After reading a lot of old posts I can't believe how many of us hunt 8-12 feet! You see so many people on TV and magazines hunt 20+ ft.! I don't go over 15. I'm starting to think of the more cover less height thing myself. How high do you go with good cover? Any pics would be great.
I still like 20' and up. I just seem to get away with more at those heights.
15ft max here i dont like the shot angle much higher than thst
I hunt about the limit of my huntmore.
Don't bounce any more.
Platform at 25 ft then adjust for cover.
I prefer 15 to 18. I don't want to have to shoot 20 yards just to get a good angle. I agree you can get by with a lot at 25 ft but I just hate the angles.
Taking thermals and wind/ air movements into account, I find keeping heights no more than 17ft. with good cover to be more important for shot angle reasons. If hunting were cover is sparse and finicky winds then going higher my be your only good option. Hunting conditions rather than a set standard apply.Like anything, experience is the best teacher!
15-18 FT
12-15ish much higher and the shot angle gets iffy. I need all the area for my arrow to hit I can get.
All depends on terrain and back cover.
I have a few sets that are 6' - 8' platform height and then some places that I'll run my Summit climber up 24'-25'
DD
I was 15-18 then went to 20+, now rethinking with a bad shot on a great deer, too much angle ????
I like somwhere between 12' at a minimum and 18' as a maximum depending on cover and background. The lower the better. With a little cover and slow movement you are fine at those heights. I give up height for an optimum angle of penetration.
When I think of how many times I climbed up to 40' with a wheelie or rifle and no harness, well let's just say I'm not impressed with myself
Usually about 15ft to my platform.
Bill
conditions should always dictate your setup--always think the lower the better [shot angle]
we have high set ups [15-18"]and low set ups [8-10"] dictated mostly by terrain--if there is not enough cover we haul fresh cut leafed out branches up to stand height and lash it to the tree--or lean cover against surrounding cover to beef it up--
as you know George the deer in jersey will pick you right out!! --although..in some spots its easier to get the drop on them from the ground--and since super storm sandy there are tons of overturned trees and root balls to hunt from
Mostly, 12 to 15 feet.
Most of the time my stand height is dictated by availability of trees, which tend to be short and crooked. On the spectrum of places I sit, I would consider <8 feet to be low, and more than 12 feet to be high.
15 ft. to my platform is about as high as I go
Depends on tree and cover. Usually 8 to 10ish feet, but have had success as low as 6'.
12' to 15' is my preference. With the set up for 10 to 18 yards..
Around 17 ft
12 to 15 for me also . Lower if I have good cover.
Just my humble opinion..... if I was not going higher than 8-12 feet why even hunt from a tree ? I used to get 25 ft in wheelie days but now days most stands are 17-20 tops. Any lower and you will get busted for sure by our deer that walk around looking up in the trees.
I've always been successful from 10-12ft. so I really have no reason to go higher. Great shot angles and good back cover. I take shots of 15yds. or less. I'm just patient.
10'-12' for me as well. I always try to make sure I have a good background and have had not had any issues being spotted.
I am usually between 10 to 14 feet to platform. Where I hunt there is a lot of lower brush and small trees that provide good cover. Higher than that and you seem to be in the open unless you get up around 30 feet up. I have never liked the nose bleed seats.
In the early season, the smaller trees throughout the woods provide lots of cover at the 7-9 foot level. A little trimming and it is like hiding in a good ground blind. Up to mid October 10 feet on the edges of transition zones seems to be excellent cover. I've had a lot of deer come right in and never even look my way.
If needed, I cut a few branches, haul them up with me and rubber band them to my climber.
There's a lot of multi trunk trees where I hunt. I can get my climber into some but only at that 10-12ft. height. I was also hesitant to be that low but in those trees I might try it.
13 to 15 ft for me. I don't like the shot angles any higher.
Yep. Me, too. 12-14 feet, maybe 15 at the most. Still a decent shot angle. I seldom get busted. I try to pick out double or multiple trunk trees. Camo around you is more important than how how high you go. At 20 feet or higher, the kill area gets quite small such that a center body hold is pretty much shooting at the spine.
Have yet to hunt from a tree since taking up traditional. But always try to hunt as low as possible regardless of weapon.
Just have to be selective as to where I set up. I have found that keeping my face and hands covered is critical.
I plan to use stands in a more limited way in the future. I like to place stands in thick cover in areas most hunters would pass on because of the lack of good trees. Often 5 to 10 ft.
12-15ft. Got a spot I want to try about 8ft.
10 - 12 is what I like. You gotta be steathy and move at the right time. You have to have cover,but your scent is above the deer and the shot angles are good.
10-15' for me.
I always smile when I hear people talk about this.When I was a kid there was a older fella who had permission to hunt the ground on the other side of the road from our land.This guy killed big bucks every year,without fail.Sometimes we would hear about them and occassionaly you would see a beast hangin in his yard.Any time we would see him getting in his vehicle he always had a stick bow.Never a gun.No wheels.Well being young and curious one day we walked that whole wood lot after the season and were surprised to find about a half dozen stands.all between six and eight feet high.they were very small,just enough to stand on but very robust.The one thing I did notice was these stands were placed strategically where real thick cover met open oaks.BUT no cover around his stands lol all I could think is that maybe he never sat down?fold up seat?I guess what im getting at is I don't think you have to hunt high.I know the obvious advantages but I guess the moral of this story is you can get it done without being in the nosebleeds lol I don't know about anyone else but the older I get the closer to the ground I like to be.
I've spent a lot of time, especially when I was newer to bowhunting, hunting from 20-25' in tree stands. I'm happy to report I never suffered any negative experiences from those stands. The shot angle was tougher but 100% doable. I did feel a bit more secure from the deer's prying senses.
However, in those days I hunted mature forests and there wasn't a lot of cover other than other vertical tree boles.
These days I hunt lower, to improve the shot angle. I prefer cover-heavy eastern red cedars. I feel completely hidden as long as I'm 12-15 feet high. If cedars aren't available I look for multiple stem hardwoods or cover at my back.
I have no doubt that some situations would work great much lower. However, most of the time getting just 6-8 feet off the ground (in my areas) would just get me out of ground cover to where the deer could see me better.
Yeah, 12 feet or so.
I usually have the platform around 12-14 feet. Higher than that and I don't like the shot angle, which is made even worse by the restricted range of me with a recurve.
For me, it changes according to needs. I like to be as low as I can go. I have one tree stand where the platform is about 3 feet off the ground. It allows me to see (and shoot) over the marsh grass and the tree trunk and bits of branches afford me great cover while doing so.
I tend to try so stay within the cover, and since I hunt a marsh area, my platform is typically 10 feet or less, however I have had a couple that needed to be higher, maybe as much as 22 feet. For me, that is rare.
I don't use height to counter my scent, I hunt the wind 100%.
Actually, I have been hunting from the ground in my RS ghillie more and more and having a surprising amount of success (success being deer within very easy range). I have let a lot of deer walk by the past few years.
ChuckC
12-15 feet for me as well.
12- 15 feet here
About 14-18' for me. Again as others have noted, it is determined by stand location. Onn a hillside, creek bottom, field edge arem just some scenarios that come to mind on where to position a stand. I have one on a field corner that is about 20', but it is there so I can see over the top of the cedar that screens me. on the other side of same field I have one that is about 12'.
I might give 10-12ft. a try in those multi trunk trees.
I think the amount of pressure on the deer plays alot into the "how high thing". There are no dumb deer where I hunt.
17-25 for me... depending on terrain and cover.
This stand is right at 10' off the ground. Its covered up with cedars. I have now shot 4 deer from this stand. I also stood on the ground on the opposite side of the treeline it is in and killed one. The deer almost always come up the ridge the way this deer is facing. My point is height isn't as important as your cover and deer direction.
The lower you can be the better your ability to hit both lungs.
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Had a friend that had never killed a buck with his bow. I hung him this stand in early November as it is in a pinch point in a corn field that the deer funnel around from the two larger field on either side of it. I can reach the platform standing on the ground under it. These field fill up with deer every night and you can't hunt it unless the wind is from the West/SW and blows back into the cedars. On his second time in it I get a text right at deer thirty that he just shot one. The deer with several others feed around the point out about 20 yards in the field past him. Your enemy is the wind not the height.
(http://i62.tinypic.com/2yxhv6a.jpg)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/15cn41y.jpg)
(http://i59.tinypic.com/63tav4.jpg)
Used to hunt high. Most of the time now I am about 8-10 feet. I like good cover, and I think I see just as many deer as I did when I was hunting 20 or higher. And I kill more of them.
Tom that is awesome!
12 to 18 depending on terrain. I don't like the shot angle over those heights.
I kill 6-10 deer a year at around 12 feet
I kill 6-10 deer a year at around 12 feet