After years of using a variety of treestands, I have come to a question.  Do treestands make us sloppy?  I find myself compromsing the right spot for the right tree.  I usually end up in the wrong place, observing deer doing another direction.  I then move my stand.  It does not happen all the time, and I manage to usually fill 2 tags per season, but I have decided to put my stands away and hunt from the ground.  The logic is that I think I will be forced to depend less on "technology" so to speak, and use my predatory skills more.  Thoughts?

justin

Sounds like fun if you have a place to hunt where you can do that.good luck

Even the hawk, whom perches on a tallest tree to spot its prey, takes to the wind as an additional method, when the tree is not in the right location.

Is it less of a hunter for using the tree?

Marty Mcmahon hunted this stand allot and never saw much of anything. Stand hunting takes some know how too.

That is a nice picture Biggie!!  I am slightly more cunning than that, but not much...

He'd do better to place it down wind of the tv dish.

It all boils down to the 7 P's.  If you do the prescouting and prep time it Can and Will pay off sooner or later.  I like the use of the treestand for the added edge in the hunters favor... but there is NOTHING wrong with hunting off the ground either!  

Best of Luck to You.

i love the view from a good stand on a hard wood ridge. i love watching the woods come alive sitting in a tree thats been around for a 100 years, the sights it muct have saw! just something about sitting in a special stand.

Quotei love the view from a good stand on a hard wood ridge. i love watching the woods come alive sitting in a tree thats been around for a 100 years, the sights it muct have saw! just something about sitting in a special stand.
 

I agree 100%

Warrior ,this is the reason i started shooting trad to get intouch with my inner cave man. This is the way i look at it ,there is nothing wrong with hunting in a tree stand . If you want more of a challenge by all means hunt from the ground thats what im doing im using a blind however dont think for one second that caveman would not have used a tree stand if he would have had one.

Find a stand that is adjustable.  I got a lock on with climbing sticks to increase the number of trees I could utilize.

Great replies so far (except for Biggie, he's always tough on my posts (ha ha ha)).

Thanks for all input.

Agree with adkmountainken
Nothing like sitting in a stand on a ridge with a cool autumn breeze..

Nothing wrong with hunting from the ground either... Which ever your prefer...

I love the fall season, just being out there    
Looking forward to Sept 6th bow season  

Actualy I would say no. HOWEVER.....I think that using a tree stand encourages us to be more "set" in our ways. I stand is "permanant" and once in place many are reluctant to move,and it limits our urge to "hunt".

i.e. When we hunt in a tree stand,we set in ambush (not a bad thing) however if we don't see anything,we continue to sit there.After all,it's a good spot,the sign is there,it's just a matter of time.If not today,maybe tomorrow,or the next day.....If we were a true predator,and we were hungry,we have to eat.....TODAY. So we would go hunting.We would search for food and when we found it,we would make our stalk,or set our ambush.

When I hunt from the ground,I find a comfortable place to sit,and clear the leaf litter from benieth my feet. That is all that I do to disturb the area. If the wind changes,I move.If I don't see anything,(or get bored)I move. I stillhunt from place,I am HUNTING. some days I spend the whole day stillhunting through the woods.

My Brother adkmountainken is in his rightful place in a treestand. Like our Brother the Red Tailled Hawk,he sits in a tree searching the forest floor with his sharp eyes.

Some of us are Wolves.....Some of us are Hawks.....

Which one are YOU?????  

I dont really think that hunting from stands makes for a sloppy hunter, sloppy practices make for a sloppy hunter.  I do recognize the problem of finding the right tree to hang a stand but honestly I think with the variety of stands available it becomes less of an issue.  That being said I also carry portable ground blinds and still hunt when the conditions are right.  I have and will continue to improvise blinds as needed during the season to maximize my opportunities as well.  I think using multiple methods is always a good idea, Im not willing to chance "Educating" the deer in my area to my methods so I like to keep changing things up.

I've hunted off the ground more and more, the past few years, but I'm considering getting a quad pod like Gametamers or something, so I can put a stand where I want. Anyone have their 10 footer? How do you like it?

Seriously. I put a lot of effort into a treestand placement and lots of times they get moved after a few uses. It's definately not for a lazy person although I guess it could be.

Gene Wensel wrote an article once about the different hunter styles. I'm definately a raptor as opposed to a feline.

maybe not a worse predetor, there are lots of predetors that use that technique, and sometimes that is the only way to hunt a specific location. but i think they are also the lazy way out too, in some cases. there is no one hunting style that is the right choice for every hunt, but i think that some people fall back on the stand all the time when it isn't always the right choice. just my 2 cents.

I'm not going to touch that one, Biggie!

if you want to fill a tag put a stand up next to a trail, if you want a specific deer you have to put stands up all over the place or stalk to him

if you put in the time to take the right animal then you are not sloppy.  

canned hunts are sloppy.