith

[auschip]

No worries, I tend to do both stalking and waiting. You just have to remember that hunting in different areas is different (master of the obvious ain't I). There isn't much public land in TX (where I do 90% of my hunting), and not everyone has the luxury of hunting in millions of acres of open land. I would love to get up to your neck of the woods to go hunt big moose, but until the lotto hits, I don't see it happenning. :D

[Keith]

You know, a great Alaskan hunt can be pretty done pretty cheap if you know what you are doing. If I was trying to do a hunt on the cheap, I wouldn't go after moose. You have to fly too far and spend too much to be successful.

I'd hunt caribou. The Mulchatna herd is accessable from Anchorage by float plane, and these mulchatna bou's are the biggest in the world - nearly double the size of caribou in Canada and other parts of Alaska. The big bulls will run over 600 pounds on the hoof - hell, that's an elk!
And this herd is growing every year. Success rate for hunters is nearly 100% and that's not surprising because you can get dropped into an area and literally see thousands of caribou in a few days time.

It's a great hunt and one you can do in August when the weather is mild. And caribou is great eating, no different than deer or moose, etc.

Keith

[Atticus]

"You guys should try deer hunting some time..."

I would love to do that. Round here that means having a shotgun pointed at you when you stumble through the brush onto the next guy's forty acres...or worse. Even worse on public land. I wouldn't move around there during gun season without of a Bradley. :D

There was an article in Outdoor Life a few months ago called, "Alaska on the cheap". It definately got my mental wheels spinning. Ahh...someday.

[Keith]

Well, if the advice in the article didn't include a float plane - throw that magazine out!

The number one thing that people just don't get about Alaska is the roads - there aren't any! Or, not many...
And if you try and hunt on the road system you might as well save your money and hunt down in the rockies. The hunting will be just as good, and the weather better. It'll certainly be cheaper once you factor in air fare.

And there are a number of outfitters who lure people up with cheap hunts along the road system. The locals will be chugging past on four-wheelers and you won't see much game, or have much fun. You'll probably bag something, but...

Spend just a bit more money with a reputable air charter service and you can get out in virgin wilderness hundreds of miles from the nearest road. Critters are plentiful and big and the bag limits and antler restrictions far more generous or non-existent. I don't think even Africa has the sort of virgin wilderness you'll find in SW Alaska. Everyone should hunt Mulchatna once in their lifetime!

Keith

[Atticus]

Actually, he did talk about float planes, and other means of getting to the hunting site. He even recommended trying to schedule a flight to arrive in Alaska in the morning, so that an overnight in a local hotel could be avoided. Seemed like pretty good advice overall.

[ReadyontheRight]

when a wheat field loads up with 50+ deer at sundown every day there is no need to "hunt" them.

I agree that kind of hunting would not be interesting. I've sure never seen any sights like that in Northern Minnesota. There are not many crops up there. Protected wolves, deep snow and hunters can drop strong summer deer populations pretty low during hunting season.

Where I hunt, a guy in head-to-toe blaze orange can disappear completely from sight into the woods in 100 feet. The best way to see any sort of wildlife is to sit competely still and silent for a couple of hours -- preferably 10 or more feet off the ground, downwind while someone drives the deep brush in the swamps to flush out a buck. Our stands are on ridges so you don't shoot a deer in the swamps and lose it.

I don't recall a season when more than a few members of our party even saw a deer while hunting -- stands or not.

I prefer walking around, still-hunting and stalking while hunting, and I've gotten quite a few deer that way in Wisconsin, but never in wolf country.