What is the "sport" in using a tree stand?

[Boats]

I'll begin by admittting I have never used one or ever felt like using one so I don't get the attraction for some.

Overheard some guys who couldn't walk a hundred yards without panting talking about ATVing their tree stands out to a screen of trees bordering some guy's farm that'd be left with all of the carrots that don't get picked. That's hunting? Just this side of hunting over bait, for a deer? In a tree stand? That's convenience store shopping, not sportsmanlike behavior.

To me, static "hunts" are about as exciting as fishing in a private trout pond the size of a small swimming pool.

So what is the draw to ambushing game animals that aren't birds?

 

[Rembrandt]

....that's convenience store shopping, not sportsmanlike behavior.

What's your definition of sportsmanlike behavior when hunting deer?

 

[Boats]

My minimum is that there should be some sort of stalking involved.

I guess I have become too old school. Game cameras, scent blockers/lockers, range finders, ATVs, and now apparently tree stands, strike me as one step above shooting from the road behind the wheel.

 

[Rembrandt]

Man uses the same techniques as other predators in nature. Many animals including big cats hunt perched from trees, other animals track & stalk while many use camoflauge to trick prey to the dinner table.

 

[AntiqueCollector]

And some people are more interested in getting the meat than any sort of "sport." Don't be so quick to judge just because their ideas on hunting are different than yours...

 

[mod700]

i have been in a tree or a shooting house over a food plot with a scoped high powered rifle with scent spray on and still missed chances at good deer. they are smart man. just cause you hunt them a certain way doesnt gaurentee a dead deer.

 

[W.E.G.]

If you can sneak up on wild deer (as opposed to the tame ones that walk around my suburban neighborhood), you are a better man than me Gunga Din.

The only deer I've ever killed are the ones I waited for near oak trees (acorns).

I can shoot the suburban deer with my slingshot, and they just look at me with an annoyed expression, and keep on eating my wife's expensive landscaping. If I run at them, they will usually trot over into the neighbors' yards and stare at me - like they are daring me to do something that will get the neighbors to call the police.

If some fat guy wants to ride his ATV out to where the deer are, and kill one for the freezer, I got nothing against that. Daniel Boone wasn't skinny because he ate Jenny Craig. He was just skinny because there wasn't a lot of food to eat. I bet he would have really liked to have an ATV and a carrot field.

 

[elrod]

Boats, if you like to run 'em down and beat with a stick until they expire, more power to you! However, if others choose to work many hours to purchase an ATV, labor to build a tree stand, plant a green field (don't have many carrots in these parts), and choose his quarry at his leasure, then that's his business! As the saying goes, different strokes.........
As I say, more power to him. (Hadn't heard him a whinin' bout your methods)

 

[Tomcat47]

The sport in using a tree stand to me is relative to how tired I am when I get to my huntin spot....

If I didnt sleep well the night before...I like the tree Lounge.....man you can sleep through a Tornado in that baby.....but always tie in guys....safety first!

If I got moderate sleep I like the hangin stand.....just pull my back out three times gettin it up and wait a couple days for the search party to find me reelin in pain at the bottom of the tree.

If I got a really good sleep I like the lite verions....alumilites with the mossy oak pattern...they are hangers to but they are lite especially if you leave those da@! screw in steps in the truck....get to my spot and strapit about 2 ft off the ground and get out of the leaves....now im ready for him,and if I decide to walk around...just step down and stalk awhile...

The above is comical......but by accidnent the last method has filled my freezer more than the other 2 combined over the years...

Stalking or actually Hunting has worked for me........In Conclusion.... I have seen more deer and had more opportunity on my feet than hangin in a tree...But I do think the tree stand is perfect for squirrell huntin they come right to ya...raise cain and throw stuff at ya!

The tree stand years for me should have been.....hey guys lets go Waiting this weekend!

 

[W.E.G.]

So I'm not the only one then who ever went "huntin'" and woke up to wonder "just wuddindafug was makin' all that racket," to see that it was tomorrow evening's meal standing there waitin' to meet his maker.

Probably not real good on a fat boy's ticker to go from like 60 beats per minute to 180 bpm in two seconds.

 

[.41 magnum man]

I say, if it is legal, go for it. I wasn't raised to ever think of deer hunting as as a sport. Never even heard that term until a few years ago. I always looked at it as putting meat on the table. Now if I go to work to put food on the table for an outfit that gives me the option to do my job in anyway I see fit, and I do it the easiest way I can figure out, does that make me a cheater at earning my paycheck so I can go to the grocery store, or even buy my hunting license or ladder stand? Is it fair to say I am a sorry excuse for working man because I do it different than someone else might? Well, to me, putting that meat on the table is part of providing for my family, and I am going to do it in a way that best guarantees the job will get done. And someone can argue that we don't have to hunt from nessesity anymore, we can just go to the store. Well that argument goes just as well for those who grow gardens, fruit orchards, and raise chickens. In other words, it doesn't fly.

 

[quatin]

Hunting can be however hard you want it to be. Just like fishing can be however hard you want it to be.

Sport fishing is different since there are regulations to keep things fair. Just like how sport hunting has regulations to keep things fair. Let's remember these are two different subjects.

 

[Jimmy Newman]

I hunt from a tripod stand pushed up against some trees, which is pretty similar to a tree stand, when pistol hunting (with an open sights S&W Model 57) or attempting to bow hunt, both of which require (for me at least) a max distance of about 30 yards. I think that's reasonable, and with the deer that close to you, it's still real easy to scare them off. I've been that close on the ground, too, but in the past when I've done it it's been sitting in bushes in a ghillie suit and it's not very comfortable.

 

[Clipper]

Yeah, the fishing analogy really says it all for me...I fish with ultralight tackle. I've taken 30-pound salmon on 8lb test line (the heaviest rig I own), and 6lb smallmouth on 2lb line. Often I don't even keep them and simply turn 'em loose, going mainly for the excitement and the fight. Would I say anyone who does it different, or doesn't practice catch-and-release is unsportsmanlike? Hex no! So I'd appreciate not being called names because I happen look at deer as meat on the table and take every advantage I can including every licensing opportunity to take a doe (tastes better to me) because they're more plentiful and less wary. And the idea that since someone isn't in shape to run a marathon should somehow exclue them from the opportunity to partake of the hunt is nothing but elitist B.S.

 

[koja48]

I don't use a tree stand, but would have no problem doing so if conditions warranted such tactics. I happen to enjoy still hunting, but those deer/elk I have harvested using the hunting technique I prefer/find effective were also coming to/from feeding, breeding, bedding, etc. Stand site selection/stand placement takes a degree of skill & knowledge too, not to mention patience. Some folks hunt more for the challenge, some for the table, some for a combination thereof. For years, I hunted deer/elk with only a long bow, but during this time I didn't look down my nose at anyone who opted to hunt with the latest flat-shooting, magnum, long-range rifle. To each his/her own as long as they use legal methods & harvest tools and hunt safely. Something about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" comes to mind . . .

 

[Art Eatman]

Hunting from some sort of stand is the only possible way, in some terrains and vegetation. Relatively flat country with dense woods or brush comes immediately to mind.

Not all that many hunters can be successful via still hunting--that is, stalking--and so the stand allows for some sort of success.

I very much have preferred walking/stalking. But I got invited to a hunt in west central Texas on a ranch with a lot of post oak trees. I couldn't take a step without dry leaves crackling and crunching. Find a spot and sit, was about the only way.

I just figure that the terrain and vegetation pretty much control how a person hunts.

And the way my back hurts, nowadays, my pickup truck is about as good a blind as I want.

Art

 

[JohnBT]

"Just this side of hunting over bait"

Bait? Ever hunt squirrels in an oak or hickory tree?

Groundhogs in a corn field?

Rabbits in a garden?

Bears near a wild bee hive or berry patch?


I never got into deer hunting because there weren't any when I was growing up. And I mean none. My grandfather and his two brothers had 1500 apple trees on the side of a mountain not too many miles from the Shenandoah National Park and they never saw a deer up into the '60s. Even after the state of Virginia imported deer it took decades to build the population up enough for deer hunting to become even a little popular, much less what it is today. Now you can run them over on the highway, or in your yard, and never leave your vehicle. They can't be that hard to hunt if there more than 100,000 killed in Virginia every year. To each their own, and they can taste good if they're properly cleaned.

Around here there are a lot of folks who hunt deer from a stand on 10 or 15 acres. Mostly it's a matter of getting your scent up above them as much as you can.

To each their own.

 

[sansone]

I don't think you can walk up to a deer. unless it's sick. they simply hear or smell you coming and bolt before you even SEE them. also shooting from elevation is safer since the bullet dives into the ground. shooting horizontally with most deer guns can kill someone up to 1/2 mile away

 

[MCgunner]

I got a 10 acre place that's ate up with deer and hogs and I took two bucks off it last year by sitting in a tripod stand and hunting a feeder, the only way I can do it down there. So sue me. It's a Texas tradition. If it don't meet your definition of hunting, don't do it. But, start calling me names and you can kiss where I can't.

We don't have public hunting here as in Oregon. If I'm going to hunt, I gotta dish out 2K a year for a lease or hunt my own land and all I could afford is 10 acres. There's probably an added 60 acres out there I have no idea who owns and there's no fences and a big ranch across the fence, but in Texas, you don't go walkin' around on someone else's land. You could get shot that way. We don't cotton to trespassers down here, sportsmen or not.

So, if you hunt a stand, basically, you're like a gator. You can't out run your quarry, so you sit and ambush. What's wrong with that? You have to know your limitations, after all. In heavy woods, it's not productive to move around. You have to stand hunt whether you're watching a feeder, an alfalfa field, or a game trail. It's a different kind of hunting involving patience, hours on the stand without making noises or moving around. If it ain't for you, don't do it.

 

[koja48]

Wouldn't call you names, gunner, but would cheerfully join you! Ain't ever shot a hog, but would surely like to someday. Sounds like you have a little slice of heaven there. I work with some Texans up here . . . fine folks, every one . . . hell, if I weren't born a Montanan, I'd like as not been born a Texan.

 

[MCgunner]

Here's my stand. That's ONE of the motts of scrub oak behind it. You can see the tall grass. A deer can hide in the grass and you have to be 15 yards from it to see it on ground level, let alone all the mots of scrub oak growing in patches everywhere. How are ya gonna hunt THAT without getting above it?

Sorry I sorta sounded confrontational, but I get a little tired of all the holier than thou comments about feeders and stands. It's the only way down here and it's neigh on tradition. I do love hunting out in west Texas near Art's neck of the woods and spot and stalking out there is a lot more fun, but it's just impossible to do where I'm at.

 

[sansone]

I got 11 acres, all the $$ me and the wife could muster-up. put a mobile home there and moved in. like heaven must be, I can shoot out the back door, burn my trash, and other freedoms city folk can't even imagine. I can die happy now. oh yea: will shoot my first deer come season ON MY OWN LAND

 

[eliphalet]

What is the "sport" in using a tree stand?

Puts meat on the table, I have never done it but why do you care? I have sat and watched the sun come up still hunting.

If I'm going to hunt, I gotta dish out 2K a year for a lease or hunt my own land and all I could afford is 10 acres

I read this and feel for you guys that live is such areas. I guess I have never seen a deer I would pay 2K for and if we lived where y-all do I wouldn't hunt deer. There otta be some kinda law for you guys for hunting access.

I doubt the guy in Or has a clue what your up against. Oregon like here in Idaho has more public land, BLM, Natl. Forest, and State land, than a guy could probably hunt in one lifetime.

 

[MCgunner]

Another method northwesterners used to lots of public hunting might find "unsportsmanlike" is what one fellow out in New Mexico when I was out there one year spot and stalking Mulies called Texas war wagons. He tells me "Ya can't legally shoot off the roads. Guys come up here from Texas with them "war wagons" and drive the roads, that's a no, no." What he was talking about is a Jeep or truck with an elevated seat in the back and gun rest. They drive along ranch roads spotting deer and shoot from the truck. Some are quite elaborate with communications from shooting platform to cab. Some are elevated WAY up in the air and look real tipsy. LOL

I've only done this once and it was from a 4 Runner's seat, not an elevated chair. This was before I bought my place and had no place to hunt. I saw an ad in the Victoria Advocate (paper) for doe hunts, 50 dollars. I had a .357 magnum carbine I'd just bought and wanted to try it on a deer, so I call this guy. I made the date, says "What time should I be there" thinking maybe 4AM or something. He says "How about 10 O'Clock, I have an opening at 10." I'm like.."WHAAAAAT?" ROFL! I says, "Will I be able to get inside 100 yards? Wanna try this .357 carbine." He says "Should be no problem." The guy was a game biologist and was thinning the excess of doe on the place. This was not intended to be sporting. It was a way of thinning the doe/buck ratio and getting some income from it. They heavily manage the herd on this ranch and get major money for the big bucks they have there. They charge a day fee plus so much per inch on the antlers. There's not even cattle on that ranch, just deer, and it's not high fenced because there is no need, huge piece of property.

So, I show up, get in his 4 Runner with my rifle, and we start down this ranch road, for those that might be familiar, it's one of the Wielder Ranches near green lake on the Bloomington Highway. There's amazing numbers of deer there along that road. Well, within the first quarter mile, there's a herd over there, a herd over here, we stop for a herd running across a road and I jumped out off hand, but couldn't get on 'em in time at 50 yards. We stop and spot a 12 pt that looks like it'd have no problem making a record book, move on another quarter mile and there's a herd of doe about 80 yards off the road. He stopped, I rolled down the window, and took a plump little 90 lber using the window glass as a rest. He gutted it for me, we drove back and put it in my van, and I was out of there exactly 45 minutes after arrival! ROFLMAO!!!! It was deer shooting. You might call it drive and spotting, but I did what I wanted to do, collect some meat and test the little carbine on a deer. The shot was just behind the shoulder, lung shot, and it went about 15 yards before dropping. That's one of the few times I've used that rifle to hunt with. It's mostly a range fun gun, but I wanted to see how it'd work on a deer.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

Boats,
I understand where you're coming from.
I am primarily a traditional bowhunter and don't use stands. However, when I have to hunt on public land to fill the freezer, I use a stand. Why? All the times I walk through sporting goods stores and hear some bubba asking for heavy bullets for his rifle so it will cut through the brush.
It's a little frightening to think of people shooting through brush at something they can't see. Especially when other people may be out there.


But, most of the time I pack way up in the mountains where the lazy crowd can't drive to that easily.