tree stand hunting first year??

britt · March 11, 2013, 04:19:00 PM

My son and I are going to be hunting out of a double ladder tree stand for turkey and deer this spring and fall. Its our first experience with tree stand hunting. Any suugestions/advice? Set-up advice? Staying warm? Thank you

March 11, 2013, 05:33:00 PM

I can tell you this.....for the turkeys you may only get one or two cahnces so make them good. Once the turkeys know the stand is there it will be real hard to get away with the movement necessary to draw your bow on them.

Also, for any tree or ladder stand, make sure your back cover is good.......don't let yourself be sillohetted in the tree.

Bisch

maineac · March 11, 2013, 06:01:00 PM

I think turkeys pick up movement faster if you are in a tree than on the ground. Background cover is crucial. Locate it downwind of the best trail you can find.

Orion · March 11, 2013, 06:05:00 PM

Turkeys will pick you up faster if you're in a tree, and will be very difficult for two people to sit quietly/motionless in a tree stand, and just about impossible for one of those two to get a shot with a bow. Might work with a gun.

Deeter · March 11, 2013, 06:07:00 PM

Wear your saftey Harness.

xtrema312 · March 11, 2013, 06:27:00 PM

Those double stands are heavy. Be careful setting them. Not very portable. Those double stand are close quarters and hard to do much but shoot mostly forward. Hard to shoot around someone or even get elbow room to draw shooting away from the other person. It can be done, but harder to shoot and more movement required from what I have seen.

With my kids just starting to hunt I prefer a single person ladder and then hang a hang-on stand off to one side 90 degrees rotated from the ladder and just a little higher up. That is a lot more portable and easier to set plus way better field of fire for both. In addition, your equipment gives a lot more options of hunting apart farther as that becomes possible in a year or so as your son gets to where he needs less supervision. All you need to do is add a stick ladder for the hang on and you are in business with two stand sites.

Get a ground to stand safety line so you both can stay hooked up all the way up. I don't do it for me, but Iove it for the kids and for transferring from one stand to the other. When they get a little older we will have the lines on a lot more stands.

I say Get a pop up blind for the turkeys, but I have had okay luck with them from a tree the few times I have seen them while tree stand hunting deer. Those times were in the fall with good leaf cover and not in early spring with limited cover. They don't hang in the areas I deer hunt in the fall much at all. They are around in the spring but not the fall. I got the drop on a whole flock of them twice and on multiple toms two other times I can recall from a tree stand. I had to be perfectly still until they passed so I could move while they were looking away, and I was limited to only having one bird to shoot most times. That is only a few times in quite a few years and maybe I didn't see a lot more of them that saw me way before I saw them. For spring turkeys I wouldn't try them from a tree especially with a young wiggly hunter along.

xtrema312 · March 11, 2013, 08:38:00 PM

Practice shooting from your stand a lot and with both of you in the stand. That will help your shooting form and tell you a lot about any limitations you may have in the stand. Then you will know if a hang on would help.

Tajue17 · March 11, 2013, 09:29:00 PM

double ladder as in gun style stand with the railing going around the top? if so I highly recommend wrapping the top with armorflexing so you can lay your bow across the top and not make noise when you bump it.

if I'm wrong though like others said the other #1 thing is to practice from the stand,,, my favorite is take turns pulling a small target like a stuffed animal with small rope and pull it the same pace a deer will be walking at different distances and angles,,, Its very fun and builds your confidence because deer look small from stands..

DaveT1963 · March 12, 2013, 09:22:00 AM

Might want to use some leafy blind material to go around your tree stand to help hide movement as turkeys pick up movement form above very well (think because of so many aerial natural predators owls, eagles, hawks, etc...)

LittleBen · March 12, 2013, 10:44:00 AM

Hard to bowhunt two up in one of those. I use a double ladder stand solo and it's sweet. Being 5' tall I can practically sleep in it laying down.

I agree that it's probably better suited to deer over turkey, and guns over bows. But thats not to say it can't be done. I would try bringing one bwo though ...

FWIW I find turkeys much easier from ground blind. Good luck!

kadbow · March 12, 2013, 11:56:00 PM

Get a ground blind for turkey and maybe deer. You can get away with a lot more movement in a blind which is good for kids. How old is your son? CTAS youth hunt?

LV2HUNT · March 13, 2013, 07:05:00 PM

Definitely pickup a blind for turkey. You can get a fairly inexpensive one that will work fine for turkey. As the others said turkey tend to pick me off at long distances when I am in a treestand. The iphone with the brightness down works miraculously for occupying kids in a blind.

old_goat2 · March 13, 2013, 07:33:00 PM

Yeah, turkey from a tree, very hard! Don't be afraid to move your stand if your not getting deer coming by.

Possum Head · March 13, 2013, 09:54:00 PM

Watch your lower limb on the gaurd rail. You may have to adjust your harness so you can lean out over the rail much like many do with climbing versions. As mentioned already practice, practice. I cant offer turkey advice.

Stumpkiller · March 13, 2013, 10:06:00 PM

I agree with some above statements: I don't recall ever having a turkey come near when I was in a tree stand.

Just leaning back against a trunk seems best; but I have no experience wit h"pop-up" blinds.

Knawbone · March 14, 2013, 12:27:00 AM

If you aren't a very experienced hunter, I would suggest staying mobile on the ground and hunt downwind of areas you know hold Deer. Learn how to hunt the game you persue by learning as much about them as you can. Become the animal and ask yourself what you would do, where is the food, where is the shelter, where are the females?ect. Think about how well they see, or smell, or hear. Hunt from natural and/or make shift blinds, well hidden and motionless, except for you eyes. When you move, go slow. When you stop, stay still.

If you hunt this way you will learn a lot more about the game you seek.IMHO

March 14, 2013, 03:06:00 PM

I take it your son is quite young or you would not be choosing the double ladder stand. I know of on guy that did it with his son. There was only one bow taken up to the stand and the quarters were cramped, so he added a strap on tree stand to the tree for his son to shoot out of. He decided that two normal tree stands on the same tree were a lot easier. For turkeys with a father and son, I would go with a blind of some kind or a couple of bush in bags tucked into an evergreen back drop.

Iron Man2 · March 14, 2013, 05:54:00 PM

3X on the tree stands not good for turkeys. They always look up for their feathered foes as well as picking out a hunter also!

JL