Treestand use

What kind of treestand do you use?

  • Manufactured stand with a full body harness

    Votes: 20 64.5%

  • Manufactured stand but the harness is for whimps

    Votes: 6 19.4%

  • Home-made treestand and use a harness

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Home-made treestand and the harness is for whimps

    Votes: 4 12.9%
  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
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J

jbkebert

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I am curious to know this upcoming hunting season who is using a treestand and how. As the poll states do you use a safety harness and a manufactured treestand or something you built in the woods with scraps you had laying around. I am wanting some info for a upcoming class I will be teaching regaurding treestands and there use.
 
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I will start it off. I use a manufactured stand of some type. Currently I have 14 stands in the woods and I now use a harness each and everytime I am in a elevated position.
There was a time when I built a couple blinds out of 2x4's and nails, screws whatever I could find. I have two stands that I welded together 14-15 years ago and still work but I will no longer hunt from them.
 
Actually I plan to use a ground blind this year. However if I were to venture into a treestand, it would be a commercially manufactured ladder stand and I would wear a harness. Buch of years ago, I slammed my chin into tree bark while using a climbing stand and tasted serious blood. That what happens when the upper brace slips with all of your weight on it!

CB
 
I don't know that the harness is for wimps, but the tree stands I have used pretty much aren't going to let you fall out of them. You may fall climbing up or down, but once in, I feel secure.

With that said, I have sat in a bow hunters freestanding stand that had a chair that rotated 360 degrees and no safety rail. Just sitting there I felt unsafe without a harness and I could see nodding off and toppling right out of it.
 
I am trying to figure out how people feel about treestands and there safe use. I have been a hunter education instructor for 7 years now. 2 years ago took a class to become a certifed treestand safety instructor. Last weekend I took that certifcation up a bit. I became certified by the NBEF (National Bowhunter Education Foundation) the TMA (Treestand Manufactures Association) and the State of Kansas as a master instructor. It just means that I can now train new instructors to teach treestand safety. So this is obviously something that is important to me.

I have fallen from a stand while nodding off early in the morning. I have also been using a climber stand and failed to use a lanyard to attach both sections together. The results were knocking the bottom section loose and having it fall to the base of the tree. So I was hanging there by the upper section only 16 feet in the air with no meaningfull way to get down. Both times I was wearing a harness and both times that simple thing saved my bacon.
 
cbmax said:
Actually I plan to use a ground blind this year. However if I were to venture into a treestand, it would be a commercially manufactured ladder stand and I would wear a harness. Buch of years ago, I slammed my chin into tree bark while using a climbing stand and tasted serious blood. That what happens when the upper brace slips with all of your weight on it!

CB
Click to expand...
Thats the very reason I won't get in a climber without a harness ever again! The only thing that kept me from falling a*% over tea kettle when my bottom platform fell from 32 ft. was my chin and my wallet! one was stuck in the tree the other was hung over the net seat. At least I think it was my wallet, truth be known it was probably my butt that was really holding the seat.
 
I mostly use a manufactured stand, but also a couple of home built. Always use a full-body harness, though, regardless of stand type.
 
I'm going to use a ground blind again unless I can pull it together enough to use my old manufactured stand, and definitely with a harness. A few years ago I developed a serious fear of heights out of nowhere when I climbed to the top of Morrow Rock at Sequoia Nat'l Forest, and it's been ground hunting for me ever since. My fear is beginning to lessen, so maybe I'll try it this year.
 
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I use two man ladders. I push 300lbs when I have all my gear on and I like the 500lbs limit. I also use a HSS vest all the time. No one is very brave when they are lying on the ground with broken bones and have to call for help...or worse.
 
I just posted about this recently, but here goes.
I also have several homemade stands that I made from wood, some I welded myself.
The welded stell ones will last for decades...but the nylon straps we use to hold them to the tree won't.
My favorite is a Summit climber. Since I got it, I rarely use anything else. I have a fanny pack zip tied to the rail for a little gear/food storage. It is roomy and comfortable.
The ease of mobility is the best part. If you want to move 100yds or 100miles...no problem.
No more head scratching trying to decide which tree for a permanent or semi-permanent stand. If it is straight with tight bark....you can hunt from it.
Sometimes flooding prevents us from hunting from our permanent stands. With our climbers, we can now have an easy backup plan.
Everyone knows you should use a safety strap. I have a friend who hunts from a wheelchair because of a fall from a stand.
 
Home-made treestand and the harness is for whimps.

When I was young and buttetproof I would sling my rifle across my back, grab hold the tree, and climb the tree to first limb that would hold me without breaking and sit.

But now that I'm 60 I don't that any more and its been a very along since I did.

Most of the stands I hunt from are homemade steel stands. Some of my stands are simple steel ladder and steel framed platforms with these I use a harness.
Some are steel ladder and steel framed box stands.
Some are steel ladder and steel framed shooting houses.
These stands are made heavy gauge 2x4 tubing and held to the tree by a chain and turnbuckle.
 
cant relly vote because some of the stands i use are manufactured and some are handmade, and whether or not i wear a harness depends on the stand type.

when im siting in a double stand by myself i rarely wear a harness because of the large amount of room. in a smaller single stand, i typically wear a harness. i do like the stands up kinda high though; 20-25 feet when possible. i will ocasionally put them around 12-15 if their is a lot of cover.
 
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